SPE8028 : Phonological Acquisition
- 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 2 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
The aim of this module is to introduce students who are interested in language development in general to the study of the child’s developing sound system and its relation to other aspects of the grammar, namely lexical and grammatical advance. The module explores what it means for a child to develop a phonological system from different theoretical approaches. The assumed earliest units of production and perception are explored and so is the input that the child receives and its role in phonological development.
Outline Of Syllabus
Theoretical approaches to phonological development (weeks 1-3)
Formal models (structuralist; generative; non-linear phonology; prosodic phonology; OT)
Functional models (biological; self-organising; emergentist; connectionist)
Segmenting the speech signal, and role of frequency within that (week 4)
Transition from babbling to early words (week 5)
Difference between phonetic and phonological development and within that, units of development (weeks 6-8)
Early phonological units: features, segments, syllables
The prosodic structure or early words
The role of attention, articulatory constraints, and the child’s own production
Single word versus later stages, including the transition to lexicon and grammar (week 9)
Longitudinal case studies vs Large scale normative studies (week 10)
Crosslinguistic studies of development and individual differences within the same language (week 11)
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 11 | 2:00 | 22:00 | N/A |
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 1 | 40:00 | 40:00 | N/A |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 10 | 1:00 | 10:00 | Seminar |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 1 | 128:00 | 128:00 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case study | 2 | M | 100 | Project work - 3,000 words |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
The project requires the students to collect audio and/or visual recordings of child data, to demonstrate their ability to transcribe children’s speech and carry out word identification if needed, and to explore general trends and/or individual differences in child development. Students may also decide to carry out acoustic analyses on parts of the data in order to explore the acquisition of language-specific fine phonetic detail or to investigate crosslinguistic differences in children’s acquisition of comparable sound categories.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- SPE8028's Timetable