Linguistics Research Project
Spring 2013
- You may work with one partner.
- Remember that linguists are scientists. You will use the scientific method for
your project.
The
steps of the scientific method are to:
1. Ask a Question
2. Do Background Research
3. Construct a Hypothesis
4. Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an
Experiment
5. Analyze Your Data and Draw a
Conclusion
6. Communicate Your Results
Here’s
how we’ll do that:
1. Ask a Question Picking your topic is a very
important part of the process. Start by
asking a question that you have related to language. Think about what you’ve written about in your
Daily Language Observations as a starting point. Select a question/ topic that is narrow
enough so that you can say something significant about what you learn. For example, “Sociolinguistics” is not an
appropriate topic; it is a vast field about which hundreds of books have been
written. “How Often Spontaneous
Conversations Happen in Elevators at West Allis Memorial Hospital on May 8, 2013”
is a more manageable topic.
2.
Do Background Research Look
up your topic online and in books. Have
other linguists written about your topic?
Take notes on what you find, keeping careful track of your sources.
3.
Construct
a Hypothesis What
do YOU expect to find as the answer to your initial question?
4.
Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an
Experiment How will you
test your hypothesis? Through
observation? Through a survey? By eliciting data similar to how William
Labov did as he studied the relationship between social class and r-lessness in
the three stores in New York City
5.
Analyze Your Data and Draw a
Conclusion What have you learned? What does your data show?
6.
Communicate Your Results
What does your study teach us as linguists and as
people? What are the more far-reaching
implications of your study?
How
to Present Your Research:
·
Write a 4-6 page
essay in MLA format with in-text citations and a Works Cited page. It would be appropriate to use headings to
break up your essay to show the different parts of your study.
·
Plan a five
minute presentation to the class with the assistance of a visual aide (ex: poster, graph, hand-out, Power Point, Prezi).
I'm curious -- what kinds of questions do your students pose and hypothesize about? I just started teaching an etymology course this year and will teach it again next year, and I would like to add a project component to it but I'm not sure where to go with it. Also, what Daily Language Observations do you have your students do?
ReplyDeleteOur Daily Language Observations are what glue our classes together. We begin every class (which we have every other day) by talking about what we've observed recently about language (pronunciations, slang, which words we use in different contexts, language use amongst different ages, races, genders, etc.). At the end of the school year, students pick a topic that interests them that has come up in our conversations to investigate further.
ReplyDeleteSome of the questions being explored this year are:
-Who says "grocery" with an [s] sound in the middle versus an "sh" sound?
-What kinds of judgment do people pass about people because of their first names?
-Which phonemes do native speakers of Spanish have trouble pronouncing when speaking English?
-How much slang from the 1960s is still used today?
-Do men or women use more adjectives to describe a picture?
-What do people call the end piece of a loaf of bread? A woman's hair tie?
-What profanity do people find most offensive?
-What is the jargon of basketball?
-What kind of slang do people use in jail?
-How do people judge speakers with a Southern accent versus a British accent?
Hope this helps!