GSEM Speech & Hearing in Health and Breakdown

Weekly Schedule

under development during the Summer of 2024

Back to Syllabus

T Th 12:30-1:50

Fall 2024

Weekly Schedule Subject to Change — Always check back for current status

Week 1

Lecture 1 Aug 27:  Introductions and Course Overview 

Read and bookmark: Syllabus and this Weekly Schedule [also bookmarked on our Slack channel]Review: Collection of USC Support Resources
Readings Due: DSWM Chapter 1;What is Correct Language" Ed Finegan;Prof Anne Curzan "What makes a word 'real'?"

Vocal Tract Anatomy

Reading Due:  DSWM Chapter 2 Section 1  pp. 23-39Odyssey "Speech:   Dances of the Vocal Tract" by Rubin & Goldstein
Fun Website: [dissection videos] Slo-Mo Gargling; When Something Goes Down the "Wrong Tube"  ; Tongue Muscles

Lecture 2 Aug 29:  English Sounds

Reading Due: DSWM Chapter 2 Section 1 
Fun Website: Real-time MRI IPA Chart collected here at USCTwo handouts for you to print and keep:  mini IPA Chart for English Sounds; English Contrasts (These are combined into a single pdf here, albeit slightly smaller.)

DSWM = textbook Discovering Speech, Words, and Mind Byrd & Mintz (associated website)
DSWM readings support material primarily covered in lecture, and will rarely introduce additional or new material.
Readings from Intro to Comm Disorders will be provided as pdfs.
Items labeled "Fun" or "Optional" are optional, but encouraged time-allowing.
I recommend printing [or at least downloading]  "Handouts" to bring to class on the day indicated and for later reference.
You will not necessarily be reminded regarding when homework is due; keeping up with this is your responsibility.

 Week 2

Sept 2 Monday is a University Holiday

Lecture 1 Sept 3:  English Transcription

Reading Due: DSWM Chapter 2 Section 1  pp. 39-50Handouts: Bring handouts from Week 1

Lecture 2 Sept 5:  Waveforms and Class Practice Transcription 

Reading Due:  DSWM Chapter 2 Section 2 pp. 51-56

Homework One released English Transcription; due on September 13

Week 3

Sept 10 Optional Tuesday Night Activity  Intro Zoom Chats with Professor Byrd

Lecture 1 Sept 10: Speech Acoustics:  Source Filter Theory

Reading Due: DSWM Chapter 2 Section 2 pp. 51-64Handout:  Johnson Spectrum Handout (Print or download these to have in class for lecture); Source Filter Handout (courtesy of Louis Goldstein)
Fun Website:  The Resonant Bridge

Lecture 2 Sept 12:  Spectrograms, Formants and Vowels

Reading Due: cont. DSWM review Chap 2 Section 2Handout:  Vowel spectra handout (A Course in Phonetics )
Optional Supplementary Material: Kevin Russell's Acoustic Phonetics pagesFun Website:  Make your own spectrogram (requires microphone access)

**Homework One Due, September 13**

Homework Two released Identifying Consonant Articulation, due Sept 26


Week 4

Lecture 1 Sept 17:  Global English and Varieties of English

Reading Due: DSWM Chapter 3 Section 2 pp. 89-97 NYT Everyone has an Accent;
 Jamila Lyiscott TedSalon 2014 "3 Ways to Speak English" (we plan to listen to this in class too)NYTimes Newsletter: CELF (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals)-5 test and children who speak Black English
Optional: Linguists hear an accent begin (Scientific American, 5 min audio);
Fun websites: 22 Maps That Show How Americans Speak English Totally Differently From One Another; Your 'personal' dialect map; The Cambridge Online survey and its results; Accents of English (JC Wells); The speech accent archive

Lecture 2 Sept 19:  Varieties of English (cont.)

Nicole Holliday's lecture "It's in the tone": how we make sociolinguistic judgments based on the acoustic properties of the voice and what language can tell us about identity and inequality. [28 min]

Homework Three Released:  English Variety due Oct 3


Week 5

Lecture 1 Sept 24:   Sounds of the World's Languages [SOWL] 1: Consonants and Vowels and Tone

Reading Due: DSWM Chapter 3 Section 1 pp. 72-88Handout:  Complete IPA Chart

Lecture 2 Sept 26:   SOWL 2:  Non-Pulmonic Consonants (Airstream Mechanisms) and Phonation Type

Reading Due: A Course in Phonetics Ladefoged & Johnson pp. 144-159 (pdf) with accompanying language samples
Fun Website: Find Indigenous Languages Around the Globe; "What it means to sound gay?" (pdf)--Washington Post July 28 2015Fun website: What is vocal fry?

**Homework Two due today Sept 26


Week 6

Lecture 1 Oct 1:  Class Practicum:  Sounds of the World's Languages 


Lecture 2 Oct 3:  Puzzles of Speech Perception

Reading Due: DSWM Chapter 5 Section 1 pp. 114-127Myers "From Sound to Meaning" Physics Today 2017Video: Your Brain: Perception Deception  Documentary  NOVA  PBS (53 minutes; suggest watching [at least] to 40 min); 
Optional:
Video from Professor Pascal Wallisch "Neuroscientist Answers Illusion Questions" (22min)For after lecture:  Does Sensory Modality Matter? Not for speech perception by L. Rosenblum

**Homework 3 due today Oct 3**


Assignment Released:  An Interview of someone with atypical speech or hearing 

Assignment Released:  Presentation of a Critique of a Research Article that you select


Please read these assignment pages before we discuss on October 15

Week 7

Lecture 1 Oct 8:   TEST 1 (through Week 6 Lecture 1)

Thurs Oct 10 is a USC Holiday

 Week 8

Lecture 1 Oct 15:  Selecting a paper for your research article presentation and selecting a Speaker for your Interview

Optional support reading for Paper Analysis: DSWM Chapter 4

Lecture 2 Oct 17:   Phonology

DSW Chapter 7 (pp.182-205)

Week 10

Lecture 1 Oct 29:  Human Hearing 

Reading Due: DSWM Chapter 2 Section 3 pp. 65-71;  Chapter 11 (up to "Voice Disorders") pp. 266-276Two Required Videos:  Audiologist Answers Hearing Questions;
 How Technology has Changed What It's Like to be Deaf: Rebecca Knill Ted talk (14min)
Supplementary material: ASHA Websites on Hearing Loss and on Newborn Hearing Screening;
The beautiful, mysterious science of how you hear: Jim Hudspeth Ted talk (15 min)--we will watch part of this in class

Lecture 2 Oct 31:   Deafness, Hearing Loss, and Hearing Technologies

Reading Due: Intro to Comm Disorders: Chapter 12 333-352 "This common habit can ruin your hearing and increase dementia"
Handout to print:  Common Misconceptions About Hearing  [website] [pdf]
Optional Reading: Bionic Hearing: When to get a cochlear implant.  Experimental Brain-Controlled Hearing Aid Automatically Decodes, Identifies Who You Want to Hear;Optional Websites: NYT FDA clears path for hearing aids to be sold over the counter. A pretty good online hearing test from Dr. Ir. Stéphane Pigeon -- need silence and headphones

Between Friday and Monday:  please Watch Documentary MOVIE (2000, i.e., 20 yrs old): "Sound and Fury" (1hr 30m)
Extra Credit for writing up three questions/observations about the movie; due to Dropbox November 13.

Required pre-reading/watching BEFORE movie (note the differing dates for  each of these materials, as these ideas have matured over time): 

If you absolutely cannot watch this movie, please watch this shorter talk:
2020: How Technology has Changed What It's Like to be Deaf: Rebecca Knill TED talk (14min)


 Week 11

Lecture 1 Nov 5:  Signed Languages

Reading Due: DSWM Chapter 9 pp. 224-234 only;Variation in ASL:  Signing Black in America - more about this project at www.talkingblackinamerica.org 
Optional Websites:  Do Sign Languages have Accents?; Sign Language Isn't Universal; Map of Sign Language Families;
Three English to ASL Video Dictionaries:  Signing Savvy; Handspeak; Lifeprint Optional Reading:  Helmuth "From the mouths (and hands) of babes" Science Magazine (2 pages)

Lecture 2 Nov 7:   Speech Disorders: Clinicians and Populations, Stuttering, Cleft Palate, Degenerative Neuromotor Disorders, (time permitting TBI, Dysphagia)

Reading Due: DSWM Chapter 11 remainder (pp. 276-281); Intro to Comm Disorders Chapter 8 225-235Video: In a short (8 min) documentary, John Hendrickson describes the frustration of having a stutter (New York Times)
Optional Readings: The Atlantic "What Joe Biden Can’t Bring Himself to Say"; Optional website to review:   This American Life: Act One Time Bandit (24min); American Speech and Hearing Association

Please watch between Friday and Monday this documentary movie "When I Stutter" (director John Gomez; 1hr7min)

 Week 13

**Interview due EOD November 18** (But let me know if you are interviewing someone you will see over Thanksgiving, and we can arrange an extension to December 2nd.)

Lecture 1 Nov 19: Guess lecture Professor Yao Du:  LLM Technologies for Language Disorders

Reading Due: Speech Synthesis: Toward a "Voice" for All.  H. Timothy  Bunnell  State of the art: WaveNet and EATS
Fun Websites:  A collection of some speech synthesis sites ; Kid tries to train Google Home; Meet the Woman Behind Amazon Alexa; A commercial with Susan Bennett (the voice of Siri)

Lecture 2 Nov 21:   Speech Technologies

Reading due: Markowitz on "Voice Biometrics", The Ethics of a Deepfake Anthony Bourdain Voice Helen RosnerFun Websites:  "How computers parse the ambiguity of everyday language"; "Alexa, Siri, and Google Don’t Understand a Word You Say"
Optional Reading: Language Files Chapter 17 Practical Applications [of Linguistics]

 Week 14

Lecture 1 Nov 26:        Test 2 : Weeks 8 -13, i.e. not cumulative 

(Nov 27-29 Thanksgiving is a USC Holiday)


Week 15

Lecture 1 Dec 3: In Person Oral Presentations of Research Article (attendance required)

Questions on Classmates' presentations due to Dropbox by day's end Thursday.

Lecture 2 Dec 5:   In Person Oral Presentations of Research Article (attendance required) continued
Class Conclusion and  Evals


 

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Date Last Modified:  May 2024Art Credit: Lena Foellmer