SPE8011 : Fundamental Elements of Phonetics and Phonology
- Offered for Year: 2024/25
- Module Leader(s): Professor Ghada Khattab
- Owning School: Education, Communication & Language Sci
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 1 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
This module provides students with an introduction to the study of phonetics and phonology.
The Wednesday sessions are devoted to learning about the human vocal mechanism, the sounds it can produce, and how those sounds can be classified. In tutorials you will learn to distinguish and produce most the sounds of the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), using examples from a wide range of languages, and many accents of English.
The Thursday sessions will provide an introduction to Acoustic Phonetics. Lectures in week 1 and 2 will provide an introduction to the theoretical aspects of the physics of sounds and to the software programs available for acoustic analysis of speech. This will be followed by a block of 7 interactive lectures in computer clusters that will explore source and filter theory for different classes of sounds and suprasegmental phenomena (vowels, fricatives, stops, nasals and nasalised vowels, approximants (including laterals and rhotics), connected speech processes and prosody). The last 2 weeks of the semester will be taken by auditory and acoustic transcription practice.
Outline Of Syllabus
This module provides students with an introduction to the study of phonetics and phonology.
The Wednesday sessions are devoted to learning about the human vocal mechanism, the sounds it can produce, and how those sounds can be classified. In tutorials you will learn to distinguish and produce most the sounds of the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), using examples from a wide range of languages, and many accents of English.
The Thursday sessions will provide an introduction to Acoustic Phonetics. Lectures in week 1 and 2 will provide an introduction to the theoretical aspects of the physics of sounds and to the software programs available for acoustic analysis of speech. This will be followed by a block of 7 interactive lectures in computer clusters that will explore source and filter theory for different classes of sounds and suprasegmental phenomena (vowels, fricatives, stops, nasals and nasalised vowels, approximants (including laterals and rhotics), connected speech processes and prosody). The last 2 weeks of the semester will be taken by auditory and acoustic transcription practice.
Outline of Syllabus (maximum 4000 characters):
Wednesday Topics:
1. Introduction to phonetics: Speech and writing
2. Introduction to phonetics: The IPA and transcription
3. Consonants: place of articulation
4. Consonants: manner of articulation
5. Consonants: Phonation, aspiration and VOT
6. Consonants: complex articulations
7. Initiation: airstream mechanisms, non-pulmonic consonants
8. Cardinal vowels and vowel quadrilateral
9. Introduction to phonology, with focus on English phonology
10. Connected speech processes
11. Introduction to Sociophonetics
12. Prosody and intonation
Thursday Topics:
1. Introduction into instrumental and acoustic phonetics
2. Sound and sound waves
3. Source and filter theory of speech production
4. Introduction to Praat
5. Acoustic properties of sounds
6. Connected speech processes
7. Acoustic analysis in the assessment of consonants
8. Phonological assessment of vowels
9. Phonological assessment of prosody
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 50:00 | 50:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 22 | 1:00 | 22:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Practical | 22 | 1:00 | 22:00 | N/A |
| Guided Independent Study | Reflective learning activity | 2 | 10:00 | 20:00 | BB quizzes |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 1 | 86:00 | 86:00 | N/A |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
The mix of teaching methods is geared to develop knowledge of key theoretical concepts and enable to deliver practical elements of the programme.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Written exercise | 1 | M | 100 | Set in January. Individual project consisting of auditory and acoustic analyses of existing data (5000 words) |
Formative Assessments
Formative Assessment is an assessment which develops your skills in being assessed, allows for you to receive feedback, and prepares you for being assessed. However, it does not count to your final mark.
| Description | Semester | When Set | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Computer assessment | 1 | M | Weekly BB quizzes. Quiz answers will be available weekly following completion of each quiz & act as feedback ahead of the next quiz |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
- The weekly quizzes assess knowledge of key principles of phonetic analysis
- The individual project requires students to exercise objective listening skills while transcribing audio data and to explore their understanding of the factors that govern variability. It also requires students to use their knowledge of articulatory and acoustic properties of speech to perform a spectrogram segmentation while taking into account linguistic and social variability in speech.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- SPE8011's Timetable