• Offered for Year: 2024/25

• Module Leader(s): Dr Nick Riches
• Lecturer: Dr Janet Webster, Dr Fiona Menger

• Owning School: Education, Communication & Language Sci
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Aims

(1) LINGUISTICS (a) analysing language structure (syntax), (b) analysing linguistic meaning (semantics), and (c) understanding how meaning is mapped onto structure. Syntactic framework is based on the Cambridge Grammar of English, and this forms the basis of grammatical analysis which is used to analyse clinical data in stage 2. Dialectical variation is also covered.

(2) PSYCHOLINGUISTICS (a) the organisation of the lexicon, (b) storage and processing of morphologically complex forms, (c) models of language production, (d) theories of sentence comprehension.

(3) Lectures on BILINGUALISM will (a) introduce unique aspects of bilingual linguistic development, (b) introduce the sociolinguistic issues around managing individual bilingual cases, (c) introduce the methods of assessing and intervening with bilingual speakers, (d) introduce personal cultural competence and wider legal responsibilities of speech and language therapy services regarding multilingual clients

(4) Lectures on CLINICAL LINGUISTICS (a) a survey of selected clinical linguistic analyses (b) explore social factors that pose challenges to these analyses, (c) explore the uses of linguistic analysis via practical workshops.

(5) Lectures on DISCOURSE/PRAGMATICS (a) an understanding of pragmatics and language in context, (b) understanding of linguistic devices with a discourse function, (c) understanding of cognitive processes involved in interpreting discourse.


HCPC Standards of Proficiency (NB abridged to fit word count):

5. recognise the impact of culture, equality and diversity.
5.1 respond appropriately to needs of different groups and individuals.
5.2 understand equality legislation and apply it to their practice
5.3 recognise the potential impact of their own values and personal biases on practice.
5.5 recognise the characteristics and consequences of barriers to inclusion
5.6 actively challenge these barriers, supporting the implementation of change wherever possible
6.4 understand the need to ensure confidentiality where additional communication support (such as interpreters or translators) is required
7.3 understand the characteristics and consequences of verbal and non-verbal communication regarding protected characteristics etc
7.5 modify communication to address the individual communication needs
7.6 understand the need to support the communication needs of service users and carers
7.7 use information, communication and digital technologies appropriate to their practice
12.5 understand the theoretical basis of, and the variety of approaches to, assessment and intervention taking account of the need to modify approaches in line with cultural, religious and linguistic needs
12.7 understand linguistics and phonetics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and all levels of typical processing and the differences for individuals whose home language is not English
12.10 understand sociology in relation to the practice of speech and language therapy, including its application to educational, health and workplace settings and within multi-cultural contexts
12.13 understand the diversity of client's cultural background, including awareness of cultural groups, protected characteristics, and social class
13.3 analyse and critically evaluate the information collected
13.13 administer, record, score and interpret a range of published and self generated assessment tools to describe and analyse service users’ abilities and needs using, where appropriate, phonetic transcription, linguistic analysis, instrumental analysis and psycholinguistic assessment
13.14 apply knowledge of communication impairment etc. to identification, assessment and differential diagnosis of a range of communication and swallowing impairment
13.20 assess and plan interventions in the service user's home language with the assistance of professional interpreters

Outline Of Syllabus

The LINGUISTIC component covers the following topics:

Semester 1:
- Introduction to Linguistic Theory; sub-branches of linguistics. Different levels of representation; proposition> sentence> utterance
- Words; how to identify word classes
- Lexical representation; Lexical relationships, eg hyponymy, synonymy. Lexical errors & implications for the lexicon
- Morphemes; Identifying derivational & inflectional morphemes. Phenomenon of agreement
- Morphological representation & processing; Ullman’s dual route model & its implication for inflection. Storage of derived forms (eg whole-entry versus compositional)
- Phrases; How to identify syntactic phrases
- Syntactic functions; Covering all functions in the Cambridge Grammar of English/grammatical analysis framework. Phenomenon of case-marking
- ‘Verbs in the driving seat’; Standard theories of argument structure
- Complementation versus modification; Discussing the difference between complementation & modification, & the different types of modifying phrases (adverbials + relative clauses)
- The Garrett Model of sentence production
- ‘Verbs in the passenger seat’. Looking at sentences where structure is not determined by verb lemma, & its implications for syntactic theory. This leads into a discussion of construction grammar

Semester 2:
- Semantics of time. Tense & grammatical aspect
- Syntax of time; Syntactic expression of tense & grammatical aspect
- Hierarchical structure; An introduction to syntactic trees, & why they are (maybe) a useful formulism
- Types of dependent clause, e.g. Adverbial clauses, clauses in Subject, Complement & Postmodifier position.
- Modality, Mood & voice
- Sentence comprehension; Discussion of the garden path model, constraint-based models, the goodenough model, how syntactic and discourse factors influence processing complexity.
- Dealing with with formulaicity; a discussion of formulaic/idiomatic language, & where it fits into linguistic models
- Linguistics in the clinic; using linguistic theory to diagnose & treat language disorders

The DISCOURSE/PRAGMATICS component covers the following topics
- Meaning in context
- Cohesion and coherence
- Discourse processing
- Speech acts and intentional communication
- Discourse and exchanges
- Inference, Gricean pragmatics and Relevance Theory

The CLINICAL LINGUISTICS component, introduces the students to:
- Collecting speech/language samples from children and adults
- Issues around analysis of speech, including sociolinguistic aspects.
- Analysis of sentence semantics
- Lexical analysis
- Grammatical analysis

The BILINGUALISM Component covers:
- Bilingual populations
- Bilingual language acquisition
- Code-switching
- Working with languages other than English
-English as Additional Language Experience
There is a follow up workshop on clinical management of bilingual clients during Induction to year 2.

In relation to the RCSLT curriculum guidance, the module covers aspects related to phonetics and linguistics (4.4.1) including general linguistics and clinical applications, psycholinguistics, conversation and discourse analyses, sociolinguistics and multilingualism.

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Knowledge outcomes are addressed through lectures to introduce concepts, plus guided reading to allow students to follow these up in more depth.

Skills outcomes are assessed through seminars (Linguistics and Semantics) and class exercises (pragmatics)

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Exams

Other Assessment

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

Linguistic exam; assesses skills outcomes in linguistic analysis.

Bilingualism/ discourse & pragmatic essay: essay assesses knowledge outcomes and also skills outcomes around client management (involves a hypothetical clinical case).

Reading Lists

• SPE8155's Reading List

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
• SPE8155's Timetable