Research interests: prosody and phonetics, social aspects of the performing voice, vocal education (speech and singing), the multimodal use of voice and body in performance, phonetics and phonology of natural conversation.
Accepting mentees: Yes (3)
Biography
Beatrice Szczepek Reed is Professor of Linguistics at King’s College London, where she is the Co-Director of the Centre for Language, Discourse and Communication. Beatrice studies spoken language, particularly the phonetics and phonology of natural conversation. She has researched how speakers mirror each other prosodically in natural talk; how speakers of different accents of English use speech rhythm in conversation; and how ‘liaison’ exists not only in French but also in English and German. Beatrice has also researched singing lessons, specifically how classical singing teachers communicate the body knowledge of vocal technique. Beatrice has published over 60 articles and book chapters. Her books include the textbook ‘Analysing Conversation: An Introduction to Prosody’ (Bloomsbury 2011) and the forthcoming textbook ‘The Responsive Voice. Lessons for Actors from Real-Life Conversation’ (Routledge), co-written with the actor voice coach Anne Whitaker.
Qualifications
1999 – 2003 Ph.D. Linguistics (Phonology) University of Potsdam, Germany
2002 – 2003 MA Music (Vocal Studies) University of York, UK
1992 – 1998 Magister Artium (BA+MA) English and German University of Konstanz, Germany
Publications
Books
Whitaker, A. & Szczepek Reed, B. (in prep.) The Responsive Voice. Lessons for actors from real-life conversation. London: Routledge.
Hughes, R. & Szczepek Reed, B. (2017). Teaching and Researching Speaking. Abingdon: Routledge.
Barth-Weingarten, D. & Szczepek Reed, B. (Eds.) (2014). Prosodie und Phonetik in der Interaktion – Prosody and Phonetics in Interaction. Mannheim: Verlag für Gesprächsforschung.
Szczepek Reed, B. & Raymond, G. (Eds.) (2013a). Units of Talk – Units of Action. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2011). Analysing Conversation: An Introduction to Prosody. London: Bloomsbury.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2006). Prosodic Orientation in English Conversation. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Journal articles and book chapters
Szczepek Reed, B. (2025, in press). Prosody. In M. Stevanovic (Ed.) Research Handbook on Social Interaction. Northampton, Massachusetts: Edward Elgar.
Szczepek Reed, B., & Whitaker, A. (2025, in press). A dialogic approach to actor voice training: applying findings from conversation analysis to the work of voice educators. Applied Linguistics.
Smart, N., & Szczepek Reed, B. (2025, in press). Co-creation of Activity Spaces in an amateur dance group: interactional construction of the Teaching Space. Frontiers in Communication. Section: Multimodality of Communication. 9. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2024.1517858.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2025). Horse-directed vocalizations: clicks, trills, and /ho:/. Language & Communication 100. 25-45.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2024). Escalating prosody: the vocal depiction of mobile action sequences. Interactional Linguistics, 4(1), 97-129.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2024). “You don’t need me shouting here”: When instructors observe learners in silence. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 57(2), 169–192.
Szczepek Reed, B. & Cantarutti, M. (2024). Turn continuation in yeah/no responding turns: glottalization and vowel linking as contrastive sound patterns (pp. 73-102). In M. Selting & D. Barth-Weingarten (Eds.) New Perspectives in Interactional Linguistics Research. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Küttner, U. A., & Szczepek Reed, B. (2024). Requests for confirmation in American and British English. Open Linguistics, 10(1), 20240012.
Marmorstein, M., & Szczepek Reed, B. (2024). Newsmarks as an interactional resource for indexing remarkability: a qualitative analysis of Arabic wallāhi and English really. Contrastive Pragmatics, 5. 238-273.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2023). “Go on keep going”: The instruction of sustained embodied activities. Discourse Studies, 25(5). 692-717.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2023). Designing talk for humans and horses: prosody as a resource for parallel recipient design. Research on Language and Social Interaction. 56(2). 89-115.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2021). Singing and the body: body-focused and concept-focused vocal instruction. Linguistics Vanguard, 7(s4), 20200071.
Cantarutti, M. & Szczepek Reed, B. (2021). Stress and Rhythm. In J. Setter & R.-A. Knight (Eds.) Cambridge Handbook of Phonetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 159-184.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2020). Reconceptualizing mirroring: Sound imitation and rapport in naturally occurring interaction. Journal of Pragmatics. 167. 131-151.
Meng, J., & Szczepek Reed, B. (2020). Requests by Chinese EFL learners and native speakers of English: the case of formulaic expressions. East Asian Pragmatics. 5(2). 195-221.
Szczepek Reed, B., Davies, I., Said, F., Bengsch, G., & Scally, J. (2020). Arabic schools and the promotion of Fundamental British Values: A community’s ambitions for consensual diversity. British Journal of Educational Studies. 68(6), 713-731.
Szczepek Reed, B., Said, F., Davies, I., & Bengsch, G. (2020). Arabic complementary schools in England: Language and Fundamental British Values. Language, Culture and Curriculum. 33(1). 50-65.
Szczepek Reed, B., Davies, I., Said, F., Bengsch, G., & Scally, J. (2020). Arabic Language Heritage Schools: The Educational Potential of Celebrating Identity and Diversity. In E. J. Delgado-Algarra & J. M. Cuenca-López (Eds.) Handbook of Research on Citizenship and Heritage Education. Hershey: IGI Global. Pp. 148-173.
Davies, I., & Szczepek Reed, B. (2019). Freedom on university campuses: an argument for normatively dependent toleration. Citizenship, Teaching & Learning. 14(3). 249-261.
Brown, E., Szczepek Reed, B., Davies, I., Ross, A., & Bengsch, G. (2019). Constructing Europe and the European Union through Education: contrasts and congruence within and between Germany and England. Journal of Educational Media, Memory and Society. 11(2). 1-29.
Szczepek Reed, B. & Davies, I. (2018). Language and Citizenship Education: Discussion, Deliberation and Democracy. Editorial for Special Issue for Journal of Social Science Education. 17(4). 2-7.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2017). Creating space for learner autonomy: an interactional perspective. Classroom Discourse. 8(2). 175-190.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2017). “Can I say something?”: Meta turn-taking in natural talk. Pragmatics and Society. 8(2). 161-182.
Szczepek Reed, B., Said, F. & Davies, I. (2017). Heritage schools: a lens through which we may better understand citizenship and citizenship education. Citizenship Teaching and Learning. 12(1). 67-90.
Kyriacou, C., Szczepek Reed, B., Said, F. & Davies, I. (2017). British Muslim university students’ perceptions of Prevent and its impact on their sense of identity. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice. 12(2). 97-110.
Szczepek Reed, B. & Persson, R. (2016). How speakers of different languages extend their turns: word linking and glottalization in French and German. Research on Language and Social Interaction. 49(2), 128-147.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2015). Managing the boundary between ‘yes’ and ‘but’: Two ways of disaffiliating with German ‘ja aber’ and ‘jaber’. Research on Language and Social Interaction 48(1), 32-57.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2015). Managing educational interactions: A case study of bilingual supervision meetings. In E. Christopher (Ed.) International Management and Intercultural Communication: A Collection of Case Studies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 84-96.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2015). Phonetische und prosodische Praktiken zur sequenziellen Positionierung von Gesprächshandlungen: jaber als Marker für wiederholte Gegenrede. In E. Gülich, G. Lucius-Hoene, S. Pfänder, E. Schumann (Eds.) Wiedererzählen. Formen und Funktionen einer kulturellen Praxis. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. Pp. 245-268.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2015). Pronunciation and the analysis of discourse. In J. M. Levis & M. Reed (Eds.) Handbook of English Pronunciation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Pp. 190-208.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2014). Phonetic practices for action formation: Glottalization versus linking of TCU-initial vowels in German. Journal of Pragmatics 62, 13-29.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2014). Prosodic, lexical and sequential cues for assessments with German süß: Assemblages for action and public commitment. In D. Barth-Weingarten & B. Szczepek Reed (Eds.), Prosodie und Phonetik in der Interaktion – Prosody and Phonetics in Interaction. Mannheim: Verlag für Gesprächsforschung.
Barth-Weingarten, D. & Szczepek Reed, B. (2014). Prosodie und Phonetik in der Interaktion – Prosody and phonetics in interaction: Hinführung, Termini, Methoden. In D. Barth-Weingarten & B. Szczepek Reed (Eds.), Prosodie und Phonetik in der Interaktion – Prosody and Phonetics in Interaction. Mannheim: Verlag für Gesprächsforschung.
Reed, D. & Szczepek Reed, B. (2014). The emergence of learnables in music masterclasses. Social Semiotics 24(4), 446-467.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2013). Glottalisation and word linking as resources for multi-unit turn construction in German talk-in-interaction: Initial observations. Gesprächsforschung 14, 8-30.
Szczepek Reed, B., Reed, D. & Haddon, E. (2013). NOW or NOT NOW: Coordinating restarts in the pursuit of learnables in musical masterclasses. Research on Language and Social Interaction. 46(1), 22-46
Szczepek Reed, B. & Raymond, G. (2013). The question of units for language, action and interaction. In B. Szczepek Reed and G. Raymond (Eds.) Units of Talk – Units of Action. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Pp. 1-10.
Reed, D. and Szczepek Reed, B. (2013). Building an instructional project: Actions as components of music masterclasses. In B. Szczepek Reed and G. Raymond (Eds.) Units of Talk – Units of Action. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Pp. 313-341.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2012). Beyond the particular: Prosody and the coordination of actions. Language and Speech. 55(1), 12-33.
Szczepek Reed, B. ( B2012). A conversation analytic perspective on teaching English pronunciation: The case of speech rhythm. International Journal of Applied Linguistics. 22(1), 67-87.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2012). Prosody, syntax and action formation: intonation phrases as ‘action components’. In P. Bermann, J. Brenning, M. Pfeiffer & E. Reber (Eds.) Prosody and Embodiment in Interactional Grammar, Berlin: de Gruyter. Pp. 142-169.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2012). Prosody in conversation: Implications for teaching English pronunciation. In J. Romero-Trillo (Ed.) Pragmatics, Prosody and English Language Teaching. London: Springer. Pp. 147-168.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2012). Conversation Analysis: Conversation Analysis and prosody. In C. A. Chapelle, (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2012). Phonetics and Phonology: Suprasegmentals: Prosody in conversation. In C. A. Chapelle, (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2012). Analysis of Discourse and Interaction: Rhythm and timing in interaction. In C. A. Chapelle, (Ed.) The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Hughes, R. & Szczepek Reed, B. (2011). Learning about speech by experiment: Issues in the investigation of spontaneous talk within the experimental research paradigm. Applied Linguistics. 32(2), 197-214.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2010). Speech rhythm across turn transitions in cross-cultural talk-in-interaction. Journal of Pragmatics. 42(4), 1037-59.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2010). Prosody and alignment: A sequential perspective. Cultural Studies of Science Education 5(4). 859-867.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2010). Intonation phrases in natural conversation: A participants’ category? In D. Barth-Weingarten, E. Reber & M. Selting (Eds.) Prosody in Interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Pp. 191-212.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2010). Units of interaction: Tone units or Turn Constructional Phrases?. In E. Delais-Roussarie (Ed.). Conference Proceedings: Interface Discourse and Prosody. Paris, 9-11 Sept. 2009. Pp. 351-363. http://makino.linguist.jussieu.fr/idp09/actes_en.html
Szczepek Reed, B. (2009). Prosodic orientation: A practice for sequence organization in broadcast telephone openings. Journal of Pragmatics, 41(6), 1223-47.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2009). FIRST or SECOND: Establishing sequential roles through prosody. In D. Barth-Weingarten, A. Wichman & N. Dehe (Eds.) Where Prosody Meets Pragmatics. Bingley: Emerald. Pp. 205-222.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2007). Conversational skills in English language education for international business students. Conference Proceedings: 31st Annual Conference of the Association Language and Business (IALB), Brussels, Nov.17 – 18, 2006.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2006). Signalling conversational turn-taking in intercultural conversations. Conference Proceedings: 30th Annual Conference of the Association Language and Business (IALB), Moscow, Russia, Sept. 30 – Oct. 1, 2005.
Hughes, R. & Szczepek Reed, B. (2006). Factors affecting turn-taking behaviors: Genre meets prosody. In R. Hughes (Ed.). Spoken English, TESOL and Applied Linguistics: Challenges for theory and practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Pp. 126-140.
Szczepek Reed, B. (2004). Turn-final intonation in English. In E. Couper-Kuhlen and C E. Ford (Eds.). Sound Patterns in Interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Pp. 97-118.
Szczepek, B. & Schulze-Wenck, S. (2004). Interactional Linguistics. Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik. 31(2), 293-298.
Szczepek, B. (2001). Prosodic orientation in spoken interaction. InLiSt - Interaction and Linguistic Structures, No. 27.
Szczepek, B. (2000). Functional aspects of collaborative productions in English conversation. InLiSt - Interaction and Linguistic Structures, 21.
Szczepek, B. (2000). Formal aspects of collaborative productions in English conversation. InLiSt - Interaction and Linguistic Structures, 17.