Congratulations is due to Amy Sharpe who has been awarded a certificate for outstanding academic performance.

This certificate recognises Amy’s consistently high performance throughout her studies in the Department of Linguistics and English Language. We asked Amy what she enjoyed during her studies with us in the department and what she plans to do next. Here is what she said:

“In the Cognitive Linguistics module, I really enjoyed learning about the effects of language upon our perception and the theories of how language is stored in the brain. l also found the topics on the construction of identity through language very interesting in the Language and Identities module. The Forensic Linguistics module was also one of my favourites as it demonstrated some important real life applications of Linguistics in the context of law.

My dissertation investigated the effects of parental socioeconomic status (SES) upon 10-11-year-old children's spoken language in school, and further speculated the subsequent effects upon their education. I found strong statistical correlations between SES and children's language features; the language features presumably perceived as advantageous in education were produced significantly more often by the high SES group than the low SES group, whereas the language features presumably perceived as unfavourable in education were produced significantly more often by the low SES group than the high SES group. I really enjoyed the dissertation process and I am very grateful to Dr Andrew Hardie for his continued guidance and support throughout.

In September, I am starting my School Centred Initial Teacher Training (SCITT) in Norwich, where I will be working towards a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) and Qualified Teaching Status (QTS) in order to become a primary school teacher. Studying Linguistics at Lancaster has definitely helped me to prepare for this as I took the Schools Volunteering Module where I assisted in a Year 4 class weekly for 11 weeks. Additionally, I took Child Language Acquisition and Second Language Acquisition modules which taught me a great deal about teaching and learning processes and pedagogy.

Overall, I have had an amazing time at Lancaster University. I have had so many great experiences and opportunities, from going on the Global Exploration trip to Boston and New York in first year, to studying abroad at the Australian National University in second year, to writing a dissertation of 10,000 words on a topic that I am very passionate about in third year. I feel very lucky to have been taught and supervised by many very inspirational tutors, lecturers and professors, and I will really miss being at Lancaster.”