Applied Linguistics and Language Acquisition

This course focuses on linguistics, language acquisition and phonetics, tailored for students working with clinical populations. The aim is to give students sufficient knowledge of speech and language, and their analyses, to understand the nature of both typical and atypical processes in this and future courses and professional practice. Students examine the structure of the English language, and developmental sequences, theoretical perspectives and influencing factors in language development in children. Students will record and transcribe a language sample, analyse, and draw conclusions about the child's developmental level. In conjunction, students will examine the physical characteristics of speech sounds and learn to transcribe speech, with an emphasis on phonemic transcription in typically developing children and healthy adults. While the primary focus of the course is on English, students' will develop an understanding of how speech and language differs across languages and how the analyses learnt can be applied to any language, with a specific focus on te reo Maori.