About your tutor, Dr. Richard Stibbard

Having a doctorate in Phonetics from the University of Reading, the Certificate of Proficiency in the Phonetics of English, and over 14 years' experience teaching Phonetics and Pronunciation at university, I am able to teach the subject at the highest levels. I have published widely in international academic journals on many aspects of learners' pronunciation problems and solutions to those problems. A feature of my teaching is the importance I attach to varying our speech according to the context - exactly the same words can be said in many different ways to depending on the meaning we want to get across. This is what makes our voices sound lively, and also signals that we are in touch with the conversation around us or our audience, reacting to it, and influencing it.

At the level of individual sounds and the clear pronunciation of words, my understanding of the sound systems of many other languages means I can identify and concentrate on those sounds which are problematic to individual participants.

My qualifications

PhD in Phonetics (Reading University)
MA in TEFL/TESL (University of Birmingham)
BA (Hons.) in German & Linguistics (University of Exeter)

Certificate of Proficiency in the Phonetics of English (International Phonetic Association)
Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (Cheltenham International Language Centre)
Certificate in E-Learning (Oxford Brookes)

Publications

You can see a list of my academic publications here. In most cases, the full texts are avaliable to download.

Reviewing

I am a reviewer for the international refereed academic journals World Englishes (Blackwell), Language, Culture & Curriculum (Multilingual Matters) and Spanish in Context (John Benjamins) and am also regularly asked to review for the Cambridge Postgraduate Conference in Language Research (CamLing).

Contact me on 07816 155472 to arrange your instruction in Phonetics.