Talk it up! Integrating and prioritizing conversational data in documentation

Nicholas Williams n.jay.williams@gmail.com; Kristine Stenzel kris.stenzel@gmail.com; Barbara Fox Barbara.Fox@Colorado.EDU
Course materials:

1) Enfield, Nick. J. 2013. Doing fieldwork on the body, language, and communication. In  Handbook Body – Language – Communication. Vol. 1, edited by Cornelia Müller, Alan Cienki, Ellen Fricke, Silva H. Ladewig,  David McNeill, and Sedinha Teßendorf, 974-981. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

2) Seyfeddinipur, Mandana. 2012. Reasons for documenting gestures and suggestions for how to go about it. In Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Fieldwork, edited by Nicholas Thieberger, 147-165. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

3) Sidnell, Jack. 2010. Conversation Analysis: An Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell. (at least chapters 1, 2, and 3)

Supplies needed:

laptop and headphones

Course goals:

This course will introduce participants to some of the basic methodological and theoretical issues related to recording and analyzing everyday conversations. We will discuss specific contributions of naturalistic interactions to understanding aspects of linguistic structure, social interaction, and culture and explore how interactional data can be better integrated into language documentation projects.  

Student learning objectives:

Participants in this course will gain insight into:

  •         different types and features of ‘interactional’ exchanges as compared to other kinds of language data;
  •         specific criteria for adequate recording and organizing conversational materials;
  •         why and how to engage the community in documentation of interactions;
  •         use of interactional materials in language maintenance and revitalization.

Instructional methods will include (brief) lectures/presentations by the organizers, virtual input from ‘guest’ documenters, examination and discussion of interactional data, group work involving hands-on problem-solving exercises

Evaluation:

Workshop participants will complete two projects for evaluation by the end of the workshop.

(1)   Guided analysis of selected excerpts of conversation in American English and one other well-documented but endangered and lesser-known language. This will train participants in basic methods and analytic strategies in conversation analysis/interactional linguistics.

(2)   A 1-2 page plan for incorporating interactional methods in their current or future documentation and/or revitalization projects. This could include possible applications of these method and findings for teaching of endangered languages.

“The Office of Disability Services implements the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and insures that UAF students have equal access to the campus and course materials.  The instructor will work with the Office of Disabilities Services (208 WHIT, 474-5655) to provide reasonable accommodation to students with disabilities.”

Session

  

1                      

Introduction and Overview

·        On the current role of interactional data (ID) in documentation projects and its potential contributions (overview presentation by organizers);

·        What is ‘interactional’ data? How does it differ from other types of language data?

·        What kinds of questions can we ask with interactional data?

·        How can interactional data be used in language documentation?

·        What are the key issues and ethical questions related to collection and analysis of ID?

Activities: overview presentation, examples from documentation projects, group discussion

2                   

Basics of conversation and contributions for language description/linguistic analysis

·        Presentation and discussion of some of the major theoretical issues related to interactional data

·        Survey of relevant aspects of the structure of social interaction (e.g. sequence organization, repair, etc.)

Activities: practice data analysis focusing on topics covered (e.g. repair) in both English  and other languages; discussion

3                   

Tips related to recording and organization of ID materials - Guest

·         What constitutes ‘high quality’ recording of ID?

·         How does metadata for ID differ from that of monologic recordings?

·         Why is community involvement essential to ID documentation?

Activities: virtual guest & exercise: problem solving related to multiple-party language data recordings

4                   

The contributions of ID to language documentation and revitalization - Guest

·         How can ID contribute to development language teaching / revitalization materials?

Activities: virtual guest & case study; discussion