1. Introduction to Phonetics Spring 2009
Instructor: Karen Steffen Chung

Eligibility:

       Students who have successfully completed one semester of an introductory phonetics course; others by permission only. This course is highly recommended for anyone planning to do advanced work in phonetics or linguistics. A serious but friendly course!

Textbooks:

       Ladefoged, Peter. 2006. A Course in Phonetics. 5th edition. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth. 310pp. Available at Crane's 文鶴.

       Ladefoged, Peter. 2005. Vowels and Consonants: An Introduction to the Sounds of Languages. 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. 206pp. Paper. Includes CD-ROM; same material is also available online. Buy at Crane's 文鶴. Original price: around NT$1,200; with discount, a bit over NT$1,000. Well worth it! But grab before they're sold out.

Course description:

       This course is a continuation of Karen Chung's Introduction to Phonetics Course; though students who have taken other phonetics courses are also welcome. The primary goal of the course will be to finish Ladefoged's A Course in Phonetics, starting from Chapter Six, "Airstream Mechanisms and Phonation Types", and to go through the material in Ladefoged's Vowels and Consonants. Students will read, and submit (every Wednesday) a brief summary of one chapter of Vowels and Consonants along with two questions from the chapter a week, in this sequence:

February 18: Chapter 1 February 25: Chapter 2 March 4: Chapter 3 March 11: Chapter 11 March 18: Chapter 12 March 25: Chapter 13 April 1: Chapter 4 April 8: Chapter 14

April 15: Chapter 5 April 22: Chapter 6 April 29: Chapter 7 May 6: Chapter 8 May 13: Chapter 9 May 20: Chapter 10 May 27: Chapter 15 June 3: Chapter 16

Practical exercises in English pronunciation will be assigned as time permits, with emphasis on consolidating past progress and identifying and fine-tuning areas left for improvement. A number of Web assignments will be given, and students will get more practice in using Praat and other speech tools.

Grade calculation:

       Students will be graded on written work, quizzes, oral presentations, and a final, as well as attendance, class participation, attitude, and progress made.

       
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