January 21, 2014, by Guest blogger

English, linguistics and speech therapy

First year student Hannah Smith explains what’s so great about linguistics.

When I first started university, I would never in a million years have expected to find myself writing for a blog entitled ‘study what you love’ on the topic of linguistics! When I researched degrees in my subject area I loved the holistic approach of the University of Nottingham’s school of English, however language had never really been my strong point and it wasn’t something I particularly enjoyed but more endured for the sake of my English studies, which admittedly meant I wasn’t looking forward to the compulsory ‘Language and Context’ module in the first year.

However, here I am, one semester into the module and it is the one which I enjoy the most! I’ve found myself applying the knowledge I have learnt to everyday situations, for example we learnt about child language acquisition. A few weeks later, I visit home and my cousin has a one year old child who is beginning to speak: lo and behold I find myself explaining that this is good progression. To me, this practicality is something I’ve never even considered an aspect of English, but here I am considering careers in Speech Language Therapy!

Something which astounds me, even after a whole semester of teaching, is when you walk into a lecture theatre and read the PowerPoint title to learn that the lecturer is actually the author of a book you have been referring to since day one of your studies. That moment; as it dawns on me that the person stood before me, about to share their knowledge with me, is a world expert in their field, is the single thing which excites me most about life in the School of English. In the field of linguistics alone Professors Norbert Schmitt and Peter Stockwell have a total of 26 books published between them. To have these members of staff in The School of English, teaching me and researching at the University is truly phenomenal.

Let’s not forget though – the beautiful campus. If anything inspires me more than the teaching I receive, it’s the beautiful campus, it even looks beautiful on a stormy day as you can see from this photograph I took the other day!

Read more from other students, academics and employers on the Study What You Love pages.

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