SE1407: Sound in Action

School Language and Communication
Department Code ENCAP
Module Code SE1407
External Subject Code 100318
Number of Credits 20
Level L6
Language of Delivery English
Module Leader Professor Gerard O'Grady
Semester Autumn Semester
Academic Year 2013/4

Outline Description of Module

This module studies how sounds both at the segmental and suprasegmental level function in the creation of interactional and interpersonal meaning in various genres. The module will illustrate how speakers use sounds in a range of situations to manage interactions and create systematic local but unpredictable additional meanings. The genres which will be studied will be:

  • Radio news broadcast;
  • Radio phone ins;
  • Sports commentaries;
  • Advertising;
  • Poetry readings and audio books;
  • Language training audio files;
  • Workplace interactions

On completion of the module a student should be able to

  1. Use relevant computer software which will enable them to deepen their understanding of the functional patterning of sounds in English. They will in addition learn to recognise the limitations of solely relying on instrumental analysis;
  2. Illustrate how accentual features are used to manipulate interpersonal responses primarily in advertising;
  3. Further develop the ability to transcribe and understand the physical underpinning of speech sounds;
  4. Transcribe intonation and rhythm and evaluate how intonation selections coupled with rhythm interact with grammatical selections in managing interactive discourse. They will learn how speakers use phonological resources to control topics; foreground and background information; project their own interpersonal stance and create contextually situated inferences.

How the module will be delivered

Timetabled sessions include2 lectures and 1 seminar per week. During seminars, you may be required to make presentations and/or lead discussion.Lectures are usually supplemented with PowerPoint slides and handouts summarising content at a reasonable level of detail. These are usually made available on Learning Central within 24 hours of the session. Audio and video areused in this module. Transcripts of relevant features are provided where the audio or visual texts are analysed in detail or are a core element of the lecture/seminar.

Skills that will be practised and developed

In this module students will practice and develop their abilities to:

  1. further transcribe speech phonetically transcribe speech;
  2. use relevant computer software such as Praat and Wavesurfer:
  3. produce formal academic prose;
  4. co-operate on tasks in small sized groups;
  5. practice their presentation skills;
  6. further develop their ability to peer assess.
  7. further develop their critical reading and writing skills:
  8. critically peer assess their fellow students’ work;
  9. apply knowledge to a practical problem
  10. the module is also relevant to all the employability pathways

How the module will be assessed

The module is assessed by two interrelated pieces of coursework.

 

Type of assessment

Title

Duration (exam) /

Word length (essay)

Approx. date of assessment

Coursework

50

Essay

1600 words

 

Coursework

50

Technical

1600 words

 

 

The first piece of coursework consists of a critical essay which functions as the literature review for the second part which consists of an individual practical task. The second piece of coursework consists of a short technical report that you will write on a short sound clip of your choice subject to the agreement of the module leader. The essay examines the theoretical component of the module: specifically how speakers use speech sounds to project interpersonal meaning. The technical report examines the application of the theory. Prior to writing the technical report the students will receive feedback on the essay. In addition to the summative feedback listed above the students will be given formative feedback in how to produce a technical report through group work in the seminars where they will, in groups, present studies taken from the literature to their peers.

 

The module is assessed according to the Assessment Criteria set out in the English Language and Communication Course Guide. Otherwise, there are no academic or competence standards which limit the availability of adjustments or alternative assessments for students with disabilities.

Assessment Breakdown

Type % Title Duration(hrs)
Written Assessment 50 Coursework - Essay N/A
Written Assessment 50 Coursework - Technical N/A

Syllabus content

Weeks 1 to 3: What features of sound create interpersonal and textual meaning in speech.  In these weeks students will learn to identify and annotate the relevant forms. The examples chosen will come solely from the genres listed above and focus on identifying the features listed above.

Week 4: Pitch – gendered projections of news broadcasts in three languages English, Greek and Japanese compared.

Week 5: Rhythm, how it used to develop narrative in various genres especially audio books and sports commentaries.

Weeks 6 & 7. Pauses, filled and unfilled, and the control of interactions by radio talk show hosts and their guests.

Week 8: Creating a mood, the sound of an idea: the speech of advertising focusing on vowel quality, tone selection and rhythm.

Week 9: The unusual use of intonation in poetry readings which strip the message of its overt communicative context.

Week 10: The sequencing of information in radio news: Radio 4 and 5 live contrasted.

Essential Reading and Resource List

There is no set text for the module. The list of readings includes:

Barth-Weingarten, Dagmar, Elisabeth Reber & Margret Selting. (2010). Prosody in Interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Braga, Daniela. & Maria, Aldina Marques. (2004). “The pragmatics of prosodic features in the political debate.” In Speech Prosody – 2004. 321 – 324.

Brazil, David. (1997). The Communicative Value of Intonation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cheng, Winnie, Chris, Greaves, & Martin Warren, (2008). A Corpus- driven study of Discourse Intonation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Cook, Guy. 2001. The Discourse of Advertising. Second Edition. London: Routledge.

Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth, & Margret Selting. (1996). Prosody in Conversation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dehé, Nicole & Anne Wichmann. (2010). “The mulitfunctionality of epistemic parentheticals in discourse: Prosodic cues to the semantic-pragmatic boundary. Functions of Language. 17:1: 1 – 28.

Fairclough, Norman. (2001). Language and Power. Second Edition. London: Longman.

Fenton-Smith. Ben, (2008). “Discourse structure and political performance in adversarial parliamentary questioning. Journal of Language and Politics. 7:1. 99 – 120.

Fill, Alwyn. (1986). ‘Divided Illocution’ in conversational and other situations – and some of its implications. IRAL Vol.XXX1v/1

Halliday, Michael. A. K. & Christian, M. I. M. Mathiessen. (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Third Edition. London: Edward Arnold.

Halliday, Michael. A. K. & William. S. Greaves. (2008). Intonation in the Grammar of British English. London: Equinox.

House, Jill. (2006) “Constructing a context with intonation.” Journal of Pragmatics. 38 1542 – 1588.

Kaltenböck, Gunther. (2009). “Initial I Think: Main or Comment Clause. Discourse and Interaction. 2: 1: 49 – 70.

O’Grady, Gerard. (2003). “Discourse Intonation and read aloud text: How intonation helps hearers contextualise unfamiliar monologue.” Journal of Language and Culture. 51 – 74.

O’Grady, Gerard. (2010). A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse: The Intonation of Increments. London: Continuum.

Ogden, Richard. (2006). Phonetics and social action in agreements and disagreements. Journal of Pragmatics. 38. 1752 – 1775.

Simon-Vandenbergen. Anne-Marie, (1997). “Modal uncertainity in political discourse: a functional account.” Language Sciences. 19: 4. 341 – 356.

Simon-Vandenbergen, Anne-Marie, (2000). “The functions of I think in political discourse. International Journal of Applied Linguistics. 10: 1: 41 – 63.

Sperber, Dan & Deidre Wilson. (1995). Relevance: Communication and Context. Second Edition. Oxford: Blackwell.

Tench, Paul. (1996). The Intonation systems of English. London: Cassell.

Tench, Paul. (1997). “The Fall and Rise of the Level Tone in English.” Functions of Language 4:1, 1-22

Wichmann, Anne. (2001). Intonation in Text and Discourse: Beginnings, Middles and Ends. London: Longman.

Wilson, Deidre & Tim Wharton. (2006). “Relevance and prosody.” Journal of Pragmatics. 38 1559 – 1579.

 

You should contact the module leader as early as possible if you will require readings in an alternative format.


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