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
91Ö±²¥
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 ( 91Ö±²¥ 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: 
  • 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: 
  • 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: 
  • Wells, B & Stackhouse, J. (2015) Children’s Intonation: a Framework for Practice and Research. Children's Speech and Literacy Difficulties 5. Chichester: Wiley