Sociolinguistic Project

Overview

• This assignment is designed to give you experience conducting a sociolinguistic field interview.
• You will interview a native speaker of any dialect of English or native of another language, but he/she must be able to speak English fluently or native-like and conduct the interview in English.
• You may also choose to focus on ANY language other than English (e.g. Spanish, Tagalog, ASL, Armenian...). But, in this latter case, you must also be a native speaker of that language and be ready to transcribe and translate your interview and report to English.
• You'll perform a linguistic analysis of the subject's dialect and investigate the speaker's attitudes toward specific linguistic issues relevant to the use of English/Other language in his/her U.S. community.

Finding a Participant

• Your subject, or informant, must be at least 18 years of age.
• Potential informants include relatives, friends, classmates, people who live in your residence, and co-workers.

Procedure

• Your interview should last about one hour (although it might be longer or slightly shorter) and ideally should be audio-recorded (or you may want to video-record for ASL).
• Use any recorder (never mind the quality, anything that records will do, including your cell phone). If you are knowledgeable and have the technology, you may also record directly into a laptop computer.
• Although you will be recording the interview, you should also take written notes, which will provide helpful when writing your project report.
• If you do not have a recording device and if you think it would be impossible for you to get a hold of one without spending money, then it's okay to just take notes.
• Obtain permission to audio record your informant. Tell your speaker that you are conducting an interview for a Linguistics class and do not reveal (at least at the beginning) that the object of inquiry is the speaker's language. Tell your interviewee that his/her identity will remain confidential. IMPORTANT: make sure you have the agreement of your informant, surreptitious recording is unethical!
• As you start the interview, try to make the informant feel as comfortable as possible. First collect information regarding the person's background (see questions in the Interview Format). Remember, you don't want your participant to be conscious of the language s/he uses.
• At this point, you would like to elicit a neutral or non-emotional style of speech. Feel free to interact with the interviewee. Smile and nod while pretending to take notes on the content of the conversation. What you are really writing down are any dialectal features that call your attention.
• Once you have gathered enough background information, see if you can get the interviewee to "style shift" by introducing a more emotional topic. For example, ask your informant to recount a near-death experience s/he may have had (see Labov for details). You could pursue controversial or emotional topics such as the war in Iraq, the presidential elections, illegal immigration, same-sex marriages, etc. Spend the next 20 minutes or longer on this part of the interview.
• For the next part of the interview, directly ask questions regarding variation. (See Interview Format.) This is NOT meant to teach the interviewee what a dialect is but to get an idea of what people think or know about dialects in general.
• Finalize the interview by giving your interviewee a chance to include anything else s/he feels is important for you to know.

Writing Your Project Report.

• Write the results of your interview in the form of an essay. Do not do a question and answer format--that is your transcript, which will be a word-for-word record of the interview in standard orthography and which will be appended to your essay.
• Your essay should provide insight and analysis of the interview and the informant. (Do not use the participant's real name; use initials or a pseudonym.) Begin with a brief sketch of your participant's life story (gender, ethnicity, social background, provenance, etc.). Describe the setting of the interview, including when and where it took place, and state that it was tape recorded.
• Perform a linguistic analysis of the language the informant used in the interview. What are the most salient features characteristic of the participant's dialect? Did s/he use any non-standard forms, any distinctive lexical items, or unusual non-verbal communication, etc.? See if you can relate this to the social and/or background origin of the interviewee.
• Present your results from the dialect, language use, and language in the family sections of the interview. You may use direct quotations from the transcript, anecdotes, or anything else that is relevant.
• Avoid simply summarizing or retelling the facts of the interview. Instead, try to interpret the interview in order to arrive at some conclusions regarding the interviewees' dialect and use of language as well as what beliefs and attitudes s/he holds towards English (and/or whatever other language he/she uses).
• Close your essay with your general reflections on this experience.

Paper Format

• Your paper is to be typed, titled, page numbered, double-spaced with one-inch margins using a 12-point font (e.g. New Times Roman).
• Use the APA format.
• Be sure to include your name and the course number on the cover sheet (following APA).
• If your essay includes any citations, make sure you identify them in a "List of Work Cited." The essay should be from 3-5 pages in length, not including your transcript. Your transcript should appear as an appendix to your essay.