CLAN questions - new user

Sun Mar 28 17:58:07 UTC 2021

Hi Brenda,

Adding onto Leonid's suggestions about postcodes, which we found helpful
for a similar purpose. Here are some guidelines that we've been using
regarding booksharing where in our study we were trying to distinguish when
caregivers are reading from the book directly (we refer to as 'recited'
speech) or include a mix of recited and spontaneous speech (we refer to as
"recited mixed" speech). Any utterances without a postcode we consider
their spontaneous and natural speech, and this has been working out ok for
us when we want to extract different portions so far. Our decision to
distinguish "recited" from "recited mix" was more for descriptive purposes,
than for our primary research questions, where we just combine both when we
consider reading passages.

Our postcodes:
[+ recit] means they are reciting the text
[+ rmix] means that they are mixing the text with their own deviations from
the text or adding to the text

*Recited utterances: [+ recit]*

Acceptable words for recited speech include speech that is ‘starting’ an
utterance to get the child’s attention. In the example below, “look it
says” is not part of the text, but is starting the utterance.

      *MOT:             look it says Thomas_the_Train went round and round.
[+ recit]

The following are still accepted as recited:

   - If the caregiver reads parts of the recited text and skips around the
   page, but every word is said as it is written, then give this a recited
   code.
   - Changing “that” for “which” or vice versa is acceptable and not enough
   for a rmix postcode.
   - Contractions or vice versa are acceptable as recited because these do
   not change the meaning (e.g., the text is “I will be back said the dog” and
   the caregiver says “I’ll be back said the dog”, or vice versa.)
   - Changing the order of words (e.g., white fluffy feathers to fluffy
   white feathers)

*Recited mixed utterances: [+ rmix]*

Any words that are omitted, added or changed within the text should get the
[+ rmix] postcode. For example, the text is “and King said he was so happy
to see his friends”.

         Omitted “so”:

            *MOT:             and King said he was happy to see his friends
[+ rmix]

         Added language:

            *MOT:             and King said he was so happy to see his
*good* friends [+ rmix]

         Changed language: this includes articles (e.g., a vs. the)

            *MOT:             and King said he was so happy to see his
*friend* [+ rmix]

           We also count translations of the recited text (this counts for
‘live’ translations, where

the caregiver has a book in one language in front of them that does not
have the translated text, so instead is translating it as they read). We
will count this here because this language is no longer spontaneous, since
what to say is dictated by the text available.

On Thu, Mar 25, 2021 at 11:33 AM Brenda Beverly <bbeverly at southalabama.edu>
wrote:

> Leonid:
> Thank you so much for this timely and detailed response to my questions. I
> am excited to use these suggestions to move forward in a way that will
> support our research. I cannot thank you enough.
> all the best,
> Brenda
>
>
> On Thursday, March 25, 2021 at 12:31:52 PM UTC-5 Leonid Spektor wrote:
>
>> Hi Brenda,
>>
>> I can give you my suggestions, but these are definitely not the only
>> choices that you have. Maybe someone else would have better ideas.
>>
>> 1., 2. The post-codes are best way to identify specific utterances from a
>> larger group of utterances. So, for example, if you have *MOT-ET: speaker
>> code for extra-textual talk and *MOR-RE: speaker code for mother
>> reading, then you would have @Participants: MOT Mother header tier to
>> identify one Mother speaker. This way you have only one speaker with
>> different tiers based on what those tiers represent. This way you can use
>> FREQ command to locate just that speaker with the command freq +t*MOT if
>> you want separate results, or freq +t*MOT-RE for just mother reading, or
>> command freq +t*MOT +o3 if you want combined result for all mother's
>> utterances.
>>
>> The post-codes are the best way to tag utterances, because they will
>> allow you to find other dependent tiers along with speaker tiers. For
>> example, if you have utterances:
>>
>> *MOT-ET: extra textual talk [+ CR] .
>> %mor: adj|extra adj|textual n|talk .
>> %gra: 1|3|MOD 2|3|MOD 3|0|INCROOT 4|3|PUNCT
>>
>> and you want to run analyzes on %mor: tier with post-code [+ CR], then
>> you would use command freq +s"[+ CR]" +t%mor or if you want only
>> mother's extra-textual talk utterances with post-code [+ CR], then use
>> command freq +t*MOT-ET +s"[+ CR]" +t%mor.
>>
>> If you use dependent tiers for coding, then it would be more difficult to
>> associate those codes with other tiers of that speaker. It can be done, but
>> it would require two commands 1. KWAL to extract only utterances with that
>> code on dependent tier and next FREQ command to run analyses on those
>> extracted tiers.
>>
>> If you only want to count codes on specific dependent tiers, then using
>> dependent tiers like %xett : $AK will work. Notice, the dependent tier
>> would have to start with 'x' or it will not pass CHECK command.
>>
>> 3. The command that you have freq @ +t*MOT +s"<+ AK>" is best to count
>> number of occurrences of actual codes. If you want to run analyzes on the
>> words used by the speaker, then you would use command freq @ +t*MOT
>> +s"[+ AK]". This can be combined with other dependent tiers associated
>> with that speaker tier. For example, command freq +s"[+ AK]" +t%mor will
>> analyze words on %mor tier.
>>
>> 4. If you mean to run FREQ on multiple files to get separate results for
>> each file, the you could use *.cha or "File In" button in Commands
>> window. If you want to get combined results for multiple files, then add
>> +u option to the command line.
>>
>>
>> Leonid.
>>
>> On Mar 25, 2021, at 11:25, Brenda Beverly <bbev... at southalabama.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>> To Whom It May Concern:
>>
>> I am a new user of CHAT/CLAN (long time SALT user). My colleague in China
>> and I are using CHAT/CLAN for transcription and analysis of mothers'
>> engagement behaviors when book sharing with 4 year olds. We may be able to
>> donate the videos and/or transcripts to CHILDES in the future, but in the
>> short term, we are trying to maximize the CHAT/CLAN capabilities.
>>
>>
>> I have a few questions:
>>
>> 1. Are post codes the best CHAT method for our study purposes? After
>> working to learn CHAT , it seems that our study-specific coding of
>> engagement strategies is best accomplished through post codes. So, we have
>> an utterance and then a post code - for example,  [+ CR] which is our
>> abbreviation for Choral Reading, an engagement strategy of the mothers that
>> we are tracking.
>>
>>
>> 2. How could we get separate tiers for when the mothers are reading the
>> text from the children's book versus when the mothers are talking/speaking,
>> not reading? We have ruled out @g. It seems @g is better for 2 different
>> book sharing activities, not these separate types of talk with one book
>> sharing/storybook. We are considering labeling the Participant tier to
>> separate this - @MOT for Mother reading, but maybe @MET for Mother's
>> extra-textual talk. This will likely give us the output we need but it's
>> not truly 2 different participants. In that regard, it feels like we might
>> be missing out on a tier option that would be a better representation of
>> the transcripts. Should we have set this up with a dependent tier using
>> %ETT (extra-textual talk) perhaps? Could we keep the post codes and add
>> this following the MOT utterances that are extra textual? Or do we need to
>> use the codes together, for example:
>>
>> %ETT : AK (AK = our code for an acknowledgment)
>>
>> 3. Is the freq command the best CLAN program for our purposes? We have
>> successfully run freq to obtain the counts for the post-codes and exported
>> that to excel.
>>
>> The program my colleague ran was:
>> freq @ +[*MOT = s"<+ AK>"
>> She ran separate analyses for each of the engagement behaviors - AK for
>> acknowledgement as well as CR Choral Reading etc.
>> This is working. I was simply curious if this was the best/right option,
>> especially given my other questions about the use of post codes and tiers.
>>
>>
>> 4. Lastly, I believe we could run a command that would include all 10
>> participant transcripts, but I haven't studied or determined how to set
>> that up. Are you able to assist?
>>
>> My apologies for these basic questions. We are excited to access
>> CHAT/CLAN for this project and future work. Your support is greatly
>> appreciated!
>>
>> Brenda Beverly
>> bbev... at southalabama.edu
>> 251.635.3999 <(251)%20635-3999> mobile #
>>
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