Addressing diversity in speech science courses

Abstract

The study of how speech is produced, transmitted, and perceived is a critical component in the curriculum of multiple disciplines—linguistics, communication science and disorders, cognitive science, and speech technology all rely on a fundamental understanding of speech science. Pedagogy in speech science across these disciplines has a rich history of experiential learning techniques. Despite being at the forefront of pedagogical innovations, speech science courses have lagged in terms of their representation of cultural and linguistic diversity in the classroom. Many speech scientists understand that linguistic diversity is a part of all human language systems. However, in our experience, relatively few courses involve the purposeful inclusion of multiple language varieties throughout the course across all topics. The goal of this paper is to highlight how to be more inclusive in teaching speech science.