English Language And Applied Linguistics

The Professional Track is a unique professional development scheme that is open to all students who do degrees in English Language, English Literature or Modern Languages. Since the scheme’s launch in September 2015, already we have had well over 150 students involved which is simply fantastic! We’ve offered a wide variety of courses, masterclasses and placements with the aim that these additions will turn your career hopes into real plans.

Since this is a flexible scheme, you can hop on and hop off whenever you like. If you would like to attend one course and leave it at that, that’s great, please be rest assured that we will never chase you down the corridor and ask you to sign up to more! If you do want to complete all of it however, all you need to do throughout your time with us, is complete three training courses, two placements and one university scheme – you can even draw from your past experience and you’ll get a very snazzy certificate at the end!

The amount of placement opportunities is endless; in the past students have gone to Penguin Publications, the BBC, Disney and even wolf sanctuaries! We’ve also offered course so far in skills such as report writing, marketing and first aid and we are always open to suggestions.

If you have any questions or queries about the Professional Track or Placements, please feel free to send us an email (Lucy Stone: l.k.stone@reading.ac.uk; Sarah Mills: s.a.mills@reading.ac.uk).

From both of us – best of luck with your upcoming exams and results and we are both really excited to meet you all in September!

Sarah and Lucy

Professional Track Facilitators

On 11th March 2016, the Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics at the University of Reading hosted the annual British Association of Applied Linguists (BAAL) Testing, Evaluation & Assessment (TEA) SIG conference. This was an exciting event in which 80 delegates from different countries took part in a one day conference on “Assessment for Learning and Assessment of Learning”. http://www.baal.org.uk/sig_tea.html

The participants included distinguished scholars such as Professor Cyril Wier (OBE), prominent alumni including Professor Barry O’Sullivan and Dr Nick Saville, and many of our current staff and postgraduate and research students. The talks and posters presented at the event offered new perspectives to language assessment and opened new horizons for language teaching and learning.

The presentation slides from the conference will be available here:

http://www.beds.ac.uk/baalteasig/events/2016

The University of Reading has been teaching linguistics for 50 years this year. To celebrate the English Language and Applied Linguistic and Clinical Language Science Departments put on a day of events for Year 12 students interested in pursuing the subject at University.

Throughout the day students took part in interactive workshops giving them a taste of university lectures and seminars. The first seminar was run by Dr Christiana Themistocleous on English Language in Society, based on a compulsory first year English language module. Christiana took the group through a number of exercises looking at gender and languages and global languages. We discussed how some words and grammatical structures seem more masculine or feminine. For example ‘Close the door.’ is seen as masculine for its directness, whereas ‘ That’s an adorable dog!’ is seen as feminine due to the adjective ‘adorable’. Similarly the phrase ‘They did the right thing, didn’t they?’ is seen as feminine due to the tag question at the end of a statement. During the global languages section of the workshop, the group looked at words English has borrowed from other languages such as ‘ketchup’ from Chinese and ‘rucksack’ from German. Christiana then guided the group though a debate on whether one language spoken globally would be a positive or negative change. Participants spoke about the loss of culture, identity and knowledge this would cause over enhancing learning and working opportunities and perhaps lead to reductions in world conflict.

The Clinical Language Science workshop was run by PhD students Laura Spencer and Laura McFiggans. The group watched two videos of patients and then spoke about the kind of speech and language therapy work they would do with each patient.  This reflects the hands-on approach of the Clinical Language department at Reading whose BSc students work on clinical placements and spend at least 600 hours observing, working and treating children and adults with communication and swallowing problems. Reading also has an on-site clinic for children and adults run by University and NHS staff, which students learn from.

Visiting students enjoying Dr Christiana Themistocleous’ workshop on English Language in Society

In the afternoon some of our students gave talks about being a student at Reading highlighting the fantastic Student Union (RUSU), societies, halls and support here at Reading.   Zoë, a final year English Language student, highlighted the 200 + societies at reading ranging from sub aqua and debating to Harry Potter and Russian, not forgetting the English Society!  Katie, also a final year English Language student, mentioned the support students are given. In English Language there is a first year compulsory module which helps you with the transition between A-levels and university focusing on academic writing, assignments and sourcing reading for modules. The Student Services Centre on campus can help with most things including financial support, student loan queries, applying for jobs and counselling.  Student Support can also help with health, welfare, study support, disability support and students with children.

Visitors were interested in the dissertation topics our students are completing, for example Zoë is looking at representations of gender in the lyrics of popular music in the 1990s, early 2000s and recently. Katie is studying how homosexuality has been written about in the English media before and after the legalisation of same sex marriage and Jess, a third year Clinical Language Science student, is thinking of looking at autism when she completes her dissertation next year.

At the end of the day visitors were given a tour of our beautiful Whiteknights campus including the Humanities building, student union, lake and Clinical Language Science clinics. We hope those who came had an enjoyable experience and learnt more about what makes Linguistics at Reading so special.

Sarah Robertson and Katy Green

Fifty years after David Crystal helped set up a Linguistics degree at the University of Reading, he returned to give a public lecture about the changes he’s seen to linguistics over this period. The Great Hall at the London Road Campus was filled with students, lecturers and members of the public who all had great admiration for a man who has done so much for linguistics at the University but also for the research he has undertaken and the developments he has made. Indeed, his works are a staple to anyone studying English Language and Linguistics and are featured on the English Language course at Reading.

David Crystal delivering his lecture at the University of Reading. November 2015

Once the lecture began, it only took moments before the audience were in the palm of his hand. His charismatic charm and ease of public speaking made for a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere where people were hanging on his every word. David began by telling the audience about the evolution of linguistics, and how it will never be the same tomorrow as it is today or was yesterday. Somehow, regardless of how obvious this statement seems, it struck a chord with me and reminded me why I found studying English Language so exciting. David’s enthusiasm for the subject as a result of his first-hand experience of studying these changes was definitely rubbing off!

David then spoke about how he helped create a Linguistics degree at Reading, how it has developed and how many issues are just as important now as they were then. For example he told us that he still gets asked “How many words are there in the English language?” which will and can never be answered with certainty.  Whilst at Reading, David worked with a child with a delayed development of speech and nobody knew why this delay occurred. As a result of this work, David helped to set up the Speech and Language Therapy course ten years after Linguistics had started. The story told was very moving. Although it was clear that the audience were touched, it wasn’t long before the atmosphere was once again joyous. Making jokes throughout, his happiness was infectious and everybody was clapping and smiling.

Once the lecture had finished, there was a twenty minute question time where David answered every question with a smile and in great depth. At the end, with people giving standing ovations, David seemed genuinely touched by such a warm and welcome reception at the University of Reading.

Sarah Robertson

Reading offers a vast array of combined degrees amongst their courses and the School of Languages is no exception to this. The most popular subject to combine English Language with in my year was English Literature, but I chose to combine it with a language, French. In Welcome Week, a question you will answer almost a hundred times is, “What are you studying?” and I quickly got used to people screwing their noses up when I told them that I did French and English Language. The question that they often followed it up with was, “Why?” Well, here’s the answer.

For me, it was always a no-brainer that I would take English Language at University – I took it at A Level and it was by far my favourite subject. I’ve always had a love of grammar and words but was never interested enough in reading the classics to choose Literature. When I came to look at where I could go and what I could study, I was overwhelmed with choices, but a combination with French was the one that struck me. I was studying it at A Level and so knew that the two subjects were a good combination.

I suppose a love of grammar meant that delving into two very grammar heavy subjects didn’t daunt me, but I would recommend my course to someone even if they didn’t love to talk about tense as much as I do. My English lectures compliment my French lessons perfectly. In first year, I learned about Phonetics and Phonology on the English side of my course, which is the study of sounds and how they make up language. Part of that was learning the Phonetic Alphabet, a way of transcribing sounds. When I then encountered some phonetic transcriptions in my French pronunciation classes, I was able to read them easily. Seeing the words transcribed helped me to understand things like the difference between how –ous and –us sound in French. And, of course, having a deeper understanding of the grammar of your own language will only help when you learn a second one.

Worksheets and books of an English Language and French Language student

Of course, these aren’t the only advantages of my course – an obvious one was that it provided me with the opportunity to do a year abroad. When I first applied to University, a combined degree with a language was my only real option if I wanted to do a year in another country. Now, you can do a year abroad in your third year even if you’re a pure English Language student. For me, my year abroad is an important part of perfecting my ability to use French but it’s also a good chance to explore another country’s language and culture as a student of linguistics. Whilst English is the focus of the course at Reading, you will naturally look at other languages during your studies. After all, you can’t really have a full grasp of how a language works, especially not one like English, if you haven’t taken into account the other languages of the world and how they may have influenced it. So taking a year abroad is a great chance to enhance your understanding of language.

Finally, possibly the biggest advantage of studying my course is the departments themselves. The school of Literature and Languages is like its own little community at Reading. Though the French department may have its own little corridor, you can expect to see the students and staff mingling with those from Italian and German too, and it’s the same in the English department. The departments may not be big when compared with the hundreds that take business or a science but, if you ask me, that’s better. When you’re studying something as complex and personal as language, it’s always helpful to know your fellow students and lecturers well.

So some people may turn their nose up at my degree and question why I would inflict it on myself, but it was the perfect choice for me and I would recommend it to someone else in a heartbeat.

Emma Connor

After finishing my first year at the University of Reading, I realised that studying English Language here was one of the best decisions I had made during my A-levels. My modules as a part one student consisted of Sounds Grammar and Meaning, English Language in Use, Techniques and Skills for Applies Linguistics and English Language in Society. The module I particularly enjoyed was English Language in Society, which I now have the opportunity to further my study in, through my core part two module Sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics is a great module for those who want to understand the deeper or implied meaning behind language, and how this affects us as individuals, our social groups and the culture around us. I find it fascinating to see how one small word or sentence can have such a great effect on the world around us, and how every individual can take or draw something different from those words.

As Sociolinguistics is a core part two module, everyone on the English Language course was obliged to take it. It helps to further your knowledge from your compulsory first year module, English Language in Society; so it’s actually less a question of learning new content, but rather applying the content you have learnt during the first year to a range of different situations and scenarios. For example, we look at everything from language in advertising to language change, gender and power. The areas within Sociolinguistics I particularly enjoy studying are language in advertising, and language and power. My interest in these areas started whilst studying language in power when doing my A-level exams, and it has only grown more as I have developed a new understanding of how language really can make a difference in society, depending on the way we use it.

Another aspect of Sociolinguistics I have really enjoyed is taking part in the group project, which makes up for 30% of our overall module grade. The group project allows you to analyse the language of any TV show or film you wish, and then within your group create a website to present your findings and conclusion. You will be looking at the different varieties of English, and the key phonological and grammatical aspects of these varieties, as well as how characters use features such as a particular linguistic style to convey their identity. You will also develop this further by showing how these features actually create stereotypes and ideologies relating to particular varieties, such as Received Pronunciation and African-American vernacular English, and the affect this has on society.

With only a few weeks left of this module, one tip I can give you is to look behind the language when you are next watching a TV show or a films. What are the characters or individuals really trying to say? Is what they are saying actually having an impact, or even changing the way you view something? Asking yourself these questions will only help to further your understanding of the power that language has. Finally, if you’re looking to start early on some reading around this topic a great start would be Homes, J. (2013), An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. It’s a great book to get a feel for what this module is all about.

Emma Campbell

Although a lot of your time at university is spent absorbed in your degree, there is also so much more you can get involved in that will help make your time at university more memorable; it will also help develop your employability skills for after university. At the University of Reading there really is so much you can get involved in as a student, from Quidditch to the business society, and from caving to the Beyoncé society. I remember when I first looked around one of the societies fayres, I felt a little overwhelmed about how many different things I could sign up to. My advice would be to go for something that either you enjoy or something that is completely out of your comfort zone.

Societies Fayre in Welcome Week

The best thing I believe I got involved in, was taking part in The Spark newspaper’s committee as their secretary. As I was already doing an English Language degree, joining the universities newspaper really helped enrich my degree, as well as being something I really enjoyed and could talk to future employers about, such as managing my deadlines as well as keeping the paper organised. It also allowed me to meet a great bunch of people all with similar interests to me.

I also got involved in the St John Ambulance society. This was a great society to get involved with as each week we learnt new ways of dealing with and treating more minor injuries such as burns and sprains, as well as more serious injuries such as fractures and breaks and even CPR. I have also had the opportunity to put my training into practice in real life scenarios as I train for first aid certificates, such as community first aider. Not only has this helped me learn how to deal with problems in difficult and tense situations, something that is a great skill to apply to the workplace, but it has also enabled me to add first aid training to my CV.

I also decided to put myself outside of my comfort zone by taking part in ballet lessons and fitness. Before university I was quite a lazy person, so doing something like this has really helped me become a lot more confident, as I now know I can do something I might not necessarily be good at, but still enjoy and put my mind to.

All these things I have been involved in at university have helped me enrich my time here, but also make me a more employable person, as I have a lot more that I can talk about than just my degree. I have developed skills that are great for the workplace, such as my organisation and confidence. So if I was to give any advice from what I learnt, it would be to throw yourself into everything the University of Reading has to offer, because not only will you enjoy it, but it will also help with your future life and career after university.

Emma Campbell

If you don’t know the name David Crystal, then you can be sure you will by the end of your first year of Linguistics at Reading. Crystal is a lecturer in the field of English Language and has published many, and by many I mean nearly a hundred, books on the subject. Excitingly he helped set up linguistics degrees at the University of Reading and his extensive list of works notably includes The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language and The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of the English Language.

If you only read one book of his, it should be Making Sense of Grammar. As a first year at Reading, one of your modules will be Sounds, Grammar and Meaning. It’s a module of two halves; the first half concentrates on Phonetics and Phonology, the study of sounds in language; the second half tackles how to analyse the Grammar, Semantics and Pragmatics of the English Language. For me this was a dream module and I’m sure that soon you will come to understand and possibly even enjoy grammar lectures like most of my friends. And this book is definitely something that will help with that.

In the first week of grammar, Jacqui, our lecturer, told us that this is the one book we should definitely read or even buy and many of us took that advice. It breaks down the different aspects of English grammar in much the same way as your lectures are structured. It starts with the broadest aspects of sentence and clause. Then it breaks that down into the different phrases before breaking it down even further into separate words. There’s a section for each grammar point that you might struggle with, from adverbials to prepositions and the explanations are clear and easy to understand. Of course, it’s hard to fully explain one grammar element without looking at the others, so the explanations helpfully include the page numbers of related grammar points. For example, whilst discussing the verb element of a clause, Crystal gives reference to earlier comments on clauses and to a page where the reader can find a definition of some technical terms used. All this makes it a good addition to what you learn in lectures.

You may think that a book based entirely around the subject of grammar, especially one that is designed to explain the complexities of the English language, would make for a boring read. When I first went to retrieve a copy from the library, I was also worried that this may just be another unimaginative list of various grammar points. However, just looking at the cover, I was reassured that I was wrong. The explanations are punctuated with appropriate but interesting examples including poems, recorded speech, articles and extracts from scripts. Then, on some pages, there are illustrations in the form funny cartoons. It’s safe to say that Crystal uses a quirky style to keep his reader interested for long enough to take in what he’s teaching them, but you’d expect no less of someone with plenty of experience lecturing in the field.

So, as my lecturer suggested to me, I will suggest to you that during your first year you seek out a copy of the book and read as much of it as you can. It’s the perfect introduction to studying grammar at a higher level.

Emma Connor

All are welcome to the first Applied Linguistics Circle talk of 2015 by Dr Johanna Woydack, (Vienna University of Economics and Business)

Date: Tuesday  October 6^th, 4.15-5.15 pm.

Room: SSE Gordon Lecture Theatre

Title: Learning and working in London’s language market: an ethnography of a multilingual London call centre

See details on attached flyer

ALC Woydack 2015 flyer