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English Phonetics Virtual Summer School

  • 25 hours
  • 1 week

Overview

This one-week online short course is suitable if you're a teacher or student of English as a foreign language (EFL) and you want to:

  • brush up your knowledge of the theoretical side of phonetics and bring yourself up-to-date on new developments
  • get the opportunity to do some ear-training and listening practice under the guidance of specialist tutors
  • improve your own English pronunciation

This course is run by UCL's Division of Psychology and Language Sciences (PaLS).

At UCL we're enthusiastic about the study of pronunciation and how to teach it. For a century, we've been the world's leading university department for English Phonetics - our tradition was established by Daniel Jones, and continued by A.C. Gimson, and J.C. Wells - all scholars with a world-wide reputation.

Course content

The course covers all the main aspects of English phonetics:

  • phonemic system (vowels and consonants)
  • segmental analysis (allophonic processes)
  • connected speech processes
  • sentence stress (accent, tonal stress)
  • intonation (nuclear tones and prenuclear patterns)

Teaching and structure

All sessions will be delivered live via Zoom, with teaching beginning each day at 11:30am UK time.

You'll investigate the various topics in lectures and in practical classes. You'll look at both speaking and listening.

You'll get plenty of practice in pronunciation performance (sounds in isolation and, more importantly, in connected speech) and in auditory discrimination (ear training).

Practical groups will be kept small (not more than six people), and will be organised according to your prior knowledge of English and your English proficiency. For example, we may have groups consisting of:

  • teachers of English as a foreign language
  • undergraduate students of English
  • university academics and postgraduates

Learning outcomes

This course will help you to:

  • better influence English speaking audiences
  • deliver your messages with more clarity
  • use more effective language
  • improve your English pronunciation
  • make a greater impact in English

Cost

The standard fee is £369.

The early bird price is £349 (available for bookings made by 1 June 2023).

Discounts are also available if you've attended the course before, and for group bookings. More information is available on the UCL Psychology and Language Sciences website.

Find out more

Further details of the course timetable, recommended reading, etc. are available on the UCL Psychology and Language Sciences website.

You can also read:

Course team

Summer Course in English Phonetics Team

Summer Course in English Phonetics Team

The course director is Dr Geoff Lindsey, Honorary Lecturer in Linguistics at UCL.

All practical classes are led by phoneticians and experienced EFL specialists.

The IPA Certificate strand is led by Dr Patricia Ashby, Emeritus Fellow to the University of Westminster, author of Speech Sounds (second edition, 2005) and of Understanding Phonetics (2011).

Course information last modified: 4 Apr 2023, 10:00