Speech is all around us, and yet we seldom pay attention to it. When we do, we find many everyday assumptions about speech are very limited. This unit gives an insight into the nature of speech. Students learn skills in transcription, and in the acoustic and articulatory analysis of speech. The focus of the unit, however, is on speech as a means of communication. Topics include: sounds of the world's languages; the cognitive processes of speaking and listening; slips of the tongue and ear; foreign accents; computer speech; implications for effective communication. Web access is essential.