Students

Ewa Kuklinska

MA Student

Ewa Kuklinska

Ewa wrote this profile while enrolled on our MA in Linguistics in the academic year 2010-2011.

Why linguistics, and why Leeds

I chose to do an MA in Linguistics because I wanted to further develop my knowledge and understanding of linguistics. I believe this will enable me to become a better teacher of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), which has been my job for the last 6 years. I chose the University of Leeds because it gives a high priority to providing a stimulating learning environment and student support you can count on. 

My course 

The course has allowed me to develop an in-depth understanding of theoretical linguistics through the study of syntax and phonetics and phonology in the core modules. In addition the research methods module, which was completely new to me, has given me a good grounding for my dissertation and future in academia. I have also had an opportunity to learn about dialectology and second language acquisition. The latter has enabled me to critically reflect on approaches to my own professional and personal development within a full teaching role.

My dissertation

I have always been interested in English grammar and how different groups of English speakers use and interpret certain grammatical structures differently. For my dissertation, I'm comparing grammaticality judgements by second language learners and native speakers.

I'm focusing on grammaticality judgements of subject-verb agreement in number in English. For example, I'm asking my subjects to choose the best among the structures A couple of shoes is/are on its/their way, One less than a hundred students is/are waiting outside, or A few policemen is/are on its/their way. I'm conducting the study on English native speakers, Polish advanced learners of English (as number agreement is a very strong grammatical requirement in Polish) and Chinese advanced learners of English (as number agreement is not required in Chinese).