profile picture of a linguistics student, Rachel

Rachel Pierce

What made you want to apply to your Linguistics course and to Leeds?

I really liked learning languages at school but was never that interested about the cultural side of language degrees, so I looked into Linguistics, and it seemed like the perfect degree for me. 

When I started looking at unis I was really drawn to Leeds because it was so highly regarded in league tables and the fact that it has one of the biggest language schools in the UK. When I came to the open day, I just fell in love with the campus the city and everything about it. 

What is it that makes you passionate about your Linguistics degree?

Linguistics seems like this really niche degree but it is so relevant to everyday life and that’s why I love it. There are so many different strands to linguistics you can chose to go down, meaning there is something for everyone and it never gets boring.

I really like conducting and designing my own studies. I have done a few so far that have involved analysing recordings, some in a qualitative way and others in a quantitative way.

I have been offered a summer internship as a research assistant with Dr Gisela Tomé Lourido, who is a sociophonetics lecturer, and I am very excited to start.

What other activities are available for students to take part in outside of their studies and which ones have you tried out yourself?

There are so many societies, quite literally something for everyone. I’ve joined the badminton society and the linguistics society. I was elected to be the President of the linguistics society and in 2020 we tried our best to organise as many different online events that we could think of and received a lot of positive feedback from members.

What do you plan to do when you’ve graduated from your Linguistics course?

I want to apply for a MSc in speech and language therapy so I can hopefully one day become a qualified speech and language therapist.

I have received so much support and useful advice from my lecturers and personal tutor when I discussed finding work experience with them. Obviously, the content I learn from my linguistics modules will be extremely useful for my masters, but it has mainly just given me the confidence I need to apply and realise that I am capable of a lot more than I thought.