Today we kickstart the long awaited final year university experience posts. I thought I would start with the academic aspect this year, since it has been the most prominent. If you've not read my previous sets from First and Second year, the way that this series works is that I share my annual experience in separate posts, focusing on Academia, Social life, Finances and Accommodation. I studied Bsc English Language at Aston University, in Birmingham.
In this post, I will be discussing my thoughts around online content, share a breakdown of each module and the grades achieved, as well as my plans for the near future. Grab your snacks because this is going to be a long one. If you want to know how my year has been, just keep reading.
ONLINE LECTURES
Given the current situation around the world, as you can imagine, this year has been unlike any other. Due to the pandemic, most of our contact hours were held online via blackboard. At the beginning of the first term it was blended learning, with one in-person session per week. However, numbers for these sessions were limited and there was a sign-up process that had to be completed a week prior. I attended a couple in-person sessions, however as things got busier, it became easier to solely work from home. Eventually they stopped any in-person sessions as the pandemic got progressively worse and government guidelines altered.
Since my course is heavily discussion and independent study based, it didn't take too long to adapt to online contact hours. Our lecturers did a fantastic job trying to make them as engaging and interactive as they could, which I really appreciated. We were given A LOT of pre-work every week for our webinars, which was great in terms of helping me to understand the sessions, but it was pretty overwhelming at times. I was always doing something and had to be intentional about giving myself breaks, because my timetable didn't do that for me. Even on the days we didn't have timetabled sessions, there was always something that had to be done. In that regard, I definitely think we got our money's worth, however I wish we had more contact hours than we did. Part of me is thankful we didn't, because the time was needed for other things like our dissertation (I'll get onto that later), however it kind of felt like we were paying to teach ourselves, since we only had about 3-4 hours contact time a week.
Overall, although the situation wasn't ideal, online lectures weren't the worst thing in the world and it seems like my university did a far better job than other institutions, from what I'm hearing. I had my days of frustration, but what can you do?
DISSERTATION
The dissertation process was......interesting. I wish I could share everything but if I did, we'd be here a very long time. I remember being so nervous at the end of second year, when there were suggestions to start considering topics. The whole idea of writing a research project with SO much freedom was really daunting. It wasn't as terrifying as I thought but it was definitely as hard as I expected. Juggling an independent project whilst trying to do the other assignments is difficult, especially when you're not getting the same guidance that pre-pandemic students were likely to have had. This is obviously not the fault of lecturers, but it definitely felt like we were left in the dark. Every week we had a session around different things like, choosing the topic, writing the proposal, how to properly collect our data etc, which was somewhat helpful, but with it being online, it didn't feel as informative. Then there's the difficulty of not being allowed too much assistance, given that it's an independent piece of work. I had a great supervisor who reassured me when I felt like I didn't know what I was doing. I had a handful of meetings, including one in-person, and never left feeling still completely clueless. She answered my emails really quickly too, even if it was just one out of panic.
In terms of the actual writing process, I think I did a really good job of organising myself. I started the writing process in January, and added to the document here and there throughout the months. The final deadline was in April, so I had 4 months to work on the writing aspect. I'm glad I did it that way because when I had days of writer's block, I didn't feel as guilty about taking days off from it. I decided on my chapters prior to writing, and took time writing them, depending on what I felt like doing that day. It took a lot of the pressure off. My dissertation was a Critical Discourse Analysis of the 2013-2015 GCSE English Language and Literature specification. Essentially, I picked the curriculum apart and investigated how the British government's ideology impacted the National Curriculum, how they represented English as a subject, and how they showed their position of power over the curriculum, through language choices made. It was really interesting to study and see how ideological perspectives led to the Gove reforms that are still deeply criticised today. I also referred to the 1989 Cox Report and models, to infer the writers' idea of English studies' purpose in education. I really enjoyed this aspect of my study because it highlighted the subject as a tool for functionality and convenience, rather than art or creativity, which is reflected in the curriculum itself.
I was awarded a 2.1 for this project, which I was incredibly happy with. I started the year hoping that I'd get at least 60% and managed to exceed that goal. I was somehow extremely close to a First class, which I am so shocked about, because I didn't think I'd be anywhere near it when I submitted. Although I was content with it, I didn't feel like this was my best piece of work, so I definitely started to doubt myself.
The submission process was online, however I decided to print mine off as a keepsake because of how hard I worked. I have it sitting in my room and I feel so proud every time I see it.
MULTIMODAL ANALYSIS
I really enjoyed this module! Our lecturer was AMAZING and I loved every single webinar we had with him. He made them so much fun and there wasn't a time where I felt lost, which is a rarity lol. I chose this module because it was so creative and I definitely felt like that was needed. This module was all about looking at other aspects of language besides words. For example, symbols, colour, typography etc, and how they impact meaning. We looked at different genres and sources, discussed the design choices and then created our own for the assignment.
I made a cosmopolitan magazine cover redesign, which took the cosmo vibe and audience, but was for a different time-period. I redesigned a 2018 edition and made it into a 1920s issue. It was so much fun to make and the design process highlighted how intentional all choices are. As well as the design, we had to write a 3000 word commentary, discussing our design choices and justification for them, using academic references to support it.
I achieved a 2.1 for this assignment, which was a little disappointing because I was hoping for a first class, however I got really clear and insightful feedback from my lecturer, and the grade was completely fair. I just wish I had done a better job.
LANGUAGE CONTACT AND GLOBALISATION
Again, I really enjoyed this module. My lecturer was once again fantastic. Her lectures were engaging and I learnt so many fascinating things. We looked at different language varieties around the world, how technology has contributed to the evolution or extinction of languages, the impact that colonisation and migration has had on spoken language and much more.
For this assignment we had a lot of freedom. We had to write a 4000 word essay on anything we wanted within this module. My assignment was on how Jamaican Patois has influenced youth language/slang in modern day Britain. I used the E4 TV show 'Youngers' as my case study because I couldn't record real life conversations like I wanted to, due to the pandemic and lack of time to get permission from each candidate. Transcribing isn't my favourite thing to do and it took days to properly write up in my appendix, but I got full marks for that, so it was clearly worth the time. Being Jamaican, I've always been interested in how our language has had such a huge impact on this country, so writing it was so much fun.
I LOVED how this assignment turned out in the end and I achieved a first class, which was so exciting. It's always a great feeling to get a great grade for something you enjoyed writing. Funny thing is, I predicted I'd get a 2.1, so I was very shocked when I got the result back.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN EDUCATION
This was such a useful module for my dissertation! We talked about so many things that I was able to weave into my project, and I used a few of the resources provided for this module too. We looked at the curriculum for secondary and post 16 English studies. As an aspiring teacher, it was also helpful to understand a little bit about pedagogy at a basic level too. We looked into government intervention, evolution of grammar teaching, language policy and policing. There were two assignments for this module. The first was a critical analysis of a concept, idea or policy in education. For this I wrote a critical analysis of the Standard English debate, using two secondary school case studies, where slang was completely banned from being used on the premises. The schools enforced it as a school policy and my study discussed it as a way of encouraging greater employability vs hinderance of cultural appreciation/freedom of speech.
The second assignment was to create a lesson plan for any chosen age group/reading ability on a literary or linguistic term, alongside a 1500 word commentary explaining our decisions. For this I did a lesson plan for teaching metaphors to a year 7 class, at intermediate level.
I achieved a 2.1 for the assignments, which I was happy with.
COGNITIVE POETICS
This was definitely my least favourite module this year. This was actually a literature module, however language students had the opportunity to take it on if they wished to. Considering that I have to teach literature in the future, I tried to take a few lit modules throughout my degree to keep my brain ticking and make it a little easier for myself. With that being said, I don't particularly enjoy literature much and I definitely struggle with it, since I haven't consistently studied literature since my GCSEs. I struggled A LOT with cognitive poetics. It's a stylistics module and although there are elements of language, it is heavily literature based. There were a handful of us language students on the module and I think we all agreed that we felt out of the loop. It's hard to keep up with lectures when you can't even remember what certain terms mean.
Despite it being extremely tough, I somehow scraped a 2.1. I have no idea how though because I really thought I'd be getting a 2.2. There were two assignments for this module, which were just as difficult as each other and caused me so much stress. These were the last assignments of my degree and it wouldn't be my life if there wasn't some sort of drama at the end. It took ages to cut the last one down, because I went over the 10% leeway by a ridiculous amount. I'm not sure how I managed it. For the first assignment I did a cognitive grammar analysis of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I basically analysed the grammar and linguistic choices in chapter two. For the second assignment I did a Text World Analysis of a children's book. I hated it. Let's not talk about it.
RESULTS
So, the moment I'm sure some of you have been waiting for. THE BIG RESULT! After three years of hard work, I completed my degree with Upper Second Class Honours. If you follow me on my socials, this is no news to you. I was extremely pleased when I opened the result. I set myself the goal back in January 2021 to graduate with a 2.1 and to actually see it happen was so surreal. I'm so thankful and blessed. I also want to say thank you to everyone who has kept up with my uni blog posts throughout these three years, watched my uni Instagram stories and just sent me messages of encouragement. I really do appreciate it all.
WHAT'S NEXT?
I will be graduating on September 8th 2021, which is so exciting. I'm so glad I get to walk across the stage in a cap and gown. I was fearful of having an online ceremony but due to Boris finally lifting all covid restrictions, I actually get the ceremony I've been wanting for years. Big relief.
That same week, I start my PGCE, training to become a secondary school English Teacher. I'm ridiculously nervous for this next chapter but equally as excited. I've been working towards this since I was a kid and to finally be taking that step is crazy. This time next year, I could be a qualified teacher.....wild. I'm looking forward to this new adventure, and I'm ready to take on all the rewards and challenges that come with it.
If you've made it this far, I can only applaud you. This was a long one. Make sure to comeback for the next one!
Thanks for reading,
Have a great day x
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