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Procedures followed to collect data

From the beginning of the spoken English course, knowing about the requirement of

obtaining real data and transcribing them in the first assignment, I, personally, felt

both excited and nervous about how to collect the data that can really fit my purpose.

Things started to fall in place as the course went by with more concepts and

instructions introduced. The linear theories and instances about turn-taking,

attributable silence, preference etc. had certainly attracted my interest on the subject

and gradually shaping my direction on the recording’s pattern.

At first, I was mostly focusing on the pre-reading before every lesson since I

personally loved to see what was coming next in the module. Additionally, I certainly

hope the more ideas I got from pre-readings, the more options I could have to start

thinking beforehand about the recording, transcription and analytical approach which

I want to practice in my assignment. As Liddicoat (2007) emphasized the need of

“naturally occurring talk” for conversation analysis, my main concern was how to

obtain authentic recordings, which embrace interesting features to analyse, without

causing any ethical issues.

To prepare for the recording, I had registered and borrowed a Sony IC recorder from

the recourse room. According to Richards (2003), a successful recording depends not

only on the device you have, more importantly, is how familiar the device is to you.

Thus, immediately after having the recorder, I tried to familiarize myself with each

button’s function, the sound quality and noise of the device. As I could see a

promising opportunity for the recording to happen, I had prepared myself a bit about

different environments I could take granted to attain numerous recordings for later

selections. A friend of mine, who lives in Cambridge, planned to visit my house at the

weekend where I am sharing with my boyfriend. We are close so it was easy for me to

ask for their permission. However, it was obvious that my asking had raised my

friends’ curiosity since they asked about the purpose of my recording before giving

me the permission. The total number of recordings that I made is 16 including various

circumstances, such as at the living room, having dinner, watching a movie, driving

car to the supermarket and shopping in Birmingham city. The reason that lies under

these numbers of recordings was, simply, to maximum my chances to work with

different circumstances and to help me approach to variegated casual talk patterns.

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After spending time sorting through, I selected a recording that was taped in the living

room where a casual conversation took place.

Choice of transcription system

My first contact with transcription conventions in Spoken English module was the

key reading about “openings conversation” (Liddicoat, 2007). There is no specific

reason why I had my first interaction with transcription conventions from that book’s

chapter, but the difference in ways of format and strange symbols inserted in

conversation transcript had caught my attention. Later on, things became more

understandable when I got instruction on transcription conventions from lectures. I

had made some researches on variables of transcription conventions created by

different authors in the field. Each of the references carries its own way of approach

but their final goal is to maximize the accuracy of representing speech. However,

regarding my own transcription, I had carefully gone through four transcription

convention systems, made my comparison and chosen the one I think is the most

suitable. The transcription, which I found distinguishable of all, is from Dubois

(1991) introduced in Schiffrin (1994: 422-23). The symbols selected and their

functions are mostly different from conventions introduced in Jefferson (1989), ten

Have (1999) and Richards (2003). In spite of Dubois’s different approach and

explanation in details, the conventions caused some difficulties for me to apply for

my transcription due to the familiarity I had with other Jefferson-based transcription

conventions. What I noticed from Ten Have (1999) and Richards (2003) is, although

based on Jefferson’s system (1989: 193-6), they have made some changes such as

provide “…most commonly used” or “omitting some of the subtleties” (Ten Have

1999: 215) to make the conventions system more use-friendly and easy to remember.

Specifically, the work of Richards (2003) is what I can feel the most connected to

because of its simplicity, clearness and informative properties – the crucial

characteristics for beginners in transcription like me.

Interesting matters relating to the recording, data collection and

transcription process

Despite that fact that my lectures had emphasized on how fascinating and interesting

the recording and transcribing procedure are, getting myself in the process was a real

surprise for me. I could still remember how exciting it was after I spotted my first

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overlap in the transcription and the sudden realization of which I was attempting to

speck the pause, the cut-offs or overlaps in my daily conversations with friends.

More radically, as Schiffrin put it “…the ethnography of communication in it

concerns with human knowledge…and its belief that no detail of conversation (or

interaction) can be neglected a priori as unimportant’ (1994:232). It was challenging

for me as a transcriber to assure that all the details of the talk are captured. The

complication a transcription process is obvious when I realized how new the

information appeared to me. In some cases, I even could not catch what I was saying.

Furthermore, distinguishing what to put down between overlap and latched utterance

or cut-off and pauses has caused me much confusion. However, from this stage, I

came to realize how easy people are, to miss such important minute things in our

daily information exchange and my indeed appreciation for the works of many

researchers to get to the essence of conversation analysis.

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Transcript from (1:43 – 3:12) Recording taken on 19/10/2013 in the living room

Participants: Masu (M); Anish (A) and me – Rose (R)

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M:

A:

R:

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A

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M:

R:

No, it’s ok. [I like- see this specs is very good]

[t::i↓ t::i t::i (..) t::i↓ t::i t::i (..)] t::i [t::i↓ t::i t::i↑ t::i↓] ((making random music))

[Hu::h, I don’t know]

(..)

It’s not I don’t know (.) hey Anish [(…) (are)]

[Shit, see t]his one has a face in that (..) I didn’t notice.=

=Where?

See?

(.) Dead (.) blood?

Yeah

[Yeah (..) yeah]

[Where? What?]

I don’t notice that before=

=OK=

=Which o[ne?]

[Wh]ich specs you like?[(..) th]e one- her old↑ one (.) or the one she’s wearing now.

[huh? ]

Uh (.) eeaahhh

(6.0)

That’s smaller na?

[ Yeah ]

[Uh::m]

That’s better=

=°OK°.

S[o you can give-] so you can give me money so I can buy a new [(..) spec?]

[No I don’t like two classes anyway]

[I will bu]y you a

new, don’t worry.=

= I’ll give you my specs, you want? H::i [h::i]

[Ha]ha[ha]

[Or] just give her that=

=Yeah=

=>Just to see, just to see, just give her< (…) >just wanna know< (.) I mean=

=Y:ou same power (..) with me=

=No↓ (.) you just keep, I can see, you don’t have to see=

=No, I don’t like this (.) I mean this style (..) I did wear before [ but not rea]lly suit me.

[>Just for me to see<]

(4.0)

Show

A:h (.) no=

=N::o I- I told you, I know [which one] is suitable for me

[Yeah yeah]

(..)

Um (…) that’ll be the less choice that I’m gonna take (…) (this) maybe tha::t is the first choice this is

the second, (.) and Anish (..) is the °last choice sorry°.

Yeah my- my- this spec (was my face) hi[hihi]

[hihi]hi

NO, you might look (.) better with [ (..) th]e whole fram[e (..) specs.]

[When?]

[Hey, wear t]his Anish, wear this=

=Yeah↑ (.) try this.

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References

Jefferson, G. 1989. ‘Preliminary notes on a possible metric which provides for a

‘standard maximum’ silence of approximately one second in conversation’ in D.

Roger and P. Bull (eds), Conversation: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Clevedon:

Multilingual Matters.

Liddicoat, A., J. 2007. An Introduction to Conversation Analysis. London:

Continuum.

Richards, K. 2003. Qualitative inquiry in TESOL. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

Schiffrin, D. 1994. Approaches to discourse. Oxford: Blackwell.

ten Have, P. 1999. Doing conversation analysis: A practical guide. London: Sage.

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UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK CENTRE FOR APPLIED LINGUISTICS SELF-EVALUATION COVER SHEET

Student ID Number: 1364112

Module: ET959

Title of assignment: Conversation transcript and some discussions of the procedures of collecting data, choosing the equipment and interesting matter during the whole process.

A. Why/how did you choose this assignment? Because the assignment helps me to understand more about conversation analysis transcription, how to collect the data for natural talk, also ways of using conventions system to make transcription data for analysis. This skills and knowledge will pretty much benefit me in my career as an English teacher, e.g. investigating teacher talk or teacher-student conversation…

B. As you were working on this assignment what kinds of things did you do, e.g. skim the literature, talk to friends, search the net, think? I tried to collect as much literature as possible so that I could have a full picture of the area I wanted to focus on. Also, I am very grateful for the help and support from my friends on format, reference…

C. What aspects of writing this assignment did you find positive? Writing assignment helps to promote my academic writing, which I believe, still has many gaps for me to fill in. Working with literatures engaged me in intensive reading and being selective. Moreover, cognitive skills such as time management or brainstorming for solving problems also are stimulated.

D. From your experience of writing this assignment, what might you do differently next time, e.g. make an outline, start writing earlier, read less or more, talk to friends etc.? Leaning from my mistake, I would try to be more critical on any point that I make. Additionally, with a better outline next time, I hope the logic of my assignment would be significant improved.