The University of York

John Local

Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD. 
tel: +44 1904 432658    fax: +44 1904 432673
e-mail: lang4@york.ac.uk

Background     Teaching     Research


A picture of young John Local

Academic Background

1966-1969 Northern Counties College of Education: Certificate of Education with Distinctions in English, Music and the Practice of Teaching

1970-1973 University of Newcastle upon Tyne: BA (Honours, First Class) English Language & Literature

1973-1976 University of Newcastle upon Tyne: PhD Linguistics.
(Thesis title: Studies towards the description of the development and functioning of children's awareness of linguistic variability


1969-1970 Teacher of Music and English: Forest Hall County Secondary School, Newcastle upon Tyne

1976-1991 Lecturer in Phonetics and Linguistics: Department of Language & Linguistic Science, University of York

1993- Professor of Phonetics and Linguistics: Department of Language & Linguistic Science, University of York

2000-2002 British Academy Research Reader (Phonetics and meaning of talk-in-interaction)

Teaching

My teaching centres on phonetics, phonology and the analysis of talk-in-interaction. I teach or have taught the following courses:

First year: Introduction to Phonetics, Introduction to Phonology, English Phonetics, English Phonology, Conversation Analysis

Second and Final year modules: Non-linear Phonologies, Firthian Prosodic Analysis, Instrumental Phonetics, Articulatory and Impressionistic Phonetics, Phonetics of Talk-in-interaction, Language acquisition, Psycholinguistics

MA: Core Course; Options in Phonology; Dissertation supervision

I have supervised MPhil/PhDs on topics in phonetics and phonology, speech synthesis, and the analysis of talk-in-interaction

Research

My research interests over the past ten years have engaged with non-segmental phonology and phonetic interpretation, speech synthesis and the phonetics of talk-in-interaction. This work developed out of a close study of Firthian Prosodic Analysis (FPA) and an attempt to elaborate an impressionistic parametric phonetics supported by instrumental findings. Some of the results of this work (conducted with my colleague John Kelly) are presented in our 1989 book, Doing Phonology, published by Manchester University Press.

Recently I have been working on an interactionally-grounded analysis of the phonetics of everyday talk (supported by a British Academy Research Readership) and on phonetic variability in the 'liquid' system of English (supported by a grant from the ESRC).

I have just completed the two year British Academy Readership on the Phonetics of talk-in-interaction. You can download a pdf document describing aspects of the work here. Some results of this research can be found by following the link below to 'Recent talks and presentations'.

List of publications
Recent talks and presentations


Phonetics of English Liquids research
Speech synthesis research
Firthian Prosodic Analysis
Phonetics & Phonology research group


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