13.2882, Sum: Field Linguist Survey

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-13-2882. Thu Nov 7 2002. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 13.2882, Sum: Field Linguist Survey

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U.<aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Dry, Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org):
	Simin Karimi, U. of Arizona
	Terence Langendoen, U. of Arizona

Consulting Editor:
        Andrew Carnie, U. of Arizona <carnie at linguistlist.org>

Editors (linguist at linguistlist.org):
	Karen Milligan, WSU 		Naomi Ogasawara, Arizona U.
	James Yuells, EMU		Marie Klopfenstein, WSU
	Michael Appleby, EMU		Heather Taylor, EMU
	Ljuba Veselinova, Stockholm U.	Richard John Harvey, EMU
	Dina Kapetangianni, EMU		Renee Galvis, WSU
	Karolina Owczarzak, EMU		Anita Huang, EMU
	Tomoko Okuno, EMU		Steve Moran, EMU
	Lakshmi Narayanan, EMU		Sarah Murray, WSU
	Marisa Ferrara, EMU

Software: Gayathri Sriram, E. Michigan U. <gayatri at linguistlist.org>
          Zhenwei Chen, E. Michigan U. <chen at linguistlist.org>
	  Prashant Nagaraja, E. Michigan U. <prashant at linguistlist.org>

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Editor for this issue: Steve Moran <steve at linguistlist.org>

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1)
Date:  Tue, 5 Nov 2002 14:41:33 -0500
From:  Doug Whalen <whalen at alvin.haskins.yale.edu>
Subject:  Summary: Field Ling Dissertation Survey

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Tue, 5 Nov 2002 14:41:33 -0500
From:  Doug Whalen <whalen at alvin.haskins.yale.edu>
Subject:  Summary: Field Ling Dissertation Survey

Dear Listers,

A month ago, we posted a survey on the experience of students and
professors in incorporating field work into dissertation work
(Linguist 13.2510).  We would like to thank Steve Moran of the
Linguist List for doing the programming on this survey--the mechanics
worked quite well.  (Thanks also to eagle-eyed respondents who found
the one spot that didn't work so well--it is now fixed.) We have now
received 81 responses, 31 from professors and 50 from students.  They
were studying or teaching in the following countries:

Professors:  USA (16), Germany (2), Japan (2), Malaysia (2), Albania,
Australia, France, Iceland, Poland, Sweden, Tunisia, the UK and not
given.

Students: USA (23), Canada (4), the UK (4), Australia (3),
Afghanistan (2), Germany (2), India (2), Iran (2), Argentina,
Denmark, Fiji, Finland, France, Greece, Mexico, and Portugal.

For the students, we were interested in finding out whether they
planned to do field work in their dissertations (86% said yes), and
whether they had ever had a field work dissertation turned down (12%
said yes, and another 4% had changed topics or advisors even though
they ended up with a field work dissertation). There were problems
that were not evident in those answers, as with the student who
wrote, "It was not turned down, yet you can not imagine what I went
through to get it finished."  Another said, "I might have liked to do
field work but doubted I would get the money for it."  Some
persevered despite lack of support from their advisors.

For the professors, we were interested in whether they did field work
themselves and, if not, whether they had turned down proposals
including field work.  68% did field work of their own, and all but
one of them was directing field work dissertations.  Half of those
not doing field work themselves were directing field work
dissertations.  One thing that appeared in the survey even though we
had not anticipated it was that 42% of those professors who did field
work still turned down proposals which included field work.  We were
trying to ask for just those proposals that were turned down
specifically because they contained field work; the way we asked it
was somewhat more ambiguous than that so that these numbers might
have included proposals that were turned down because they were
inadequate proposals that happened to include field work.

We also asked whether those who did not do field work would be
interested in attending a workshop designed to put them in a position
to oversee field work dissertations.  70% said that they were.
Surprisingly (to us), almost half of those who already did field work
were also interested, hoping to hear what was the latest in such
topics as phonetic analysis, survey techniques, and lexicography.

Because our survey was about field work, it was mostly taken by those
doing field work.  This led to the apparent conclusion that most
linguists are doing (or at least advising) field work.  We believe
that this is incorrect, but it would take a less self-selective
survey to show that.  Nonetheless, it does appear that having a
workshop for improving advising skills for field dissertations would
be useful.

If you would like to take the survey, we are still collecting
responses.  It can be found at:

http://emeld.org/news/survey.cfm

If there are enough responses, we will post a further summary.

Dafydd Gibbon  gibbon at spectrum.uni-bielefeld.de
Doug Whalen  whalen at haskins.yale.edu
-
Doug Whalen (whalen at haskins.yale.edu)
Haskins Laboratories
270 Crown St.
New Haven, CT 06511
203-865-6163, ext. 234
FAX:  203-865-8963
http://www.haskins.yale.edu/

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