Data Collection Procedures

1
Data Collection Procedures

• Questionnaires vs. Interviews

Liane Hennebach TU Chemnitz BA Anglistik /
Amerikanistik Seminar Dialectology 21.04.2008 Lian
e.Hennebach_at_gmx.de
2
Definitions

• Questionnaire

? German Fragebogen
? Definition a set of questions asked of a
large number of people to
discover information about
a subject
? paper-and-pencil instrument that the
respondent completes
3
Definitions

• Interview

? Definition a meeting in which someone
asks you questions about a
certain topic
? completed by the interviewer based on
what the respondent says
4
Use in Dialectology

• in our case ? linguistic research
• tools of systematic selective sampling
• collecting and saving all these data
• analyzing dialectical structure of an area
• ? from community to community
• ? from speaker to speaker

5
Use in Dialectology

• Analysis concerned with
• ? pronunciation
• ? grammar
• ? vocabulary
• ? phonemic contrasts
• ? regional social differences in a lexicon

6
Use in Dialectology

• List of investigated items - main types
• ? vocabulary
• - word or phrase used for a particular
  thing or idea
• e.g. What do you call the thing you carry
  water in? (bucket, pail,)
• - differences in verb forms
• semantics
• - meaning of a particular item
• e.g. starve - only referring to hunger
  or also for suffering cold?

7
Use in Dialectology

• List of investigated items main types
• ? grammar
• - morphology (word structure)
• e.g. Today it snows, yesterday
  it also ... snowed / snew?
• - syntax (sentence structure)
• e.g. 'those who are / them as
  is...
• ? phonology
• - various types of pronunciation
• e.g. /r/ sounds in card
• - articulation of shared phonemes

8
Questionnaires

• Constructing a questionnaire
• ? effective use - not too brief, nor to full
• ? choose promising items
• ? present items for convenience of
  investigator
• ? clear definition of the topic
• ? short introduction
• ? questions - simple, precise, specific,
  concrete
• ? arrangement of items is important

9
Questionnaires

• Constructing a questionnaire
• ? controlling factor - situation in which the
• informant finds himself
• ? keep the attention of the informant focused
  on
• the subject matter
• ? avoid words like good, bad, usually, often,
• frequently, rarely etc.
• ? before putting into final shape - test it !
• - eliminate unproductive items

10
Questionnaires

• Example
• ? Chambers questionnaire

http//dialect.topography.chass.utoronto.ca/dt_que
stionnaire.php questionnaire by Jack Chambers
from Canada
11
Questionnaires

• Types of questions
• ? open questions
• - different answers
• e.g. What do you call your evening
  meal?
• ? closed questions
• - electing trustworthy responses ?
  the informant has to
• choose one
• e.g. Does ROOF rhyme with
  aloof? Yes / No
• e.g. Which do you say?
  Yesterday I was sick at my stomach.
• 
  Yesterday I was sick in my stomach.
• 
  Yesterday I was sick to my stomach.
• 
  Yesterday I was stomach sick.
• 
  

12
Questionnaires

• Types of questions

? completing questions - fixed
phrases or sentences with blanks into which the
informant is asked to insert his
response ? contingency questions
- answered only if the respondent belongs to a
certain group ? scale questions
e.g. Rate the following sentence on
a scale from 1 to 5. 1
meaning perfectly ok, 5 meaning completely
unacceptable You dwell
in the past and youll never go forward.
1
2 3 4 5
13
Questionnaires

• Types of questions
• ? matrix questions

14
Questionnaires

• Types
• ? post questionnaire
• ? mail questionnaire
• ? online questionnaire

15
Interviews

• technique of electing speech data
• developed by William Labov
• interview is channeled by questionnaire from
  topic to topic
• less structured than questionnaire

16
Interviews

• Making the interview
• ? interviewer is free to start with any field
• ? depending upon the informants special
• interests or competence
• ? try to have a free conversation
• ? informant should speak in his every day
• life speech
• ? second thoughts and incidental forms
• - different pronunciation used at
  another
• state in the interview

17
Interviews

• Formulating questions
• ? formal use
• - fieldworker is supplied with the
  form of the
• questionnaire in advance
• ? informal use
• - fieldworker is free to frame the
  questions as he pleases
• as long he elicits the desired
  response

18
Interviews

• Saving data
• ? list with abbreviations
• e.g. for limited and qualified
  responses

c. an expression observed in conversation cr. a
spontaneous correction of the first response r.
a response repeated at the fieldworkers
request f. a forced response s. a suggested
response () preceding the recorded response
marks hesitation (!) registers amusement (?)
reports the observers doubt concerning the
trustworthiness of the response (?) identifies
an expression offered by an auxiliary informant
in his community but not used by him () marks
an expression offered by an auxiliary informant
19
Interviews

• Saving data
• ? recording
• - quiet place
• - speech volume of informant ? not too
  small
• - small recording instrument ? dont
  make informant
• afraid
• - record spontaneous uninterrupted
  speech

20
Interviews

• Types
• ? personal interview
• ? telephone interview

21
Conclusion

• Criteria for selecting interview or questionnaire

22
Conclusion

• Criteria for selecting questionnaire or interview

23
Conclusion

• Criteria for selecting questionnaire or interview

24
Sources

• Kurath, Hans Studies in Area Linguistics
  Indiana University Press 1972
• Petyt, K.M. The Study of Dialect Andre
  Deutsch Verlag 1980
• Swann, Joan / Deumert, Ana / Lillis, Theresa /
  Mesthrie, Rajend
• A Dictionary of Sociolinguistics,
  Edinburgh University Press 2004
• Chambers, J.K. / Trudgill, Peter Dialectology
  Cambridge University Press 1990
• Friesel, Christian / Schreiber, Eric General
  Questionnaires 2007
• http//dialect.topography.chass.utoronto.ca/dt_que
  stionnaire.php
• http//www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/survtype.p
  hp
• http//cbdd.wsu.edu