{"id":5074,"date":"2014-11-07T14:25:58","date_gmt":"2014-11-07T14:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xislblogs.xtreamlab.net\/slwoods\/?p=5074"},"modified":"2014-11-07T17:59:05","modified_gmt":"2014-11-07T17:59:05","slug":"bristol-university-opens-europes-first-first-speech-lab-for-non-native-english-speakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/?p=5074","title":{"rendered":"Bristol opens Europe’s first speech lab for non-native English speakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week Bristol University announced<\/a> the opening in Bristol of Europe’s first speech laboratory designed to break down communication barriers faced by those who speak English as a second language.<\/p>\n

\"microphoneIn a linguistically diverse society, with many people speaking English as their second language, researchers at Bristol University are pioneering a new approach to help understand how factors such as accent influence communication.<\/p>\n

The speech lab, which is funded by the European Commission through a four-year €100,000 Marie Curie grant, uses state-of-the-art audio technology to capture and analyse second language speech samples and to train people to assess the speech in a purpose-built environment. <\/p>\n

The insights gained will then be used to train those who speak English as a second language and also to improve the teaching of English by targeting the elements of speech most likely to achieve successful communication.<\/p>\n

Dr. Talia Isaacs<\/a>, Director of the Second Language Speech Lab<\/a>, conducts research at the lab as part of a research programme with international collaborators to identify aspects of speech that are most important for engaging in effective communication when English is not the speaker’s primary language.<\/p>\n

\"generalShe said: “Reducing language barriers is a pressing social and educational challenge, especially in countries like the UK where the linguistic palette is very rich.<\/p>\n

“Improving oral communication skills for non-native English speakers will help with many aspects of everyday life \u2013 from success in the workplace and in education to improving social integration and accessing vital services.<\/p>\n

“Although accents are very noticeable to listeners and may lead to social stereotyping, someone who sounds different is not necessarily communicating ineffectively. In fact, a whole host of factors, such as pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, contribute to the successful transmission of a message. So we often need to listen beyond the accent.<\/p>\n

“Research conducted at the lab will enable us to study the linguistic factors that contribute to breakdowns in communication in greater depth and identify ways to mitigate these.”<\/p>\n

By way of an example, future research could collect data from GP consultations, where either the doctor or the patient is speaking English as a second language. This could help to ensure such consultations are conducted with greater clarity.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, there could be instances where engineers from various countries are collaborating on a joint project and there’s a need to ensure that everyone fully understands each another and can communicate their findings effectively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week Bristol University announced the opening in Bristol of Europe’s first speech laboratory designed to break down communication barriers faced by those who speak English as a second language. In a linguistically diverse society, with many people speaking English as their second language, researchers at Bristol University are pioneering a new approach to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,3,9],"tags":[40,16,22,23],"class_list":["post-5074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bristol","category-translation-and-language-related-matters","category-tech","tag-bristol","tag-english-usage","tag-language","tag-tech-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5074"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5086,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074\/revisions\/5086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slwoods.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}