English and Languages
The School of English and Languages brings together the academic disciplines of English literature, creative writing, modern languages, linguistics, intercultural communication and translation studies. Our research focuses on understanding how texts and languages work across national boundaries, how they function and how they interact.
Research programmes
Taught programmes
- MA Audiovisual Translation
- MA Business Interpreting in Chinese and English
- MA Business Translation with Interpreting
- MA Communication and International Marketing
- MA Creative Writing
- MA English Literature
- MA Intercultural Communication with International Business
- MA Monolingual Subtitling and Audio Description
- MA Public Service Interpreting
- MA Translation
- MA Translation Studies
- MA Translation Studies with Intercultural Communications
Research Environment
We are home to two internationally renowned research centres in the Surrey Morphology Group and the Centre for Translation Studies. We also conduct pioneering research in women’s writing, nineteenth-century literature and world literatures. We have dedicated PhD student workrooms, as well as state-of-the-art equipment in our brand-new interpreting labs (complete with videoconferencing facilities), a multimedia lab and professional software for audiovisual and computer-assisted translation, as well as audio description.
We hold collections such as the papers of the British Guild of Travel Writers and the E.H. Shepard archive, as well as having a first-rate library with excellent online resources. Our proximity to London gives you easy access to world-class resources such as the British Library and a variety of national archives. We run a series of training seminars for research students in the School including topics such as originality, methodology, writing a literature review and relating theory to your research question.
A wide range of generic training courses – relating, for instance, to teaching and assessment, giving conference presentations, publishing and professional development – is offered across the University. All research students
map out their training needs using the University’s online Learning Needs Analysis tool, in consultation with their supervisors, to agree a programme of research training and generic skills training.
Key Research Areas
- Transnational Literary and Cultural Studies
- Global Exchanges: Within and Between Language and Culture
- Becoming Modern: New Nineteenth-century Studies
- Centre for Translation Studies
- Surrey Morphology Group
- Languages Studies
Research groups and centres
Centre for Translation Studies
Research here explores many different aspects of translation studies as a fast-developing discipline. Topics covered include specialist translation and terminology, the emergent research area of audio description as a form of intermodal transfer, as well as interlingual audiovisual translation, corpora and interpreting / translation / terminology, new modes of interpreting, and sociological perspectives on translation. The Centre has a very active innovative research programme in all areas, including co-funded European projects on interpreting using videoconferencing technology and 3D virtual environments.
www.surrey.ac.uk/englishandlanguages/research/cts
Surrey Morphology Group
The Surrey Morphology Group aims to promote the use of formal and statistical methods in natural language typology; to develop a typologically informed, formally explicit framework for the expression of theories of natural language morphology; and to study the relations which hold between grammatical categories in a broad sample of languages. Current projects include work on the Alor-Pantar languages, a non-Austronesian group of languages spoken in eastern Indonesia, an investigation into periphrasis, where syntax and morphology overlap, as well as work on the Nakh- Daghestanian language Archi.
We currently hold a large European Research Council grant to investigate morphological complexity. Morphological systems introduce an extra layer of structure in between meaning and its expression. This layer may operate at cross-purposes to functional distinctions, attaining in some languages an astonishing degree of complexity. Such apparently arbitrary distinctions in form (inflection classes, irregularity and similar phenomena) are the particular focus of this project. They are a key resource for understanding mental processes, as they represent an unconscious and yet highly structured autonomous system.
Research Academics
Career Development
A UK research degree qualifies students for a range of opportunities beyond research and teaching. Support through researcher development, individual mentoring and dedicated seminars will enable students to enhance their employability.
Our graduates have gone on to take up academic positions in the UK and abroad, as well as pursuing their careers in professional environments.
Links with Industry
The School has developed a strong link with English PEN, which works on issues of censorship and freedom of speech. This and our work with other charity/NGO partners gives you unusual opportunities to develop your CV.
In translation and interpreting, the School has excellent links to the Institute of Translation & Interpreting and the Chartered Institute of Linguists, as well as to a wide network of both users and suppliers of language services.
Surrey, and in particular the Centre for Translation Studies, has an excellent international reputation for its research and postgraduate tuition.
Richard Bale
PhD, Corpus-based interpreter training
My undergraduate degree from the University of Surrey focused on foreign languages, with German and Russian. I then trained as a secondary school teacher of German, French and Russian. In 2010, I was awarded the Gunilla Anderman scholarship to study for a PhD in the Centre for Translation Studies at the University of Surrey.
Surrey, and in particular the Centre for Translation Studies, has an excellent international reputation for its research and postgraduate tuition. I was aware of the potential PhD supervisors in the Department and was confident that they would be able to offer me the support needed to conduct PhD research.
I had a lot of fun during my first degree and felt that I wanted to take my studies further, so I decided to look into funding opportunities for PhD research and applied for the scholarship which I now hold.
After four years as an undergraduate and nearly three years as a postgraduate student at Surrey, I have become very fond of the University. Particularly in the Centre for Translation Studies, the relationship between staff and students is very good, with a research atmosphere which inspires PhD students.
The one aspect of the University which has remained constant in the time that I have been here is its commitment to supporting students into successful employment upon graduation. This is becoming more and more important in today’s climate, and Surrey has managed to retain its position as the number one university for graduate employment.
Surrey, and in particular the Centre for Translation Studies, has an excellent international reputation for its research and postgraduate tuition.