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English Language

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the English Language resources page.

Here you will find out exactly what our academics are looking for in their students, including skills they look out for, some of the topics they want you to know, recommended reading and useful places to boost your knowledge.

So without further ado let's get started!

Skills we are looking for

  • Good essay writing skills
  • Critical thinkers
  • can reference where they found information
  • Basic knowledge of the units of language

Topics to explore before you start

  • Basic terminology relating to language such as the difference between:
    • Nouns
    • Verbs
    • Adjectives
  • An awareness of language in different contexts
students relaxing and chatting round a table.

Recommended reading to prepare for university

  • Pinker, S. (2015) The language instinct: how the mind creates language. London: Penguin. ISBN:9780141980775.
  • Denham, K., and Lobeck, A. (2012) Linguistics for Everyone: An introduction. 2nd edn. USA: Wadsworth Publishing. ISBN:1111344388.
  • Aitchison, J. (2011) The Articulate Mammal: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics. London: Routledge. ISBN:0415610184.
three students studying language in class. smiling and focused.

Programmes to know

General programmes:

  • Microsoft Word
  • Microsoft Excel

Subject-specific programmes:

CLAN (Computerised Language ANalysis):

The acronym CLAN stands for Computerized Language ANalysis. CLAN is designed specifically to analyse data transcribed in the CHAT format.

CHILDES:

CHILDES is the child language component of the TalkBank system. TalkBank is a system for sharing and studying conversational interactions:

"One software programme that comes to mind is part of the CHILDES system, which I use in teaching and assignments. Students can look at a variety of data from children learning different first languages (and second languages) and there is software called CLAN which they can use online to query the data."

English Language lecturer

Websites our academics recommend

All Things Linguistic:

Whether you’re just trying to grasp the basics of linguistics or you’re trying to construct a full online linguistics course, here’s a comprehensive list of free linguistics websites, podcasts, videos, blogs, and other resources from around the internet

Palgrave Macmillan:

We work with authors such as David Crystal, Koenraad Kuiper, Ruth Wodak and Judith Baxter to bring you exciting work covering a wide range of areas, including applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, language education and much more.

a student searching for specific books in the library.

Get a feel for studying at Herts

Contact us

We hope you all found these resources useful but we appreciate that you may have more questions.

If you have any questions regarding our campuses, facilities, accommodation or just general life here at Herts, you can contact current Herts students via Unibuddy.