Professor Bill Wells

MA (Oxon), DPhil (York), Dip RSA, Hon FRCSLT

Human Communication Sciences, School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery

Emeritus Professor in Human Communication Sciences

bill.wells@sheffield.ac.uk
362 Mushroom Lane

Full contact details

Professor Bill Wells
Human Communication Sciences, School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery
362 Mushroom Lane
Sheffield
S10 2TS
Research interests

Typical and atypical speech development in children:

  • intonation
  • linguistic, psycholinguistic and interactional approaches

Phonetics of talk-in-interaction:

  • turn-organisation and overlapping talk; alignment; focus
  • Turn taking by cochlear implant users

Current and recent projects

  • Overlapping talk in conversation: phonetics, phonology and interaction. Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship 2016-18. Research Associate Dr. Emina Kurtić.
  • Meeting the challenge of simultaneous talk for cochlear implant users. Funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council. 2014-15.With Professor Guy Brown, (Department of Computer Science) and Dr Harriet Crook ( Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)
  • Research associates: Dr. Amy Beeston, Erica Bradley, Dr. Emina Kurtić.
Recent publications
  • Geronikou, E., Vance, M., Wells, B., & Thomson, J. (2019) Phonology, morphology and speech processing development in Greek-speaking children, Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, DOI: 10.1080/02699206.2019.1637460
  • Wells, B., Beeston, A., Bradley, E., Brown, G.J., Crook, H. & Kurtić, E. (2019) Talking in Time: The development of a self-administered conversation analysis based training programme for cochlear implant users, Cochlear Implants International, 20:5, 255-265, DOI: 10.1080/14670100.2019.1625185
  • Geronikou, E., Vance, M., Wells, B., & Thomson, J. (2019). The case for morphophonological intervention: Evidence from a Greek-speaking child with speech difficulties. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 35(1), 5–23
  • Schaefer, B., Stackhouse, J. & Wells, B. (2017) Phonological awareness development in children with and without spoken language difficulties: A 12-month longitudinal study of German-speaking pre-school children, International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 19:5, 465-475, DOI: 10.1080/17549507.2016.1221449
  • Wells, B & Stackhouse, J. (2015) Children’s Intonation: a Framework for Practice and Research. Children's Speech and Literacy Difficulties 5. Chichester: Wiley