What is it like to be a PhD student in our department?
Dr Elena Antonova Unlu writes about her experience whilst studying her PhD within our department at Birkbeck.
Before starting my PhD at Birkbeck, I got my undergraduate and MA degree in ELT and was working as a regular instructor of the Russian and English languages in various educational institutions in Turkey. After the birth of my son, I became a full-time care-take of him. He grew up as a bilingual but his Russian, being a minority language, became the subject of my parental concern and interest. At a certain stage, I started to record him regularly and compare his production with monolingual counterparts. Ultimately, having collected quite a lot of data, I realized that I would like to do it professionally and needed someone who would supervise me in this investigation. This is how I came to the decision to start my PhD in bilingual first language acquisition, the topic I was a complete novice in. I decided to try my chance and wrote about my wish to Professor Li Wei (I knew his name in relation to bilingualism from the bookshelves in the university library). And, to my great surprise, Professor Li Wei got back to me within the same day expressing his interest and asking for the official proposal. After fulfilling all the requirements, I got accepted to Birkbeck. Even at this initial stage, I was impressed how smoothly and professionally people worked there.
Embarking on a PhD abroad is a big decision, to move your family with a small child there is even more challenging. In this respect, my PhD in Birkbeck can be an example of good experience for forth-coming over-sea PhD students. The system in London works perfectly. It took us about a week to settle down. Though it was October, and the school year had already started, we found a lovely free day-time nursery for our son (still I remember them with warmest feelings and enormous gratitude) and another one for the time of my evening classes, which was not free but very reasonable. After allocating my son to the nursery, I became a full-time PhD student. In Birkbeck, PhD students do not have to go to all lectures and classes, but their supervisors usually advise them to take a couple of courses to get to know the topic they are doing their research on better. I was advised to take bilingualism and research courses. We were also supposed to attend PhD seminars once in two weeks and have a progress-screening exam once a year. The rest of the time I worked on my own, spending time in front of a computer usually, reading articles, transcribing and analyzing the data. Naturally, sometimes I got bored and desperate that the dissertation would never end; once after sending about one hundred pages of literature review to the rubbish bin, I even thought of giving up the PhD; but at such moments, Birkbeck people, initially my supervisors Professors Li Wei and Jean-Marc Dewaele, were always there to support me by giving invaluable advice or just a cheering word via e-mail or in a face-to-face encounter. They always had time to listen to me and got the sense of all the issues I was dealing with. They never talked a lot, but said just a few sentences, which made my brain work productively for at least another couple of days afterwards. My meetings with the supervisors and our PhD seminars were a good compensation for all the boring hours spent alone in front of the computer or in libraries. I did wait for these meetings and enjoy them very much. Before starting the PhD, I heard stories about indifferent or bullying supervisors, lack of institutional support and unfair examinations. But my own experience was absolutely positive. All the academics I met at Birkbeck are unique, superfluous to say that they are world-famous; the college itself also supports the students with various events and seminars, introducing them to job opportunities, CV requirements, VIVA process, etc.
I completed my dissertation in less than two years, excluding the period of the data collection, which I finished before coming to London. My VIVA was quite tough, lasting for about three hours. But it was very successful: with the requirement of few minor corrections, I was awarded a PhD degree. I will always remember that very moment full of relief, proudness and sorrow that the wonderful journey was over.
It has been nearly two years since I got my PhD. My family returned to Turkey. I have been working as a lecturer in a Turkish university and try to be a proper academic myself. My interest in bilingual L1 acquisition has extended to other topics in bilingualism, which I was introduced to in Birkbeck, and already I have several publications in leading academic journals. I am very grateful to Birkbeck for my PhD experience, which not only taught me to be disciplined, diligent, analytically-thinking and inventive, but also gave me a chance to work with the unique people and expanded my academic opportunities.