Great sharing opportunity at the University of Belgrade

Organised by the Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade, The IV Belgrade International Meeting of English Phoneticians (BIMEP 2018) took place on 30 - 31 March.
The organiser, Biljana Čubrović, looked after every single detail and the event went on smoothly. We had the opportunity to share valuable experiences.
Three key note speakers addressed the audience:
Prof John Wells spoke about "Sounds Delicious: Phonetics and Etymology of some Food and Drink Words" showing once more how phonology is part of our every day lives.

Professor Elizabeth Zsiga, from Georgetown University (USA), spoke about "The Phonetics and Phonology of English Casual Speech: Learning from L2 Learners".

Last, Professor Draga Zec, from Cornell University (USA) shared her research on "Nasal Consonants in Syllable Phonotactics."

Many phoneticians coming from different countries exchanged information about the studies we are carrying out. An excellent atmosphere triggered the beginning of what I feel will be an enriching sharing from distant points in the world.

Anastazija Kirkiva-Naskova (Ss. Cyril and Methodius University) dealt with "The Effects of a Classroom-Based Perceptual Training on the Perception and Production of L2 Vowels"

Dorota Lipińska (University of Silesia)  shared her findings on "Segmental Production by Polish Learners of English: The Case of the TRAP vowel."

Andrej Bjelaković, from the University of Belgrade, informed us of his research on "Formant Measurements of Serbian Speakers' English Vowels."

Bilyana Shuman, from Nanyang Technological University, analysed "Vowel Quality Reduction in Serbian"

Dr. Biljana Čubrović, our host from University of Belgrade, explained her findings on "Spectral and Quantitative Differences of Nonnative Serbian Vowels.

An interesting perspective was the one presented by Jaroslaw Weckwerth, from Adam Mickiewicz University, who shared his findings on "The BATH Vowel in British Popular Music Vocal Performance. I admit that I started to get better aquainted with groups I had never heard of before.

Tatjana Paunović, from University of Niš, presented her study on "Uptalk in L2 English: Final Rising Contours in Serbian EFL Students' Declaratives

Vladimir Phillipov, from Sofía University "St. Keiment Ohridski", dealt with "Intonational Phonology and the Theory of Translation: The Interface between Intonation and Text. I would have liked to follow his talk better, but I lacked knowledge of Cyrilic alphabet. (Something to be added in my to-do-list)

Dimitra Dimitrou, a Ph D student at the University of Central Lancashire in Cyprus, took the plunge presenting her study on "The Acquisition and Production of the English Rhotic by Greek-Cypriot Speakers". Good work!

Vesna Polovina presented a project to study "Contextual Meaning of Intonation in Serbian and English Doctor-Patient Encounters". She mentioned the difficulty that privacy of this kind of interaction poses on the study.

Valentina Rapajić, from the Serbian University of Defense, spoke about "Lexical Stress Patterns in High-Frequency Words of Spoken English. She also mentioned future possible studies she could work on. 

My turn came to present "How to Help Learners to Improve their English Pronunciation. What Rioplatense Spanish Speaking EFL Teachers Need to Know". It was a really enriching sharing experience. Having the three key note speakers in the audience did not make me frightened because of the excellent professional quality the three of them have.

Višnja Josipovič, from the University of Zagreb, came next with "Contemporary Phonological Theory and Common Pronunciation Issues". She was really enthusiastic about her presentation.

Urjani Chakravarty and Gulab Chand, from the Indian Institute of Managemente Indore and Indian Institute of Technology Ropar", shared their experience on "An Optimality Theoretic Approach: A Comparative Study of English and Selected Indo-Aryan Particles"

Elena Freydina and Oksana Pervenzentseva, from Moscow Pedagogical State University, presented their work on "Prosodic Markers of Tenor in Lectures and their Perception by Russian Students of English"

 Marlisa Hommel, from Utrecht University, made an attempt to explain "The Role of Orthographi in Dutch Students' Perception of English in the EFL classroom."

 

Nikoleta Stoykova, from Sofía University "St. Kliment Ohridski", offered a Prezi presentation to deal with "English Weak Forms - A Challenge for Bulgarian Learners of English? A Pedagogical Perspective."

An the last presentation, by Georgy Dimitrov from University of National and World Economy, was on "The Place of Pronunciation in Teaching ESP: The Case of Advanced Bulgarian Students of Political Science."

This is the academic perspective, which was varied and enriching as you can gather from the description of the presentations. Next entry will be on the socializing perspective, which has been great!