The English Pronunciation Research Unit
What we do
Constituted in 2001, the English Pronunciation Research Unit (EPRU) has many
roles. We are involved in running various short courses,
such as refresher courses for Speech and Language Therapists and annual courses
for teachers of AS/A2 Level English Language, French and German, and various research projects,
looking at aspects of English pronunciation. Current research includes
work on listening to World Englishes, and intonation deficits in Williams
syndrome.
We also perform forensic speaker identification for the British Constabulary
and legal profession. Services include auditory and instrumental
analysis, expert transcription of voice recordings, voice comparison, and
verification of existing transcriptions. The EPRU specialises in recordings of
non-native speakers of English. Please contact Dr Jane Setter at the address
below if you are interested in services of this kind.
An attachment programme with the EPRU is available. Contact Dr Setter
for more information.
Short courses
The EPRU currently runs highly successful
courses for AS/A2 level English,
French and German teachers in July of each year.
We also undertake off-site workshops in teacher education for English
Language Teachers. Prices start at £350 for a day-long workshop.
Staff
Jane Setter, Director of the English Pronunciation Research Unit, has
a PhD in Phonetics, and has a specific interest in issues related to interlanguage phonology, pronunciation in World Englishes and priorities in the
teaching of English pronunciation. She has held research grants for work
on aspects of Hong Kong English, and most recently on intonation deficits in
Williams syndrome (ESRC) and intonation amongst learners of English in the
academic population (University of Reading RETF grant). She has presented her work at conferences and research
forums around the world, performed consultancy in English pronunciation in Japan
and Hong Kong, appeared on the BBC World Service, and is tutor on the IPA stream
of the Summer Course in
English Phonetics at University College London. She is an editor of
the 17th edition of Daniel Jones'
English
Pronouncing Dictionary (CUP, 2006). Current book projects include one on Hong Kong English with
Cathy Wong (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) and
Brian Chan
(University of Macau), and a special edition of the journal of Clinical
Phonetics and Linguistics on Williams Syndrome with
Vesna Stojanovik. Jane became joint
Co-ordinator of the IATEFL
Pronunciation Special Interest Group in 2003.
Home Page,
email.
Peter Roach, Honorary Chair of the English Pronunciation Research
Unit, is Emeritus Professor of Phonetics. He is interested in the phonetics of
English, where his publications include
English
Phonetics and Phonology (CUP) and
The English
Pronouncing Dictionary. His most recent book is
Phonetics
(OUP). His research has included work on speech perception and the computer
analysis of speech (see his
CV for more
information). He has held a number of research grants for work in automatic
speech recognition and in large-scale computer-readable speech databases.
Email.
Links
Here are some useful sites on English pronunciation and phonetics and
phonology, listed in alphabetical order. We'd like to invite you to send
information about your site to us for possible inclusion at this
email address.
University-based centres around the world
English Pronunciation (Okanagan
University College, Canada)
English
Pronunciation Tip of the Day (University College London, UK)
The Internet Institute for Speech and
Hearing
An Introduction to the International
Phonetic Alphabet for the Pronunciation of English (The Chinese University,
Hong Kong)
Speechinaction (Birmingham, UK)
The Pronunciation
Website (University of New England, Australia)
The Sounds of Spoken
Language (University of Iowa, USA)
Transcribing
English Words (Cardiff University, UK)
Vowels of British and American English (University of Washington, USA)
Other Sites of Interest
The IATEFL Pronunciation Special
Interest Group (IATEFL) (this page is rather sorely in need of updating!)
The Regular English
Pronunciation Project (University College London, UK)
Contacting the EPRU
For information on any of the projects or courses you've read about on
this site
Dr. Jane Setter
Director, English Pronunciation Research Unit
Department of Applied Linguistics
University of Reading
P.O. Box 218
READING RG6 6AA UK
Tel. +44 (0)118 378 6089
Fax +44 (0)118 378 6669
E-mail: j.e.setter@rdg.ac.uk
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