Elise McMellin
English Language and Linguistics BA (Hons)

What attracted me to the course was the diversity of modules. They run modules I didn't even know existed, areas and fields that I didn't even know were part of linguistics or English language because it was so much of an extension from A level. And I think what was so interesting was that I ended up down these paths and these modules that I had no idea what they were about originally and ended up absolutely loving and that's what made it so interesting. 
So, in A level we touched upon the international phonetic alphabet and in the degree level you end up doing phonetics and phonology and prosody and things, which really delve into this and its really sciencey. I mean it doesn't work with everyone but for me, I loved it. It was giving me a piece of data from a language, which you've never heard about, you know an African tribe or something and for some reason from this tiny extract I was able to tell you how their mouth moved and how their language worked in terms of sound systems and sort of tones and intonation and things that you didn't even know you could describe at my level. 
I recently took a module called phonology and essentially at the beginning of term I you know could speak English and French but I couldn't speak a remote language that occurred in Papua New Guinea, for instance. But then you're given a piece of data, a piece of, an extract of the language and you go from not knowing anything about language at all to be able to decode the rules, the phonological rules, that they have in their language from something that you're just given in an assignment base and it's fantastic. I mean I don't know who else has those skills which is incredible. 
So, our linguistics lab is amazing. We have different rooms dedicated to different researching of different fields in linguistics. For instance, we have an eye-tracking room and we also have a soundproof room as well, which means that we can take recordings of speech which isn't influenced by speech or sounds in the surrounding room. For instance, it's not affected by echoes or noise pollution or anything like this which means that you can really research the real productions that we create. 
So, in our course we have three assignments per module generally, the first assignment tends to be group presentations and so you get to know different people on your course and you present then in the module as a presentation, at sort of 15 minutes or so. But then we do have a lot of independent work as well because the other assignments tend to be essays or projects that you'll run individually and so there's a lot of reading, a lot of experimental research done individually. 
So, my plans after I graduate are to do a Master's in speech therapy, so it's a case of working with the careers advisers who I've seen already and you tailor your CV and you make covering letters and they really help you with your applications to further education.