Prosody as a Process of Meaning Making

This lecture will introduce you to prosody as a process of meaning-making in conversation: the ‘glue of interaction’.

We’ll consider how to make vague categories such as ‘voice quality’ clear and tangible elements that can be acutely heard, listened to and understood.

Rather than perceiving interaction as being made up of individual’s intentions, we’ll begin to develop an awareness of thinking across turns in talk, acknowledging ‘talk’ as a creative, responsive and deliberate process while developing the analytic skill of separating voice from body from gesture.

There will be some practical work to ensure all participants get direct experience of working with ‘talk-in-the-wild’, to begin to reframe how they view and approach interaction, whether in the classroom, studio or clinic.