{"id":612,"date":"2021-09-13T11:57:37","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T10:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/phonphon\/?page_id=612"},"modified":"2025-07-15T16:06:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T15:06:43","slug":"research-themes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/phonphon\/research-themes\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Themes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Our group brings together researchers interested in all aspects of speech production, perception and learning. We cover a varied range of expertise and interests, including experimental phonetics (acoustic and articulatory phonetics), theoretical phonology, laboratory phonology, speech processing, sociolinguistics, language variation and change, and first and second language acquisition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:33px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Theoretical and Laboratory Phonology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p id=\"block-5df16c9a-32ac-4d38-b3ba-6d3c150a3700\">Our research covers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul id=\"block-7e4210c7-7cd0-422a-9df4-8496724632ea\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Bilingual and second language phonology<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Prosody<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Psycholinguistics<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Speech timing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Speech production and perception<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-7d69ffba-1e8e-48e2-8282-a86ccb093293\">We research the acquisition of phonetics and phonology by monolingual and bilingual children. We put particular emphasis on the influence of the social context in which acquisition takes place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-539901c0-15d3-49f1-9fbe-c7d333d91f04\">We have also explored second language acquisition of various phonetic and phonological features. In addition to English, we also study a range of languages, including Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Mandarin, etc&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-f9131925-93c8-4271-8483-e89a3a145990\">Furthermore, we research the influence of orthography on second language phonological representation. This is an understudied area of research that has recently attracted a lot of attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"block-f7263979-63bc-4987-9f9f-b38dfdc0fd01\">We also use state-of-the-art techniques to investigate representations of rhythm, intonation and emotion in the brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We investigate how segmental and suprasegmental variation affects listeners\u2019 processing and understanding of spoken utterances, including the problem of word segmentation: that is, the extraction of individual words form the continuous flow of speech.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:34px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Acoustic and Articulatory Phonetics <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Our members have been addressing major gaps in the phonetics of various Arabic, English and French dialects. They use instrumental and articulatory techniques. We have covered areas which include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Glottalisation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gemination<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nasalisation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pharyngeal and guttural realisation and representation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Static and dynamic aspects of vowel production<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Voicing\/laryngeal contrasts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:29px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Speech Processing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Our members have interest in the areas which include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Stuttering as a developmental speech disorder and its relationship to fluent development of speech and language<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Speech processing of listeners with tinnitus<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The relationship between Tourette&#8217;s syndrome and language development<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Personalised dysarthria intervention for children with cerebral palsy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A variety of methodologies are used to study these processes including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Analyses of naturally-produced spontaneous speech<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Surveys<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Experimental studies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Neuroimaging studies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Modelling studies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:26px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sociolinguistics and Language Variation and Change<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Our research areas include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Dialectology<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sociophonetics<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Language place and identity<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sociolinguistic factors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>They influence variation in speech and people\u2019s perception of it. We have looked at dialectal variation in various dialects of Arabic, English, French, Mandarin and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also look at the acquisition of socio-phonetic variation, and the perception of L1 and L2 accents and dialects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:26px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">First and Second Language Acquisition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>We have expertise in English and other international languages, general  linguistics, child language acquisition, second language acquisition, language in education, language and identity, and English for academic purposes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our areas of interest include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Child language acquisition<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Second language acquisition<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Monolingualism<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bilingualism<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Multilingualism<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>International languages<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Immigrants and social identity<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Phonology in second language acquisition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Our methodology includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Analyses of naturally-produced spontaneous speech<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Corpus analyses<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Experimental studies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Neuroimaging studies (e.g. EEG imaging)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Modelling studies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our group brings together researchers interested in all aspects of speech production, perception and learning. We cover a varied range of expertise and interests, including experimental phonetics (acoustic and articulatory phonetics), theoretical phonology, laboratory phonology, speech processing, sociolinguistics, language variation &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/phonphon\/research-themes\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10387,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-612","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/phonphon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/phonphon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/phonphon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/phonphon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/phonphon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/phonphon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1180,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/phonphon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/612\/revisions\/1180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/phonphon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}