As exams came to an end I began my 6 week research placement looking into multilingualism in Reading. The British Isles is home to over 350 languages. Several misconceptions (myths) about multilingualism exist (often thanks to the media); sometimes these myths view multilingualism as good thing and other times as a bad thing. So what we hoped to discover was people’s attitudes towards various myths on multilingualism. I have been supervised and worked alongside Dr Christiana Themistocleous.

It was decided we would obtain  data through a questionnaire. So after the technical inductions were over, my first task was to do some background research and design the first draft of the questionnaire. It was really challenging to create the perfect questionnaire when this is the most important part of our study. So many books, 10 days and 3 drafts later we did have a questionnaire ready to be distributed. I had also used some new software to create an online counterpart – hoping to get our questionnaire out to as many as people as possible.

For the next 2 weeks I became one of those really annoying people who stops you in the street, the shops, libraries, leisure centre and in the middle of your lunch (I’m sorry!). But, with this and continuous social media posting, we eventually managed to gain over 200 responses to our questionnaire from people living in Reading. This was an incredible task that forces you to practise your people skills, use initiative and gain confidence.

With all this data, I faced the challenge of using SPSS, but with some help (Thank you to Christiana and Google) I eventually inputted all the data on SPSS and started the analysis. Amazingly, over 50% of our participants were multilingual and between them they spoke 24 different languages. It was clear as well that those who live in Reading believe it is a multilingual town, over 90% believed so! We obtained interesting data in relation to the intelligence of multilinguals, their job prospects, the unity within the UK and what makes people multilingual…but I’m not going to give away all our findings.

The UROP process was interesting, challenging and fun. You get an insight into research and further careers in academia you wouldn’t gain anywhere else and you are given so much responsibility not just the designated tea-maker. I have learnt so much in terms of our findings but even more about my skills and myself!

Laura Armstrong