Internship Details

Employer Bangor University – School of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics

Job title Slate discourse: How people describe a cultural asset

Closing date 16/04/2019

Salary £8.50 per hour

30 hours per week for up to 4 weeks, throughout June and/or July 2019. Times for
Timing
progress meetings with the project leader will be mutually agreed, but most of the
information internship time will be spent flexibly. Most (or all) of the work can be done from
home, whilst communication proceeds through email.
Job description Slate is prominent in North Wales; its high visibility in the Snowdonia mountains (and
surrounding areas) is extraordinary and highly attractive for visitors and locals alike. The
slate industry, or whatever remains of it, has been suggested as potential UNESCO world
heritage, indicating its immense cultural significance. The current project feeds into these
efforts by highlighting the prominence and nature of slate-related discourse on relevant
websites.

The internet provides a host of resources, in both English and Welsh, which represent
various ways in which slate affects local culture. The discourse in which this is done ranges
from relatively neutral standard Wikipedia style
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slate_industry_in_Wales;
https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwydiant_llechi_Cymru) to far more emotional and
attitudinal discourse on commercial websites designed to attract tourism (e.g.,
https://www.llechwedd-slate-caverns.co.uk; https://amgueddfa.cymru/llechi/amdano).

This project aims to explore the range of variety of slate-related discourse on the internet
more systematically, in order to gain a comprehensive picture of how the significance of
slate for the culture in North Wales is reflected online.
The intern’s contribution comprises:

- Identifying relevant websites by thorough and systematic internet research

- Extracting language data and transferring them into a suitable format (e.g. Excel)
- Analysing the data (following step-by-step guidance by the project leader) using
Cognitive Discourse Analysis (Tenbrink, 2015). This entails identifying linguistic
features in the data that reflect certain concepts and ideas, in relation to cultural
significance.
- Discussing the implications of the results, and possible publications, with the
project leader.

Person 1. Reliability and ability to complete projects on time

2. Ability to work as part of a team and on own initiative
requirements 3. Systematic and clear thinking
4. Discourse analysis skills / background desirable
 5. A background in social science or linguistics desirable
6. Good knowledge of Welsh (in addition to English) would be more than welcome, but is
not a prerequisite for the project. It is possible to focus on English websites in such a case.

How to apply You may apply for a maximum of 3 Internships.

Please email a CV and covering letter, expressing which Internships you are interested in,
by order of preference to: targetconnect@bangor.ac.uk

Interviews will be held: TBC

Applicants who are shortlisted for interview will be notified and advice will be available
for any applicants who have any access requirements, any reasonable adjustments for the
interview, or any reasonable adjustments to be put in place in order to be able to
complete your internship.

Careers and Employability Service

Bangor University, Bangor Gwynedd LL57 2UW
tel: +44 (0) 1248 388521 | email: targetconnect@bangor.ac.uk