Ling 210 Speech Science Syllabus (Summer 2018)

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Ling 210 Speech Science

Syllabus (Summer 2018)

Location: MAASS 217

Instructor: Jeffrey Lamontagne

Email: jeffrey.lamontagne@mail.mcgill.ca

Office Hours: Tuesdays from noon to 1 pm. We can arrange additional meeting times before the class time should they be needed.

Course Description:

The course covers key concepts of speech science, including phonetics (acoustics, speech perception and production), fundamentals in the study of speech processing, speech development, and speech disorders, and introduces some basic methodologies of the field. Course Goals

 Provide a basic introduction to speech production and speech perception  Introduce some basic instrumental methods for analysis of speech sounds

 Introduce how experimental methods are used to study to a range of phenomena in speech communication

 Illustrate some basics about how phonetic cues faciliate the segmentation of speech into words, and the segmentation of words into syntactic constituents (“parsing”)  Illustrate some basics about how language develops, and how language can “break

down”" in various speech disorders.

Learning Outcomes

 Understanding terminology and concepts used in the phonetic description of speech  Familiarity with Concepts and methods used in the quantitative analysis of speech

sounds

 Elementary knowledge about speech and language disorders

 Elementary knowledge of how speech varies across speakers, accents, & emotions

Transferable Skills

 Ability to make simplified phonetic transcriptions

 Ability to make audio recordings of speech and visualize speech with waveforms and spectrograms

 Ability to make some basic measurements in acoustic files

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Course Logistics

Website:

- The main portal for this course is the McGill MyCourses site. Readings:

- We will not use a textbook in this class

- Readings, where required, will be provided electronically (e.g., some excerpts from Pinker 1994, The Language Instinct)

- In the case of mandatory readings, the content can show up in tests, but will not show up in quizzes (unless it was also in-class content)

Software:

- You will need to install the (free) speech analysis software Praat. Please install it on your computer as soon as possible. We will have a brief introductory tutorial in the early part of the class, but you are expected to familiarize yourself with the program more and figure out any problems you run into with the help function provided in the program, and online resources (such as the Praat online forum). As with all programs these days, Google is your friend, but you can also post in the MyCourses Discussion where classmates can respond to questions.

Use of devices in class:

- We will do various activities on the computers in the class, and there will be regular quizzes based on the homeworks, on the readings, and on the course content. For these quizzes you will have to bring your own device to class, and are

encouraged to bring your materials (e.g. notes about the results) from the homework.

- Note that MyCourses, where the quizzes will be posted, is available not only on your laptops, but also on your cell phones! If you aren’t able to bring any device able to access MyCourses, please let me know as soon as possible and we will sort out an alternative solution for graded work.

- If bringing a laptop is not possible for in-class exercises using Praat, please feel free to sit beside someone with a computer.

Note: This course is new at McGill since Winter 2016, and was conceived of jointly

by Meghan Clayards and Michael Wagner. It’s also the first time this course is being taught

during the summer. The course is still being adapted, so please let me know in the course evaluations what you thought of (a) the course information, and (b) the course load for a summer course. I also encourage you to let me know about course load concerns even before the course evaluations should they come up.

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McGill Policy Statements

Course Work in French: In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.

Conformément à la Charte des droits de l’étudiant de l’Université McGill, chaque étudiant a le droit de soumettre en français ou en anglais tout travail écrit devant être noté (sauf dans le cas des cours dont l’un des objets est la maîtrise d’une langue).

Integrity: McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures

(see http://www.mcgill.ca/students/srr/honest/ for more information).

L'Université McGill attache une haute importance à l’honnêteté académique. Il incombe par conséquent à tous les étudiants de comprendre ce que l'on entend par tricherie, plagiat et autres infractions académiques, ainsi que les conséquences que peuvent avoir de telles actions, selon le Code de conduite de l'étudiant et des procédures disciplinaires.

Copyright: Instructor generated course materials (e.g., handouts, notes, summaries, exam questions, etc.) are protected by law and may not be copied or distributed in any form or in any medium without explicit permission of the instructor. Note that infringements of

copyright can be subject to follow up by the University under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures.

Accessibility: If you experience barriers to learning in this course, do not hesitate to discuss them with me and the Office for Students with Disabilities, 514-398-6009.

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Evaluation

Note: You will be required to bring a device (tablet or computer) to class. Let me know today if this is not possible for any reason.

Daily Quizzes (15%):

 There will be questions posted to be answered during the class. These will not only be to reinforce course content, but also to run practice experiments and to get practice with things like transcription and spectrogram reading.

 Students enrolling in the course after the first class should come see me to catch up previous quizzes.

 There will not be quizzes on days with tests or presentations!

Tests and homeworks (40%):

 There will be four homeworks. The homework assignments will not be directly graded, but instead the homework will serve as preparation for the tests.  There will be four tests, taking place on Mondays (Tuesday when there are no

classes on Monday). Each test has equal weight and will include short answer questions as well as multiple-choice ones.

 The tests will be administered through MyCourses.

Final project (45%):

 This will be a short final project, which includes two parts: (a) a presentation, and (b) a written submission.

 You can work in groups of up to three people on the project. You are encouraged to use the Discussion Section of MyCourses to find people interested in similar topics and to form groups, which will also let people see which topics are being claimed.  Presentations will take place on the last day of class and will follow the format of

“Five-Minute Linguist” talks and “TedX Talks” in that they’re designed to provide information quickly and accessibly. The presentation is worth 20%. The

presentations will be short (likely with a maximum time of 5 to 8 minutes), but the exact duration will be determined based on the final number of presentations.

 Written submissions must be submitted (by one group member) through MyCourses by the 4:30 pm on May 30th and is worth 25% of the final grade. The written

submission is a write-up of your topic of 500-1000 words, formatted like a short essay.

 You will be sent a form to give information about your desired presentation topic at the end of the second week of class that will include the topic, the group, and a short summary of what you intend to discuss. No two groups can have the exact same presentation topic, so let me know early which topic you group will work on, that way you can claim it! You should also post it in the Discussion section of MyCourses!

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Schedule and Lecture Notes

This is the (still tentative) Schedule of Ling 210 Introduction to Speech Science, Summer 2018 at McGill University, taught by Jeffrey Lamontagne.

Note that only the bolded readings are mandatory (and therefore included in test and quiz questions); suggested readings are not directly required for graded items. The table shows by which day you should have read a given reading in the case of bolded readings.

The last classes are selected topics based on common student interests, on previous versions of the class, and on current topics of research. On the first day of class we will discuss topics of interest and this week may be subject to change, either due to lack of time in the semester or due to the primary interests of current students.

Date Topic Readings Tests Homework

May 1 Speech Science and Cognitive Science 1 out

May 2 Praat tutorial: Recording and visualizing speech; Annotation and measurement

Voicing and Voice Onset Time

Hayes 2009, ch. 1

May 3 Phonemic and phonetic transcription Articulating consonants and vowels

May 7 Sources and filters Pinker 1994, ch. 6 1

May 8 Hearing

Acoustics vs. perception

2 out May 9 Contrast and categorical perception

Shifting boundaries May 10 Speech segmentation

Lexical access

May 14 Lexical access (continued) Fernandez & Cairns, pp. 188-202

2 3 out May 15 Aphasia

May 16 Reading and dyslexia

Speech pathology applications (e.g. rehabilitation post-laryngectomy)

May 17 Guest lecture by Sarah Colby (Aging) May 21 No class (statutory holiday)

May 22 Acquisition of phonetics and phonology Kandel et al. 1991 3 4 out May 23 Gender and sexual orientation

May 24 Emotion (prosody, acoustics) Wagner 2016

May 28 Buffer / selected topics 4

May 29 Final presentations