Graduate Student Profiles
Psycholinguistics & Neurolinguistics
Kaili Clackson, MA in Linguistics '07, MA in Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics
'08, PhD
“It was only after completing my undergraduate degree in classical history
and languages that I came to realise that all the things which interested me
most came under the heading of 'linguistics' - I wished I'd known it existed and
studied that instead! After a few years teaching English abroad, I decided to
follow up my interest and apply for an MA in linguistics. I chose Essex because
I wanted to get a general overview of the subject and felt that the wide range
of courses on offer would allow me to explore the many different areas of
linguistics. The flexibility of the part-time course also meant that I could
continue to work three days a week.
I really enjoyed the course, and the experience of being a mature student. I
gradually realised that out of all the linguistic delights on offer, it was the
psycholinguistics modules that interested me most. Towards the end of my MA I
applied to do a PhD and am now doing a full time MA in Psycholinguistics and
Neurolinguistics as preparation for starting my PhD next year.”
Hui-Yu Pan, MA in Psycholinguistics & Neurolinguistics
'06, PhD in P&N
“I completed a four-year BA in English at the National Chengchi University in
Taiwan. I was inspired by the course of Psycholinguistics in my third grade. I
therefore decided to deepen my knowledge of Psycholinguistics. I chose the MA in
Psycholinguistics & Neurolinguistics at the University of Essex because the
Department of Language and Linguistics at Essex has an excellent reputation for
its high quality of teaching and outstanding achievements in academic research.
In the year of my MA study, I had some great experiences here. After I completed
my MA, I decided to start my PhD in Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics at
Essex, investigating effects of context in second language ambiguity resolution,
and I also joined the Psycholinguistics Research Group in the Department.
This year is my third year here. I am currently working on my PhD. In these
years, I benefited a lot from the Department. The great diversity of linguistic
courses available has always given me much inspiration. Excellent instruction
and good interaction between tutors and students in my research group also
provided great support for my studies. I thank the Department and my research
group for bringing me such a nice study life.”
Elena Papadopoulou, MA in Language Acquisition '06, PhD in P&N
“After obtaining a BA in English Language and Linguistics in Cyprus –a small
island somewhere in the Mediterranean sea - I came to Essex in October 2005 to
pursue an MA in Language Acquisition. I chose Essex for postgraduate study
because it was the only university which could provide such a wide range of
MAs/PhDs in different areas/disciplines of linguistics. Having being acquainted
with research potentials and opportunities offered by the Department as well as
by the personnel staff, who are very helpful and friendly, I have decided to
stay at Essex to complete a PhD in linguistics (language acquisition). As a
research student I had the chance to join one of the research groups in the
Department, namely the Psycholinguistics group which offers the appropriate
skills training for conducting/presenting research in addition to working within
a group. As a member of a very active linguistic community within the Department
I became a member of the chairing committee of international and national
linguistic conferences, namely LangUE and EGCL respectively, taking place at
Essex. Now I am in the second year of my PhD, which I hope to finish in a couple
of years, and then pursue a career in language acquisition research; hopefully
here at Essex, since it is a wonderful place!”
Yoko Nakano, PhP in Psycholinguistics & Neurolinguistics '03
Yoko studied antecedent reactivation in Japanese scrambling constructions and
the influence of working memory, which led to her PhD in Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics (supervised by Prof. Harald Clahsen) in 2003. During her PhD
study, she presented papers at several international conferences such as the
LAGB (Linguistic Association of Great Britain) meeting and the Annual CUNY
Conference on Human Sentence Processing, and co-authored a research article with
Dr. Claudia Felser and Prof. Harald Clahsen in the Journal of Psycholinguistic
Research. She went back to Japan in 2003 to work as a part-time lecturer in
English at the Kyoto Institute of Technology. In 2004 she joined the faculty of
Humanities and Economics at Kochi University as a tenured associate professor,
where she taught psycholinguistics and was awarded several research grants. In
2008 she moved to Kwansei Gakuin University as an associate professor in the
School of Human Welfare Studies and the Graduate School of Language,
Communication, and Culture. She is currently studying the role of working memory
in L1 and L2 sentence processing.
Yoko (middle) is presenting a poster with her students at the annual
conference of the Japanese Association of Second Language Acquisition, 2007.
Last modified on 11 May 2012.