The purpose of this module is to provide students with foundational knowledge of linguistics, a core cognate discipline underpinning the professional practice of the speech and language therapist. The module also provides students with the opportunity to develop basic skills in speech, language and communication analysis and description. The module provides an introduction to a range of concepts and frameworks which will be applied in case-based work over the course of several subsequent modules. The students are guided to apply some core concepts to linguistic samples in this module with further opportunities to enhance application of knowledge and skills each semester of the programme.

Content includes theories of mono and multi-lingual language acquisition and principles and concepts related to phonetics and phonology, language structure, meaning and use, and psycholinguistics. Content related to phonology includes the use of sounds to make linguistic contrasts (phonemes); non-contrastive variation of sounds depending on context (allophones); types of transcription (-etic and - emic); theories of phonology; accent and dialectal variation. Content related to phonetics includes speech production mechanisms, the larynx in speech, consonant and vowel classification (English and non-English), and air stream mechanisms. and learn to apply phonetic analyses to normal and disordered speech samples. Regarding language structure, meaning and use, students are introduced to morphology, syntax, grammatical morphemes, inflectional and derivational morphology, word classes and sentence meaning and structure (propositions, predicates, and arguments; thematic relations; sentence constituents and syntactic functions). Students will also engage with content related to psycholinguistic processing models and concepts; speech perception and processing; lexical semantics and access. Introductory content related to pragmatics is also introduced including features of conversation and discourse management, speech act theory, register, coherence; cooperative and politeness principles; relevant features of non-verbal communication including symbol and sign-based communication. Students have an opportunity to apply linguistic tools and techniques to language samples.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: 1. Describe contrasting accounts of language acquisition taking into account a range of diverse cultural contexts and individual differences 2. Differentiate between phonetic and phonological accounts of a language 3. Outline the structure and functions of the vocal tract and how different speech sounds are formed 4. Define components of word and sentence structure, and sentence meaning 5. Define key psycholinguistic concepts 6. Explain key features of semantic and pragmatic aspects of language and communication across a range of language modalities 7. Identify and label linguistic features and stage of development in a child language sample using an appropriate system for analysis

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: 1. Show sensitivity to the range and variety of socio-cultural and linguistic contexts within which communication develops

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to: 1. Transcribe normal and disordered speech at the single word level accurately using IPA symbols

The student attends weekly lectures and tutorials. The module is delivered in a highly structured and interactive format that includes a flipped classroom approach, whereby the student is required to engage in pre-recorded and/or signposted materials in advance of classes and tutorials (graduate attribute: proactive). The module is foundational in the spiral curriculum. In this module the student is introduced to threshold linguistic concepts and is provided with guided opportunities to apply concepts to the analysis of linguistic samples (graduate attribute: knowledgeable). Face-to-face tutorials involve a mixture of direct instruction and practical elements where the student gives and receives feedback when undertaking linguistic analyses such as phonetic transcription(graduate attribute: knowledgeable and proactive). The teaching and learning approaches afford the student the opportunity to apply their developing linguistic and psycholinguistic knowledge to speech and language therapy cases and contexts (graduate attribute: knowledgeable).