Student Testimonials
Students who have participated in LingRES have rated the scheme highly. Some have generously written testimonials and agreed for these to feature on this website. Here are some stand-out quotes from them; you can read the testimonials in full below.
[P]articipating in the RES has shown me that research is a lot more fun than I’d initially thought and it’s very rewarding knowing that I’ve contributed to a real study in some way. As an extra bonus it also enabled me to develop skills that employers look for such as time management and organisational skills, which are always useful.
Sometimes for an undergraduate assignment we read a 10-page research article, but I had never realised what an epic task it was doing the actual work to create those 10 pages of findings.
I would definitely recommend the scheme, it is an enjoyable and rewarding experience as well as an invaluable opportunity to enhance your degree and gain an interesting insight into the research field that I would not have otherwise gained.
Full testimonials
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the RES project titled ‘How variable is speech?’ and to work with Dr Leendert Plug. My role involved manually checking hundreds of sound files extracted from the participants’ productions and trimming segmentations using Praat as required for analysis. Pre-warned with the potential repetitiveness of the task, I still found the experience valuable in many ways. I gained insights into real research as we were first introduced to the background of the study, including the preparation work done and difficulties encountered prior to the task we were asked to do, as well as follow-up information on how the analysis turned out. During the process, it was surprising to me how being consistent in the decision-making when trimming the sound can be a challenge at first, and how important organisational skills are in order to keep track of such a large dataset. Although I’ve only contributed to a small part of the project, it was a rewarding experience to have been able to put the practical skills for Praat already gained in class into real practice and discover some new techniques and shortcuts with using it. Such an opportunity has helped me both academically in preparation for further study and training me in other transferable skills. Jingyi Lin (Year 3, BA Linguistics and Phonetics)
Participating in the Research Experience Scheme (RES) at the University of Leeds during my final year has been an immensely enriching and fulfilling endeavour. Being involved in this project allowed me to delve deeply into the complexities of linguistic and accent bias, which are critical issues in sociolinguistics and sociophonetics. My role in recruiting participants for research studies not only honed my communication and interpersonal skills but also provided me with a firsthand understanding of the nuances involved in effectively disseminating information across diverse student groups. Furthermore, designing recruitment materials and initiatives gave me a practical insight into the creative and strategic aspects of outreach in academic research. This experience was particularly enlightening as it involved a blend of analytical thinking and creative problem-solving, skills that are invaluable in any professional setting. The opportunity to collaborate on the production of a policy statement on "Accent Equality" for higher education institutions was a highlight of my involvement, allowing me to contribute directly to impactful academic policy. Jowanah Majeed (Year 3, BA English Language and Linguistics)
Participating in the Research Experience Scheme has been a really valuable experience to have during my final year at Leeds. It has given me insight into the experimental process which I would have not gotten otherwise. Prior to being involved in the scheme, I hadn’t given a great deal of consideration to how research is conducted (despite reading plenty of research papers throughout my degree), for example I didn’t realise how the recruitment process can be more difficult than you might think, especially if your study requires a very specific kind of participant! It also provided a great opportunity to extend my knowledge of Praat outside of what is taught in core modules and learn how to use a forced-aligner which I didn’t know existed before. Overall, participating in the RES has shown me that research is a lot more fun than I’d initially thought and it’s very rewarding knowing that I’ve contributed to a real study in some way. As an extra bonus it also enabled me to develop skills that employers look for such as time management and organisational skills, which are always useful. Abigail Folmer (Year 3, BA Linguistics and Phonetics)
I thoroughly enjoyed participating in the Research Experience Scheme, finding it beneficial to my degree in many ways. Our main task was to accurately code data from videos of 4-year-old children completing various subtests from the CELF test of language ability using an Excel spreadsheet. We came across some technical difficulties along the way but these tested our problem solving skills and reflected the unpredictable nature of research. It was a great chance to develop skills valued by employers such as working as a team and time management as well as to find out what conducting research is really like and the ‘behind the scenes’ processes that are involved. I would definitely recommend the scheme, it is an enjoyable and rewarding experience as well as an invaluable opportunity to enhance your degree and gain an interesting insight into the research field that I would not have otherwise gained. Katie Gascoigne (Year 1, BA English Language and Linguistics)
The project I worked on briefly will take 3 years to complete and thousands of hours of work. Much of that work is seemingly mundane and repetitive, but despite constant attention to detail is necessary. Having to make decisions about how to interpret the child’s responses in the context of their developing language abilities, and doing this fairly and consistently was one of the challenges of being involved. What was most illuminating about taking part in the scheme was to get an insight into the process of how research is conducted. Sometimes for an undergraduate assignment we read a 10-page research article, but I had never realised what an epic task it was doing the actual work to create those 10 pages of findings. Overall, it was a really positive experience, and I hope to get a chance in the future to contribute to something similar. Jonathan Turner (Year 1, BA Linguistics and Phonetics)
The main advantage of undertaking the Linguistic Research Experience was that it gave me skills to highlight to employers. For example, with it being independent of your degree it shows you are enthusiastic and self-motivated. My main task was to research the Linguistics department’s copy of The Linguistic Survey of India. An outline of the project was put in place and it was my own responsibility to achieve the targets. Part of my role involved contacting and questioning those who held information relevant to the research. This involved cold contacting leads; one interaction was an interview with a former head of department which I arranged and organised myself. It allows you to be more of a part of the Linguistics department and I would recommend it to anyone. David Halliday (Year 2, BA Linguistics and Phonetics)
Taking part in the Research Experience Scheme as a research assistant was a beneficial way to finish my second year studying Linguistics and Spanish. I was very keen to see how the eye tracking software was going to be used when testing linguistic theories, since some of the recent 2014 graduates told me that they used advanced software on the scheme, then went on to use it in their own dissertation investigations. As a research assistant I shadowed data collection using an eye tracker, making transcriptions of the recorded adult control group data, and checking the data for relevant adjectives to describe the differences between objects. Once the data was collected, I derived descriptive statistics from a prepared format. This was challenging due to the number of necessary processes in MS Excel. However, it was rewarding to test my own hypotheses about the data looking from the preliminary results. This was complemented by pen & paper linguistic competency tests and was a very interesting process. I enjoyed Cat’s explanation of the research aims and methods after performing a trial run. I would definitely recommend this scheme for anyone interested in how linguistic research is conducted. It is a great opportunity to see how results are collected, or even to become more familiar with the department itself (and the research it does) in preparation for final year projects. Samuel Ehrenstein (Year 2, BA Linguistics and Spanish)
I thought I understood the research process quite well, but I only got a real insight into this after taking part in the Research Experience Scheme. Helping Dr. Cecile De Cat with part of her research project on noun-noun compounds has really enabled me to see the process of handling a research project and I learned a lot, especially about the ethics and principles of it. I think this has been a very beneficial experience for me and I am glad I took part in the RES, because it has made me consider many issues linked with the process of researching, but it has also helped me see that it is not so scary at all but rather quite a lot of fun! Bissera Ivanova (Year 2, BA Linguistics and Phonetics)
My participation in the Research Experience Scheme in the department of Linguistics and Phonetics has confirmed for me my desire to pursue a research career after graduation. Through the scheme, there are frequent opportunities to work with academics in all sub-disciplines on research projects. Working with Dr De Cat on the Dislocated Topics in Hostile Environments project has given me a wonderful insight into how the research process operates ‘in the wild’. Having developed and conducted an investigation that will inform future publications puts me at a distinct advantage in my MA applications. It has been really exciting to work with the academics in the department on their own projects, and to see the other side of the work that they do that isn’t always that obvious to undergraduates. Joe Rodd (Year 3, BA Linguistics and Phonetics)
I’ve had a great experience working on the research project for Hannah Sowden and Cat Davies. It completely met my expectations and allowed me to develop some invaluable research skills. The RES scheme provided me with experience of recruiting participants and running an experiment in empirical conditions, I was given sole responsibility to do this and it was nice to be able to complete it with my own schedule. It also gave me lots of practice of explaining an experimental format to participants and providing a clear debrief at the end. In return for helping with the project, Hannah has helped me use experimental software for my dissertation project, and also gave me a tutorial in pivot tables and statistical analysis using SPSS. As a result of the RES scheme, I have managed to secure more work experience on other research projects that the department are running. Clare Lally (Year 3, BA Linguistics and Phonetics)