Directed reading in phonological development

Aims

Aims

This module aims:

• to provide students with knowledge of the early stages of construction of a phonological system by the individual child;
• to provide insight into the history of ideas in the field by reading the ‘classic’ papers from the 1970s;
• to become acquainted with children’s early word forms and the kinds of analyses to which they lend themselves, in order to understand children’s emergent phonological system.

Programme

Programme

Contact hours

The course lasts for one term. There are two-hour seminars every other week.

Teaching programme

In this module students will:

• become familiar with the word forms of children acquiring different languages and the challenges that they have posed to phonological theory;
• gain experience with analysis of child data

The module will include readings from the ‘classics’ of the 1970s and from current literature which continues that tradition, providing the students with familiarity with both the history of ideas and a range of child data, as presented in these papers.

The content will be delivered through student presentation and discussion of the readings in two-hour seminars every other week.

Teaching materials

The key text is:

• Vihman & Keren-Portnoy (eds.). (2013). The Emergence of Phonology: Whole word approaches, cross-linguistic evidence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Assessment

Assessment

Formative work

• two essays

Assessment

• 5,000 word essay