Accessibility statement

Tasmin Smith, MA Forensic Phonetics 2021/22

What are your research interests / what are you working on?

In my dissertation I focused on how different manners of speech differ in their acoustic characteristics: speaking normally, speaking softly, and whispering, in the context of how changing the modality of speech can be an effective voice disguise when it comes to automatic speaker recognition.

What was your favourite module and why? 

I'm from very much an arts background and was a little apprehensive about taking modules in which there was more of a maths and physics element, such as the Technical Foundations of Forensic Speech Science and Advanced Phonetics, but these turned out to be my favourite modules by far as I had never studied acoustics or signal processing before and found all of it fascinating.

Why York rather than somewhere else?

Apart from the fact that it was such a specialised course that is not widely available, in my previous degrees I had often come across the research of many of the faculty at York and was excited to study with tutors who are truly world leaders in the areas of linguistics that interest me.

How has your experience at York broadened your horizons as a linguist?

It has taken my knowledge and interest in phonetics to another level. I have learned to use tools and software to analyse speech that I was not able to before, and feel much more confident in my knowledge of related areas such as sound propagation, hearing and of course quantitative data analysis.

What was the level of support like from staff and the department as a whole? Were they receptive to feedback? 

The staff really made an effort to get to know everyone on the course, and were friendly, approachable and regularly available. They made it easy for students to provide feedback and ask questions by being flexible with their time and sharing collaborative Q&A documents that everybody was able to contribute to.

What was your favourite aspect of living and studying at York? 

I lived outside of York and had a 45 minute commute each day from Wakefield. With this in mind, I was very grateful for the student parking permit! The commute was a lot easier than I had expected and for any prospective students who might be worried about living outside of York, don't worry. Regarding studying, my favourite aspect was the opportunity to get very personalised, regular feedback on my work and to develop in both my skills and knowledge.

What do you feel is the most important thing you will take away from your experience at York?

The overall achievement of having learnt so much about so many different things in such a short space of time, and happy memories of a really lovely bunch of classmates and friendly tutors.