LIN 351 Week 11 HW: Interviewing and transcribing

Part 1: Conduct a Short Interview

1. This week, you try out the "Habitual Past" module that the class created. Note that it is currently (as of Mar. 16) not quite finalized. Pick the parts (probably more than 1 topic) from the (HAB) Google Doc that you think will work well for you and tailor them to a good order and wording that will encourage vernacular speech.
2. Look for a friend or relative who is willing to spare you about 30 minutes. Try to avoid picking a linguistics student (or prof!).
3. Ask them if they could help you out. Use the consent procedure discussed in class.
4. Be sure to have them sign the form, and give them a copy to keep.
5. If they say yes, either pin down a time or be ready with a recording device (your phone or laptop is fine).
6. Make sure you know how to quickly start recording.
7. Start the up the recording and thank them for agreeing to help you out. Then conduct your interview.
Ask them to record the reading passage as well. (Pick any passage from the samples in Reading Passage options.xlsx in Quercus).
8. Once you have finished, thank them and check that the recording worked.
9. Ask if there's anything they want you to delete from the recording.

Note on Recording

If you don't have any device on which to make a recording, please work with a partner in the class to make the recording. You will still do the rest of the assignment on your own.

Part 2: Transcribe your Short Interview

1. Your second part of the assignment is to transcribe the recording, in ELAN.
2. Set up a new .eaf and save it.
3. Link the recording file you made to this .eaf. (ELAN will prompt you at the beginning, or you can do it by picking "Linked files" in the Edit menu.) First segment the recording into breath groups (or short utterances). Use Segmentation mode for this.
4. Then switch back to Annotation mode and create a tier named "Main Speaker" and a tier named "Interviewer." (Remember about creating daughter tiers by first setting up Types...)
5. Using standard spelling, and as little punctuation as possible, transcribe what each of you said, making sure each utterance goes in the appropriate time-aligned tier. Don't transcribe anyone else that may have spoken during the recording, if they didn't consent to participate.
6. Use "[REDACTED]" in place of last names or anything that might identify the participant or any private individual they mention.
7. Add a "notes and questions" tier, if you want to add any annotations, or there are things you are unclear about.
8. You don't need to transcribe the reading passage.

Notes on Transcribing

1. Some of you might have long recordings and may not need to transcribe all of it. You can select and transcribe just the 10-minute portion that seems to have the most instances of the dependent variable.
2. Some of you might be curious to try some of the free auto-transcribing tools that are available online. (For instance, MS Word can auto-transcribe -- ask Google.) You are welcome to do this, but
   • You must state in your assignment that you did so.
   • You must take the responsibility to correct the output of the auto-transcription.
   • You will need to figure out how to get the text into ELAN and aligned with the speech.
3. Look back to the notes/handouts from the Celeste exercise at the very start of the semester!
4. It may help to review ELAN transcription info in Nagy & Meyerhoff 2015 (2017 update on HLVC site)

For Week 11 HW, please submit the .eaf and the .wav. Use this naming format: YOURLASTNAME_YOURFIRSTNAME.eaf and YOURLASTNAME_YOURFIRSTNAME.wav.

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Updated March 16, 2023