Psychology of language and phonetic

Teacher(s)

Szmalec Arnaud; Vannuscorps Gilles;

Language

French

Main themes

·         Introduction to the psychology of language and its research methods
·         The biological and cognitive basis of language
·         Spoken word recognition
·         Language comprehension
·         Language production
·         Discourse
·         Pragmatics

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	To obtain a general view on the cognitive processes involved in the production and comprehension of spoken language in normal adults. With respect to the reference list of academic competences, this course primarily aims to bring the students to : A1. master the knowledge that allows to explain and understand an individual, a group or an organisation E2. identify the contribution and added value of psychological scientific research in the understanding of given situations Secondly, this course aims to bring the students to: A2. analyse, criticise in a motivated way and model a situation (individual, group or organisation) with reference to theories, empirical results, methods and tools relevant for psychology E1. master the stages, methodologies and tools of psychological and educational scientific research

Content

Psychology of language
1. The biological foundations of language
2. Spoken language recognition
3. Spoken language production
4. Written language
5. Language comprehension
6. Pragmatics
Phonetics
1. Notions of the physics of the sound
2. Generating the sounds of spoken language
3. Transcribing the sounds of spoken language
4. Notions of articulatory phonetics
5. Notions of acoustic phonetics
6. Notions of combinatory phonetics
7. Initiation to the instrumental analysis of spoken language

Teaching methods

Lectures, with some reading and exercises  
Depending on the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, it remains possible that teaching evolves to a purely distantial, online format.

Evaluation methods

The aim is to evaluate whether the student has acquired the learning objectives of the course. The evaluation (in French) includes two parts: 
(1) Psychology of language (13 points out of 20)
- written exam
- 1 open question (3 points)
- 30 multiple choice questions: 4 options, 1 correct alternative (10 points)
- the threshold for mastery of learning outcomes is set by a formula which determines that to obtain 6.5 out of 13, the student must have correctly answered 19 out of 30 questions
(2) Phonetics (7 points out of 20)
- an exam with open questions
- if possible given the sanitary context, the exam will be a written exam. If this is not the case, then the exam will be an oral exam. 
To pass the class, students must pass both parts (i.e., obtain at least 6.5/13 for part 1 and at least 3.5/7 for part 2). If a student passes both parts, or fails both parts, the final note on 20 will be the sum of the score obtained on parts (1) and (2). If a student passes one part but fails the other one, the final note on 20 will be that of the part that was failed. In the latter case, the score on the acquired part will be conserved and the student will be re-evaluated only on the failed part. 

Other information

The course is given in French, but a set of English slides is available for international students:

• no

The core reading for the course is in French, but equivalent core reading is available for international students in English

• no

The standard exam is a written exam in French. However, international students taking this course:

• Will be allowed to use a dictionary when taking the written exam in French:
  Use of a Dictionary is allowed for 'Psychology of language' but not for 'Phonetics' 
• Will be allowed 33% more time when taking the written exam in French:
  yes
• Are provided with the opportunity to take the written exam in English:
  no
• Are provided with the opportunity to take an alternative oral exam in English :
  no

Online resources

All the information about this class (slides, schedule, etc) are available on the course page on Moodle. 
https://www.unc.edu/~jlsmith/pht-url.html

Bibliography

Harley, T.A. (2008). The psychology of language: From data to theory (3rd Edition). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
Spinelli, E. & Ferrand, L. (2005). Psychologie du langage: L'écrit et le parlé, du signal à la signification. Paris: Armand Collin.

Faculty or entity

ELOG