230559 How to Handle Speech (S) (SoSe 2009)

Spoken language is the basis of most human communication - and usually in your mother tongue you do not think twice about whether it is easy or hard to master. A foreign language is a different matter; for most people, good pronunciation is practically impossible to acquire without intensive and explicit intellectual effort.

In phonetics, interactive audio-visual media have been used for many decades in order to transform acoustic speech signals into visual representations for further study. In this class, we will continue this tradition using modern media based on easy-to-use interactive software. This approach also ensures that students gain knowledge about multi-media techniques which will be important in many professions in the near future, including the teaching profession. Also we will look at differences between American and British English, i.e. differences in pronunciation and stress patterns.

Goals
The main aims of this class are to enable students to understand the principles on which the pronunciation of English consonants, vowels, and prosody are based and to apply these principles to the construction of multimedia documents.
After successful completion of this class, students will know about

• the structure of the sound system of English
• the details of the pronunciation of English speech sounds
• how speech sounds are produced / transmitted / perceived
• how to transcribe speech sounds
• how to edit digital recordings of speech sounds
• how to analyze speech sounds into their component parts
• the phonotactic differences between GenAm and RP

Credit
Credit for this class can be gained on the basis of regular attendance, homework, pop quizzes, and a final written exam.

Reading
Most of the reading will be from these books, both will be provided on the reserved reading shelf:

• Ashby, M. and Maidment, J. 2005. Introducing Phonetic Science. CUP.
• Skander, P. & Burleigh, P. 2005. A Manual of English Phonetics and Phonology. Narr.

(preferably: buy one or both books (second hand from students who have already taken the course))

First semester students are not admitted!!

External comments page

http://www.spectrum.uni-bielefeld.de/~ttrippel/hths/index_ss2009.html