Hi, my name's Niamh, I studied Linguistics
and TESOL for my undergraduate
degree. I decided to study this
course at York St. John because I was
thinking about a few different career
paths
afterwards such as teaching, forensic linguistics, teaching English to
speakers of other languages. This
course really allowed me the chance to
explore all those options and gave me
the qualifications to follow on those
paths afterwards. When I was 18, so
when I was decided on university, I was
really leaning more towards TESOL,so
YSJ became a really clear choice to me.
The course allowed me to focus
specifically on TESOL in certain
modules, but then gave me all the
linguistics background as well. So some
of the TESOL focused modules I did were:
analysing talk for TESOL, where I looked at
conversations within a classroom;
socio-linguistics, where I was given the
opportunity to study the link between
language and identity. I also studied
grammar and phonetics, and theories and
methodologies for TESOL as well,
which really allowed me to focus in on
on the subjects, but also gave me a
lot of transferable skills for other
jobs. So I learnt how to transcribe
phonemic sounds, that kind of thing. They also had the option to do the CELTA
course for no extra cost. So the CELTA
course is the Cambridge University
certificate in teaching English to speakers of
other languages, and it's recognised
worldwide and opens a lot of doors for
you in the world of TESOL. It's a four
week intensive teacher training
course it's run on site by YSJ with
some really excellent tutors. On that
course as well as part of your
assessments you could do you get real
classroom experience, real teaching
experience. But also beyond that
the application interview process
that you have to do to get onto the CELTA
course will really prepare you for interviews
once you leave uni as well. You do a
whole application process that they
then mark you on, and then you're invited
to interview after that as well. So some
of the other modules I got to study were
world English's, so I looked at
how English had spread around the world,
how it was used, we talked about hybrid
English's, so kind of combination
languages where there's been a crossover
between one language and English, it was
really interesting. And then I also
studied attitudes to language which was a
fantastic module it wasn't the same as
all the other modules, the assessments
are really different, so within that
we studied a lot of topics that brought
out a lot of opinions like the
language death, how you teach language, and
taboo language like swearing and that
kind of thing. And part of our assessment
was to have discussions in little
groups through blog posts and then we
also had the more traditional
academic assessment of writing essays
and that kind of thing as well.
I also studied more scientific
modules like psycholinguistics and
language acquisition, and I got to link
those to TESOL as well so we discussed
how and the brain stores more than one
language, second language acquisition and
when we also considered things like
artificial intelligence as well and
that's so like your Alexa's and your Google's and things like that. So
that was one of the reasons I chose this
university, but probably the main reason
for me was the lecturers and students on
my Decision Day (University Open Day). I found that it was
the only University where they actually
came and asked me in questions and they
didn't wait for me to ask them. They
asked me what course I wanted to do, why
I wanted to do it, where I wanted to go
afterwards, and they seemed really
genuinely excited for everything that I
wanted to do. And that kind of continued
throughout the time that I was there as
well. So they knew who I was, what
my academic interests were, and because
of this they got me really involved
with research. So I did my own research
and presented that at a conference, and I
also assisted a lecturer in some of her
research as well, and it was all linked
to TESOL so stuff that I was really
interested in myself. But because of that
my confidence really grew while I was
here,
and I did all that kind of stuff
like presenting, the kind of thing that I never
would have done before. So these are all
opportunities that will be available to
you if you chose to come here. They just opened up so many doors for me,
beyond just getting a degree in terms of
getting the professional qualification
CELTA and giving me real research
experience which is something that I was
thinking about doing in the future as
well. But now even though I'm
finished I'm still getting
opportunities with them. So I work in the
student recruitment team and I was one
of their graduate interns as well.
Because of the course and the
experiences and the qualifications that it has given
me, I was able to get a teaching job in
English language school which I wouldn't
have been able to get without CELTA,
and I wouldn't have even got to the
interview stage if I didn't have CELTA
on my application. So
that was a year after I did my CeELTA
course, so even though it's been a year since
I'd seen some of my tutors they all
still helped me prep my interview for
that job as well, so that was like my
first proper job after leaving uni was
was teaching and doing TESOL. So
because this university is really small
we pride ourselves on being able to say
that with us you are a name and not a number
and you'll hear that loads and it's true
and I really felt like it was true. In
English language and linguistics,
lecturers are really passionate
about the subjects that they teach and
seeing you achieve the things that you
want to achieve, and because of that it makes
the students really passionate people as
well. So you have things like the
linguistics Society, they're brilliant
they've found a really great
balance between academic support and
socialising. They organise things
like the colloquium series, which happens
every other week, and they bring in
people who to talk about their research
it was really nice because you get to
see where you could end up in the future.
But they also do talks around careers
and interview ideas, the kind
of jobs that you could go into
afterwards it's really interesting. But
because of those series you get to meet
people in different years, you really get
to know the people that you're studying
with so they're not
just a face that you recognise from a
lecture theatre, they're actually your
friends as well.
So some advice that I could give you
about picking a university is, it's a big
decision so take it seriously. Make sure
you check out all your options, ask all
the questions that you want to ask,
but think about you what you want to get
out of it beyond your degree. So
you'll get a degree whatever university
you go to, but it's opportunities and the
things that different
universities have available to you. So
for me, CELTA, they had that
available here they didn't have it
available other universities I was
looking at so that was one opportunity
that they had for me that I wouldn't
have got somewhere else. So other
than that, and the kind of options that
they have available to you, I would think
about how you actually felt when you
came on campus. How did the University
and the staff and the students make you
feel. It'll give you a really good
idea of how you'll actually feel
 if when you start studying
there. But a big one is don't panic
or get stressed about your decision. It
is a big decision but if you're taking
the time to think about all your options
the chances are you will make the right
decision for yourself. So I hope this
has been helpful for you to listen to, to see some of the things I got out of
my course and like my highlights from my
three years that I was there. Thank
you for watching and good luck with your
decision.
