Project Overview
Click here for the first assignment to be turned in with your recording.
Data collection:
Record (audio or video tape) 10-15 minutes of two or more people using English. Practically any situation is acceptable--here are just a few suggestions: something related to your field of study, dinner conversation, debates, meetings, children at play, parties, TV or radio talk shows, etc. Be creative. It will be easiest for you to work in situations with which you are familiar, but you will have a better reference point if you include at least one person who speaks differently from you.
Rules for data collection:
The dialogue must be spontaneous, no scripted speech.
In the case of live conversation, get the permission of all the people who will be recorded BEFORE you start taping. Taping secretly is unethical. Get signed permissions.
Make sure that you can understand what is on the tape and can clearly identify who is saying what--avoid excessive background noise, etc.
You may be one of the participants on the tape (but you do not have to be).
Whatever you decide to record, make sure it seems interesting to you. If it is not interesting to you, no one else will find it interesting.
Make a backup copy of the tape. You will turn in your original tape as Part 1 of the project. You will be listening to parts of the tape often, so work from the backup tape in order to preserve the original.
You will perform three different types of linguistic analyses on your mini-corpus. You will receive an assignment sheet describing what is required for each part.
Two (but not more than two) people may work together on this Term Project. Be sure to choose someone you work well with. Both parties will turn in the same project, and both will receive the same grade. There is no requirement that you work with another student.
Project Presentation:
You will turn in three preliminary reports for comments, and at the end of the project rewrite those reports into a final overview of your project.
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