Methodology Words and Definition PDF

# Methodology Words and Definition ## Terms 1. **Cognitive turn:** Focus on how the human mind processes language, including memory, attention, and mental representations. * **Example:** Investigating how people mentally store and retrieve vocabulary. 2. **Pragmatic turn:** Emphasis on how...

# Methodology Words and Definition ## Terms 1. **Cognitive turn:** Focus on how the human mind processes language, including memory, attention, and mental representations. * **Example:** Investigating how people mentally store and retrieve vocabulary. 2. **Pragmatic turn:** Emphasis on how context and social interactions influence meaning in communication. * **Example:** Exploring how sarcasm is understood based on tone and situation. 3. **Social turn:** Focus on the role of social relationships and society in shaping language and its use. * **Example:** Analyzing how language varies across different communities. 4. **Features of qualitative research:** Non-numerical data collection methods used to explore subjective experiences, often through interviews or observations. * **Example:** Exploring how immigrants perceive learning a new language. 5. **Features of quantitative research:** Research focusing on numerical data and statistical analysis to answer research questions. * **Example:** Surveying how many people can speak a second language. 6. **Purpose of research questions:** To provide a clear focus for a study, guiding data collection and analysis. * **Example:** Asking, "How does social media affect teenagers' writing skills?" 7. **Process of refining questions:** Adjusting questions to be specific, clear, and achievable in research. * **Example:** Revising "How do people learn languages?" to "What methods do students in bilingual schools use to learn?" 8. **Bottom-up and top-down processes:** * **Bottom-up:** Learning by building understanding from basic elements, like sounds and words. * **Example:** A child learning to read by recognizing individual letters. * **Top-down:** Using prior knowledge to interpret meaning. * **Example:** Understanding the meaning of a sentence even if some words are unfamiliar. 9. **Armchair vs. field vs. laboratory:** * **Armchair:** Theoretical research based on pre-existing knowledge without direct data collection. * **Example:** Creating grammar rules based on linguistic theories. * **Field:** Collecting data in natural settings. * **Example:** Observing how people greet each other in a community. * **Laboratory:** Controlled experiments in a structured environment. * **Example:** Testing how people recall vocabulary under stress. 10. **Philosophical method:** Using logic and reasoning to study language and meaning. * **Example:** Debating what defines "truth" in language. 11. **Interview method (pros and cons):** * **Pros:** Allows in-depth insights into personal experiences. * **Cons:** Time-intensive and may include bias. * **Example:** Asking multilingual speakers about their language-switching habits. 12. **Notebook method (pros and cons):** * **Pros:** Detailed record of observations. * **Cons:** May overlook real-time nuances. * **Example:** Writing notes on participants' speech patterns during a discussion. 13. **Philological method (pros and cons):** * **Pros:** Useful for historical and textual language analysis. * **Cons:** Limited to written sources, ignoring spoken language. * **Example:** Studying Old English texts for grammatical patterns. 14. **Conversation analytical method (pros and cons):** * **Pros:** Reveals how people interact in detail. * **Cons:** Time-consuming and requires extensive transcription. * **Example:** Examining how turn-taking occurs in casual conversation. 15. **Corpus method (pros and cons):** * **Pros:** Provides large-scale language data. * **Cons:** Lacks context and emotional nuances. * **Example:** Using a database to track changes in word frequency over time. 16. **DCT method (pros and cons):** * **Pros:** Efficient for studying specific speech acts. * **Cons:** Responses may not reflect natural speech. * **Example:** Asking participants to complete sentences like "If someone apologizes, I would say..." 17. **Role plays (pros and cons):** * **Pros:** Simulates real-world interactions. * **Cons:** May feel artificial or staged. * **Example:** Acting out a conversation at a job interview. 18. **Inductivism vs. deductivism:** * **Inductivism:** Creating theories based on observations. * **Example:** Observing that younger speakers use more slang and forming a theory. * **Deductivism:** Testing hypotheses through specific observations. * **Example:** Testing the theory that women interrupt less in conversations. 19. **Natural and elicited data:** * **Natural:** Collected from real-life settings without interference. * **Example:** Recording spontaneous conversations in a café. * **Elicited:** Collected through researcher-designed tasks or prompts. * **Example:** Asking participants to describe a picture. 20. **Random sampling:** Selecting participants randomly to represent a larger group. * **Example:** Choosing 50 random students for a language survey. 21. **Stratified random sampling:** Dividing participants into subgroups and sampling from each. * **Example:** Sampling 50 men and 50 women from a population. 22. **Systematic sampling:** Choosing participants at regular intervals. * **Example:** Selecting every 5th name on a list. 23. **Cluster sampling:** Selecting entire groups (clusters) rather than individuals. * **Example:** Surveying all students from 5 randomly chosen schools. ## Ethical Pillars * **Basic rules for ethical research:** 1. **Respect people:** (get permission before including them). 2. **Do no harm:** (protect them). 3. **Be fair:** (treat everyone equally). 4. **Be honest:** (don't lie about your research). * **Why ethics matters:** * It protects people in the research and ensures trust. * **Example:** If you're interviewing kids, you need permission from their parents first. ## Passive, Active, Disclosed Analysis * **Passive:** Just watching and listening. * **Example:** Observing kids play without interfering. * **Active:** Getting involved. * **Example:** Asking kids questions during their play. * **Disclosed:** Being open about your methods. * **Example:** Telling kids and parents, “I'm studying how children play.” ## Four Central Tenets of Qualitative Research * **Key ideas for studying people:** 1. **Study people in their real settings.** 2. **Be flexible and adjust as you learn more.** 3. **Focus on why things happen, not just numbers.** 4. **Reflect on how your own views affect the research.** ## Qualitative Research Methods * **Philosophical:** Thinking deeply about concepts. * **Example:** "What does happiness really mean?" * **Example:** "How do you stay happy?" * **Interview:** Asking people questions. * **Example:** "How do you stay happy?" * **Philological:** Studying old texts. * **Example:** Reading old love poems to understand how people viewed romance. * **CA (Conversation Analysis):** Analyzing real conversations. * **Example:** Seeing how people take turns talking during a dinner. ## Principles of DA (Discourse Analysis) * **Rules for studying language use:** Focus on meaning, context, and how people communicate. ## CA Research Steps 1. **Record conversations** (e.g., people chatting in a coffee shop). 2. **Write them down.** 3. **Look for patterns**, like who speaks the most or interrupts. ## Transformation from Data Into Text * **Turning what you see or hear into words.** * **Example:** Writing down what people say in an interview. ## Broad and Narrow Transcription * **Broad:** Just the main words. * **Example:** "I like it.” * **Narrow:** Includes details like tone and pauses. * **Example:** "I... really like it!" (shows hesitation or emphasis). ## Intonation Unit * **A short chunk of speech with its own rhythm or pitch.** * **Example:** In "I think / it's great / don't you?", each slash marks an intonation unit. ## Transcription Conventions * **Rules for writing conversations.** * **Example:** (laughs) for laughter, ... for pauses, [overlap] for when people talk at the same time. ## Definition of Ethnography * **Studying people by living or working with them.** * **Example:** Spending months in a village to learn their culture. ## Ethnomethodology * **Studying how people create order in daily life.** * **Example:** Watching how people line up at a coffee shop without written rules. ## Fieldwork * **Going out to study people in their natural environment.** * **Example:** Observing farmers on their fields. ## Types of Notes * **Descriptive:** What you see. * **Example:** "The teacher asked a question, and 5 students raised their hands." * **Reflective:** What you think about it. * **Example:** "The students seemed eager to answer." ## Transformation Into Report * **Turning your notes into a full research paper.** ## Reliability * **Ensuring your results are consistent.** * **Example:** If two people study the same group, they should get similar results. ## Steps to Achieve Coder Agreement * **Training multiple researchers to agree on how to interpret data.** * **Example:** Deciding together what counts as “angry tone” in a transcript. ## Variation * **Differences in how people speak.** * **Example:** Americans say "truck"; Brits say "lorry." ## Influences on Variation * **Things that affect how people talk, like age or where they live.** * **Example:** Young people say "lit"; older people might not. ## Patterns * **Repeated behaviors in language.** * **Example:** People often say "um" when they're unsure. ## Linguistic Norm * **The usual way people speak in a group.** * **Example:** Saying "hello" instead of "yo" in formal situations. ## Linguistic Variable, Sociolinguistic Variable * **Linguistic variable:** A word or sound that changes. * **Example:** Some say "runnin'," others say "running." * **Sociolinguistic variable:** When the change is due to social reasons. * **Example:** People may say "running" in a job interview but "runnin'" with friends. ## Social Variable * **Social factors like age or gender that affect speech.** * **Example:** Women might use more polite language than men in some cultures. ## Dependent vs. Independent Variable * **Dependent:** What you're studying. * **Example:** How often people say "like." * **Independent:** What affects it. * **Example:** Their age. ## Principle of Accountability * **People are responsible for their language choices.** * **Example:** A politician using formal language to appear professional. ## Style * **How you adapt your speech to fit a situation.** * **Example:** Speaking casually with friends but formally at work. ## Overt and Covert Prestige * **Overt prestige:** Using standard language to gain respect. * **Example:** Speaking grammatically at a job interview. * **Covert prestige:** Using non-standard language to fit in. * **Example:** Using slang with your friends. ## Hypercorrection * **Overdoing "proper" language and making mistakes.** * **Example:** Saying "He gave it to John and I” instead of “me” to sound formal. ## Statistical Methods in Linguistics 1. **Careful vs. casual:** * **Careful:** Formal language. **Example:** "I am going to the store." * **Casual:** Informal or relaxed speech. **Example:** "I'm going to the store." 2. **Decision tree:** * A chart to help make choices. * **Example:** "If word frequency > 100 → common word; if < 100 → rare word." 3. **Observer's paradox:** * People change their behavior when they know they're being watched. * **Example:** A child might behave better when they know their teacher is observing. 4. **Histogram:** * A graph that shows how often something happens. * **Example:** A bar graph showing how many times people say "um" in a conversation. 5. **Scatterplot:** * A graph with dots showing relationships between two things. * **Example:** Plotting age vs. word usage (e.g., older people use fewer slang words). 6. **Sociolinguistic interview as data gathering:** * Using interviews to collect information about how people speak. * **Example:** Asking someone, “How do you say hello in your town?" 7. **Evaluation of sociolinguistic interview:** * Checking if the interview gave useful and accurate data. 8. **Descriptive vs. inferential statistics:** * **Descriptive:** Summarizing data. **Example:** “50% of people use slang.” * **Inferential:** Making predictions. **Example:** “Based on the sample, all young people use slang." 9. **Mean / median / mode:** * **Mean:** Average. **Example:** (2+3+4)/3 = 3. * **Median:** Middle value. **Example:** For 2, 3, 8 → Median is 3. * **Mode:** Most common value. **Example:** In 1, 2, 2, 3 → Mode is 2. 10. **Outlier:** * A value that's very different from others. * **Example:** In 2, 3, 4, 100, the outlier is 100. 11. **Percentage / principle of accountability:** * **Percentage:** A part of 100. **Example:** "70% of words were informal." * **Accountability:** Ensuring all data is fairly represented. 12. **Standard deviation:** * Measures how spread out the data is. * **Example:** If most people say a word 5 times, a larger spread means some say it 20 times. 13. **Nominal / ordinal / interval data:** * **Nominal:** Categories. **Example:** Language types (English, Spanish). * **Ordinal:** Order matters. **Example:** Ranking fluency (beginner, intermediate, expert). * **Interval:** Numbers with equal gaps. **Example:** Age (20, 21, 22). 14. **Chi Square test:** * A way to see if categories are related. * **Example:** Testing if gender affects how often people use slang. ## Research Tools: Questionnaires 1. **Factual / behavioral / attitudinal / production questions:** * **Factual:** Collect facts. **Example:** “How old are you?" * **Behavioral:** Ask about actions. **Example:** “How often do you text?” * **Attitudinal:** Opinions. **Example:** “Do you think slang is bad?" * **Production:** Ask people to create something. **Example:** "Write a sentence with 'cool.'" 2. **Open / closed / filter questions:** * **Open:** Free answers. **Example:** “What do you like about slang?" * **Closed:** Multiple choice. **Example:** “Do you use slang? Yes/No.” * **Filter:** Follow-up based on answers. **Example:** “If yes, how often?” 3. **Likert scale:** * A way to rate opinions. * **Example:** “How much do you like slang? (1 = not at all, 5 = love it).” 4. **Semantic differential scale:** * Rating using opposite words. * **Example:** "Slang is: Good 1–2–3–4–5 Bad.” 5. **Piloting:** * Testing a questionnaire on a small group before the real study. * **Example:** Asking 5 people to see if the questions make sense. 6. **Tips for compilation of questionnaire:** * Make clear and simple questions. **Example:** Avoid confusing phrases like, "What's your linguistic inclination?" ## Corpus Linguistics 1. **Normalization:** * Adjusting data to compare fairly. * **Example:** If one book has 1,000 words and another has 10,000, normalize to "words per 100." 2. **Tagging:** * Labeling words in a text. * **Example:** Adding tags like [noun] to words in a sentence: “The [noun] is happy." 3. **Types of corpora:** * Different text collections. **Example:** * **Spoken corpora:** Transcripts of conversations. * **Written corpora:** Books or articles. 4. **Suitability of corpus to research question:** * Choosing the right type of texts for your study. * **Example:** Use spoken corpora to study casual speech. ## Psycholinguistic Experiments 1. **Testing:** * Doing experiments to learn about language and the brain. * **Example:** Measuring how fast people recognize words. 2. **Hypothesis:** * A guess you test. **Example:** "People process short words faster than long ones." 3. **Replicability:** * The experiment should give the same result if repeated. * **Example:** Testing 10 people now and 10 later with similar outcomes. 4. **Control:** * Keeping some factors the same. * **Example:** Testing everyone in a quiet room. 5. **Scientific method:** * Steps for reliable experiments: Hypothesis → Test → Analyze results. 6. **Variables (behavioral, stimulus, subject, dependent, independent, extraneous, constant, discrete, continuous):** * **Behavioral variable:** What people do. **Example:** How often someone smiles. * **Stimulus:** The thing tested. **Example:** Showing people words on a screen. * **Subject variable:** Individual traits. **Example:** Age or gender of participants. * **Dependent:** What you measure. **Example:** Reaction time. * **Independent:** What you change. **Example:** Font size of words. * **Extraneous:** Unwanted influences. **Example:** Noise in the room. * **Constant:** Things kept the same. **Example:** Testing everyone in the same chair. * **Discrete:** Separate values. **Example:** Number of words read (1, 2, 3). * **Continuous:** Can have fractions. **Example:** Reaction time (1.5 seconds). ## The Writing Process 1. **Specific academic genre:** * Writing in a formal, research style. **Example:** Using citations and formal language. 2. **The rule of 'hand':** * Follow structured steps to write clearly (like having a plan or outline). 3. **Structure of an empirical paper:** * Common sections: Introduction → Method → Results → Discussion → Conclusion. 4. **Literature search techniques:** * Finding past research to support your work. **Example:** Searching academic journals. ## Critical Reading of Research 1. **Link between writing and reading:** * Reading research carefully helps you write better papers. * **Example:** Learning how others explain their ideas improves your own writing. ## Easy Definitions with Examples 1. **Rationale/aim of the interview:** * What it's for or why you're doing it. * **Example:** "I want to find out how teenagers speak differently from adults." 2. **Organisation of the interview:** * How you plan the interview or the steps you follow. * **Example:** "First, I'll ask about their background, then I'll record them telling a story." 3. **Vernacular:** * Everyday, casual language (how people talk naturally). * **Example:** Instead of saying "I am not going," someone might say, "I ain't going."