At the end of the course, the student
- understands what it means to learn the pronunciation of a foreign language as a (young) adult;
- can read and use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA);
- knows how speech is produced and perceived;
- has basic knowledge of the acoustic characteristics of speech sounds as presented in waveforms and spectrograms;
- has learned the pronunciation of the vowels and consonants of Standard Southern British English (SSBE) and can describe them using the analytical framework of the IPA;
- is familiar with the most common connected speech phenomena used in SSBE, including the use of strong and weak forms;
- has acquired knowledge of the prosodic structure of SSBE, i.e. of stress, rhythm, intonation, and phrasing, and their role in communication and speech processing;
- can transcribe fairly rapidly spoken SSBE and can locate accented syllables and phrasal boundaries with confidence;
- is aware of the most salient features that differentiate SSBE from other major varieties of English, such as General American English;
- has acquired a phonological awareness enabling a further development of their insight into phonology and phonetics.
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This is an introductory course in British English phonetics; it also covers the rudiments of phonology necessary to understand the British English sound system and brings awareness and understanding of the challenges facing learners of English as a second language when it comes to pronunciation. You will gain an understanding of the sound system of Standard Southern British English (SSBE) using both the analytical framework of the International Phonetic Alphabet and the fundamentals of acoustic analysis. The course covers the pronunciation of the vowels and consonants of SSBE and how these sounds function in relation to each other in connected speech. In addition, the course covers speech prosody, i.e., the way running speech is organized and how this organization is used to regulate speech production, aid processing, and convey pragmatic meaning. Finally, you will learn how to phonetically transcribe spoken language, for which audio files of native speakers will be used as the main means of practice material.
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