Course Catalogue

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This course provides Masters' students the opportunity to learn more about speech sounds in a range of contexts and through the detailed study of a number of perspectives on speech, e.g. clinical, perceptual, neural, and social. They will learn how to interpret and present key academic research, and will develop practical skills in production and identification of speech, as well as carrying out precise instrumental measurements.

8 x 2-hr lectures; 9 x 2-hr practical sessions (comprising 1x1-hr workshop; 1x1-hr follow-up guided independent study) as scheduled on MyCampus.

This course may be taught in conjunction with ENGLANG4049, as scheduled on MyCampus.

This is one of the MSc options available in English Language and Linguistics, and for the MSc in Speech, Language & Sociolinguistics, and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Standard entry to Masters at College level.

It is recommended that students will have taken Level 5 Introduction to Phonetics, or have equivalent background in Phonetics from previous study.

ENGLANG4049

None

The standard assessments for this course are: 

■ Essay (1,500 words) - 30%

■ Essay (2,000 words) - 40%

■ Speech measurement task - 10%

■ In class oral assessment (40 minutes) - 20%

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

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

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

■ Extra time or alternative space, or pre-recorded dictation exam as alternative to dictation component of oral assessment.

■ There is no alternative to the interview component of the oral assessment, but extra time and alternative space can be offered as reasonable adjustments.

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

This course will provide students with the opportunity to:

■ Develop a detailed understanding of speech sounds in context;

■ Synthesize and critically assess key current, specialist, research perspectives on speech, e.g. clinical phonetics, speech perception, sociophonetics;

■ Develop and apply specialist practical skills for identifying, producing, and measuring speech sounds also using mainstream speech analysis software

■ Interpret acoustic phonetic measures for selected speech data in the light of current phonetic theory

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

■ Identify and describe in detail key aspects of vowels and consonants including contextual realization and function;

■ Critically evalute key terms and concepts from a number of current research perspectives on speech;

■ use, interpret and critically evaluate data obtained by means of specialist instrumental phonetic techniques for investigating speech;

■ make and record precise measurements from acoustic representations of speech;

■ apply specialist practical phonetic skills to produce and transcribe various forms of English speech sounds

■ Communicate the findings and interpretation of current academic research in phonetics to a specialist/non-specialist audience;