Natalia Zharkova PhD Research Fellow Clinical Audiology, Speech and Language Research Centre Queen Margaret University Tel.: 0131 474 0000 Fax: 0131 474 0001 Email: nzharkova@qmu.ac.uk

Academic Qualifications

 PhD, Speech and Hearing Sciences, Queen Margaret University (2007)
Thesis title: “An investigation of coarticulation resistance in speech production using ultrasound”

MA (with honours), Department of Phonetics and Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages, State University of St. Petersburg (2002)
Thesis title: “Acquisition of phonology by children: an experimental phonetic study”

Education

2003 – 2006: PhD studentship, Speech and Hearing Sciences, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh

2002 – 2003: post-graduate study, Department of Phonetics and Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages, State University of St. Petersburg

1996 – 2002: MA programme, Department of Linguistics, State University of St. Petersburg. Specialisation: Theoretical linguistics, Teaching of linguistics, Applied linguistics – speech technologies.

 1989 - 1996:  High School no. 52, St. Petersburg (with honours)

Research

Selected research projects that I have worked on:

- “Coarticulation and tongue differentiation in children between three and thirteen years old”: PI, ESRC research grant, ES/K002597/1. QMU co-investigators: Dr Nigel Hewlett and Dr Robin Lickley; international co-investigator Prof Fiona Gibbon (University College Cork); consultant Prof William Hardcastle.

- “Lingual coarticulation in preadolescents and adults: an ultrasound study” (PI, ESRC research grant, RES-000-22-4075, co-investigators: Dr Nigel Hewlett and Dr Robin Lickley; consultant Prof William Hardcastle)

- “An ultrasound study of lingual coarticulation in children and adults” (PI, ESRC research grant, RES-000-22-2833, co-investigators: Dr Nigel Hewlett and Prof William Hardcastle)

- the CLEFTNET project (PI: Prof Fiona Gibbon)

- “Studying speech variability with ultrasound and EPG” (ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, PTA-026-27-1268, mentor Prof William Hardcastle)

 My research interests are: linguistics, phonetics, phonology, language acquisition, speech articulation, speech motor control, language and speech disorders, language universals, speech perception.

 Membership
British Association of Academic Phoneticians

Journal peer-reviewing
- American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
- Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics
- Journal of Phonetics
- Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
- Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
- Journal of the International Phonetic Association
- Language and Speech
- Phonetica

Selected publications

Zharkova, N. (2013). A normative-speaker validation study of two indices developed to quantify tongue dorsum activity from midsagittal tongue shapes. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, Early Online: 1-13. DOI link

Lee, A., Zharkova, N. & Gibbon, F. (2013). Vowel imaging. In M. Ball & F. Gibbon (Eds), Handbook of Vowels and Vowel Disorders. 2^nd edition. Hove: Psychology Press. Pp. 138-159.

Zharkova, N. (2013). Using ultrasound to quantify tongue shape and movement characteristics. The Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Journal, 50, 76-81. DOI link

Zharkova, N., Hewlett, N. & Hardcastle, W.J. (2012). An ultrasound study of lingual coarticulation in /sV/ syllables produced by adults and typically developing children. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 42, 193-208. Paper

Zharkova, N., Hewlett, N. & Hardcastle, W.J. (2011). Coarticulation as an indicator of speech motor control development in children: an ultrasound study. Motor Control, 15, 118-140. Paper

Zharkova, N., Schaeffler, S. & Gibbon, F. (2009). Adult speakers’ tongue-palate contact patterns for bilabial stops within complex clusters. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 23, 901-910.

Zharkova, N. & Hewlett, N. (2009). Measuring lingual coarticulation from midsagittal tongue contours: description and example calculations using English /t/ and /a/. Journal of Phonetics, 37, 248-256. DOI link Paper on QMU eResearch

Zharkova, N., Hewlett, N. & Hardcastle, W. J. (2008). An ultrasound study of lingual coarticulation in children and adults. In R. Sock, S. Fuchs & Y. Laprie (Eds), Proceedings of the 8th International Seminar on Speech Production 2008, Strasbourg, France, 8-12 December 2008. Pp. 161-164. Paper

Zharkova, N. (2008). An EPG and ultrasound study of lingual coarticulation in vowel-consonant sequences. In R. Sock, S. Fuchs & Y. Laprie (Eds), Proceedings of the 8th International Seminar on Speech Production 2008, Strasbourg, France, 8-12 December 2008. Pp. 241-244. Paper

Zharkova, N., Hewlett, N. & Hardcastle, W. (2008). Analysing coarticulation in Scottish English children and adults: an ultrasound study. Canadian Acoustics, 36 (3): Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada 2008. Pp. 158-159.

 Zharkova, N. (2007). Quantification of coarticulatory effects in several Scottish English phonemes using ultrasound. QMU Speech Science Research Centre Working Papers, WP-13, 1-19. Paper

Zharkova, N. (2005). Strategies in the acquisition of segments and syllables in Russian-speaking children. In M. Tzakosta, C. Levelt & J. van de Weijer (Eds), Developmental Paths in Phonological Acquisition. Special issue of Leiden Papers in Linguistics 2.1, 189-213. Paper

Zharkova, N. (2002). Acquisition of prosody in Russian. In B. Bel & I. Marlien (Eds), Proceedings of the Speech Prosody 2002 conference, 11-13 April 2002. Aix-en-Provence: Laboratoire Parole et Langage. Pp. 735-738. Paper

Zharkova, N. (2000). Detskaja rech’ v vosprijatii vzroslyh (Children’s speech in adults’ perception). Working papers by Young Researchers of Russia, 3, 69-77.

Zharkova, N. (2000). Malen’kij rebenok i bol’shoj jazyk: psiholingvisticheskoje issledovanije (The little child and the big language: a psycholinguistic study). In G. Minczew (Ed.), Proceedings of the international student conference “People Under the Influence of Another Culture”, Lodz, Poland, 7-9 December 1998. Pp. 105-110.

Kulikov, G.A., Andreeva, N.G., Pavlikova, M.I., Samokischuk, A.P. & Zharkova, N.N. (1999). Phonetic and instrumental analysis of vowel-like sounds produced by infants during the first six months of life). In The Psychophysiological Basis of Social Adaptation in Children. St. Petersburg: Mother and Child Psychophysiololgy Research Centre, State University of St. Petersburg. Pp. 58-66.