- Department: Language and Linguistic Science
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: M
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
- See module specification for other years: 2022-23
Most of our language use and acquisition happens through face-to-face interaction, which gives us access not only to what we and others say, but also how we use our bodies in interacting with others. A growing area of research explores how language is connected to gesture, facial expression and eye gaze: how are multiple channels of information like lexical choice, syntactic structure, intonational structure, and other aspects of linguistic production connected to the use of the body as we talk? How do we interact with one another and with objects in a physical world? How does this shape our language, and how does our language reflect the demands of being human beings in bodies, and in a physical world? In this module, we explore language as a multimodal phenomenon, grounding our work in everyday interactions, and using the methodological resources of conversation analysis, gesture studies, and phonetics.
Pre-requisite Conversation Analysis.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Semester 2 2024-25 |
Most of our language use and acquisition happens through face-to-face interaction, which gives us access not only to what we and others say, but also how we use our bodies in interacting with others. A growing area of research explores how language is connected to gesture, facial expression and eye gaze: how are multiple channels of information like lexical choice, syntactic structure, intonational structure, and other aspects of linguistic production connected to the use of the body as we talk? How do we interact with one another and with objects in a physical world? How does this shape our language, and how does our language reflect the demands of being human beings in bodies, and in a physical world? In this module, we explore language as a multimodal phenomenon, grounding our work in everyday interactions, and using the methodological resources of conversation analysis, gesture studies, and phonetics.
At the end of this module you will be able to:
You will know:
Practical stream
The practicals will cover the following topics:
Content
The content in the spring term will cover important topics in the analysis of face-to-face spoken interaction. The precise content will vary from year to year, but is likely to include:
1. Foundations of multimodality (including the relations between spoken and signed languages, and the place of gesture)
2. Gaze: its alignment to other events in interaction, its use in turn construction and the formation of social actions
3. Manual gesture: its alignment to other events in interaction, its internal structure, and its relation to language production and processing
4. Facial expression, including relations with prosodic features in the construction of turns at talk
In the summer term, we will focus on final projects, with activities that support students’ independent research. These will vary depending to the needs of the group but are likely to include:
1. An essay planning session
2. Critical thinking and writing exercises to support essay-writing
3. “Shut up and write!” sessions
4. Exploring relations between data and theory
5. One-to-one meetings with the module tutors
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
None
Two pieces of formative work after major milestones in the course delivery.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Essay/coursework | 100 |
Feedback on summative work will be given in the form of a short written report within four weeks of submission of work.
Feedback on formative work will be given online within two weeks of submission.
(More specific reading will be provided in the module.)
Bavelas, J. B., Chovil, N., Lawrie, D. A., & Wade, A. (1992). Interactive gestures. Discourse Processes, 15, 469-489.
Enfield, N. J. (2009). The Anatomy of Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kendon, A. (2004). Gesture. Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mondada, L. (2016). Challenges of multimodality: Language and the body in social interaction. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 20(3), 336–366. http://doi.org/10.1111/josl.1_12177