Collective Reflection

As a group, we feel as though there were certain aspects that we all struggled with, for example referencing. It was a new skill that we all had to acquire, and at first we found it daunting however as we had to include it in every piece of work we soon got to grips with it, with the help of the handbook. It is still a concern; however we are now more confident in this area.

Collectively, the skills we feel improved the most were the ability to research and collect relevant literature. We are aware that this is a valuable skill, and learning it will enable us to achieve in future projects.

Reflection of Skills Learnt in First Year

For the Independent Study module I chose to undertake a corpus study and an analysis of accent and dialect. The latter investigation involved creating a transcription of spoken dialect, using a questionnaire and forming a close analysis of results. Whilst I had done all three of these aspects before, I hadn’t done them in so much detail as was required for this task. I found, with both studies, that I had previously underestimated the importance of literature in studies like these;  I am now aware of how a close analysis often needs to be based on previous literature in order to form a better comparison and prove how useful the findings are.

Reflections on skills I have gained from first year

As part of my Independent Study module during my first year at University, I chose to focus on how a child acquires the knowledge of a language. This subject was something that at first, I had not given much thought to, therefore as we learnt more about the techniques and ways that children pick up on the language I found myself more and more interested.

I had never before had to write a corpus study, and so the skills involved were new to me, for example having to find research from a corpora, using this software for the first time.

I initially struggled to grasp the concept of a corpus study, yet by the end of the project felt a lot more confident in terms of what I needed to do. Upon receiving feedback on my corpus study I feel as though I know what is expected of me in the upcoming years, and gained the skills that allow me to approach similar studies with less anxiety which I hope will prove a valuable skill as I enter into my second year. 

Tabitha's Reflections on Skills Learnt in First Year

Last year, I chose to do a corpus study and a transcription with a questionnaire to discover the answers to linguistic questions of my own devising. Although initially I struggled to fully comprehend the type of investigations we were meant to be developing, after sufficient wider reading and a number of false starts, I gained a result I was pleased with as well as skills in research, referencing and how to use a corpus effectively. All of these things will be useful in my second year and I hope to develop my knowledge next year by tailoring my investigations to suit my personal linguistic interests.

Vicki's Reflection of Skills Learned in First Year

My independent study Questionnaire researched the impact of accent and dialects upon University Students. My aim in this research was to look into the difficulties faced by undergraduates living and/or working together with other students from other areas of Britain and find out whether differences in accent and dialect caused negative effects on communication. During this research I learnt how easily the aims of one research question can lead to many other questions. I feel that this has enabled me to expand or limit my research goals where necessary in order to get the most out of future projects.

Reflection on skills learnt in first year!

In order to conduct my study on Accent and Dialect I had to carry out a transcription of spoken language. Out of all the tasks we were accessed in last year, this was by far my favourite, as I’d already had experience of transcribing speech from A-Level English Language. Because of this I felt comfortable putting into practise skills I was already familiar with. Unlike the transcriptions made in sixth form however this year’s transcription included new symbols, and I was also taught by my lecturer how to present my findings, in terms of layout and font. I read around the topic to increase my knowledge and I now believe I can go into 2^nd year confident that I have the ability to effectively transcribe spoken language J