Course Catalogue

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Speech is created by shaping vibrations in air as it travels from a speaker's lungs to a listener's ear. This course explores how these vibrations are transformed into meaningful sound, covering phonetics from three perspectives: 1) Articulatory: how do we use our vocal tracts to create and shape airflow for speech? 2) Acoustic: what are the physical properties of the vibrating air as it travels through our vocal tract? and 3) Phonological: What are the systematic patterns of sound that result, which we understand as speech? You will discover the diversity of sounds used in the world's languages, including your own, and you will learn key phonetic analytical skills which will enable you to carry out your own phonetic, sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic studies in English Language and Linguistics.

Eight x 2-hr lectures; Eight x2hr practical sessions (comprising 1x1hr workshop; 1x1hr follow-up guided independent study) as scheduled on MyCampus as scheduled on MyCampus.

This is one of the Honours options in English Language and Linguistics and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into English Language and Linguistics, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes who qualify under the University's 25% regulation.

ENGLANG4030 Phonetics and Phonology

None

The standard assessments for this course are: 

■ Mini PowerPoint presentation of 3 minutes duration on one speech sound - 10% 

■ Speech transcription task - 30% 

■ Written assessment involving data handling/processing 60% (Equivalent to 2,500 words) 

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available: 

■ Individual oral presentation (and if not possible), option of pre-recording as alternative to presentation.

■ There are no alternatives to the Speech transcription task, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

■ There are no alternatives to the Written assessment involving data handling/processing, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustment (Students should follow the usual process for extensions). 

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.  

It is the default expectation that all courses will offer opportunities for reassessment or deferred assessment. Where it is not possible to offer this in some assessment components, the grade achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade, and any exceptions for this course are described below.

[No exceptions]

This course will provide the opportunity to:

■ learn about the operational capabilities of the vocal tract;

■ carry out detailed study of auditory, articulatory and acoustic aspects of phonetics;

■ develop practical skills of identifying and transcribing speech sounds, also using mainstream speech analysis software;

■ learn how to present information about segmental phonetics to others.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ outline some key respiratory, phonatory and articulatory possibilities of the vocal tract in speech;

■ explain and apply some key terms and concepts in the phonetic analysis of speech;

■ summarize, illustrate and critically evaluate current theoretical approaches to phonetics;

■ identify and transcribe various forms of English speech sounds.