24.1102, Qs: Elicitation Techniques in Sign Language Research

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LINGUIST List: Vol-24-1102. Mon Mar 04 2013. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 24.1102, Qs: Elicitation Techniques in Sign Language Research

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Date: Mon, 04 Mar 2013 13:14:42
From: Carlo Cecchetto [carlo.cecchetto at unimib.it]
Subject: Elicitation Techniques in Sign Language Research

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We are the coordinators of a network of researchers working on European sign
languages that has been funded by the intergovernmental framework for European
Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST). The official name of this
network is SignGram COST Action “Unraveling the grammars of European sign
languages: pathways to full citizenship of deaf signers and to the protection
of their linguistic heritage”.  Its main goal is to coordinate existing
research groups working on sign language (SL) grammar in order to create a
common blueprint to develop grammars for the different European sign
languages. To complement this blueprint, elicitation techniques and materials
for the different grammatical properties are needed.

“Materials” is an umbrella term, which includes pictures, videos but also more
immaterial devices (like plays, ways to set up linguistic exchanges,
suggestions on how to fix problems that usually arise when a specific setting
is used, etc.).

If you or your research group have any materials that have been used to elicit
sign language production for any kind of sign language research (anything from
informal settings when working with informants, to experimental settings), we
kindly request you respond to this short, 10-question survey via Survey Monkey
– link below – by Tuesday, 30 April 2013. Note that this survey is much
shorter than the Word document that was circulated last year (see below) and
should be faster for you to complete.

Note: Survey Monkey only allows one response per person/account, so you will
not be able to submit multiple responses for different projects/sets of
materials. Please give general responses with all of your elicitation
materials (for various projects etc) in mind. We will follow up with you for
more detailed information in future if needed.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7RW3MC5

Although the institutional goal of COST is promoting the study of European
sign languages, we know that this survey might be helpful also for researchers
working on non-European sign languages, so we encourage replies from all
countries.

Some background:

In April 2012, we conducted an initial survey (via messages sent to the SLLING
and SLLS lists) to determine what kinds of elicitation materials have been
used /are being used by sign language researchers, how successful they have
been, and whether those surveyed would be interested in or willing to archive
their materials with SignGram.

We received 19 responses in total. Of those, 7 were from Iceland, 5 from the
UK, 2 from Italy, and 1 each from Italy, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, and
Australia. Several of these were multiple submissions from the same
person/team. Materials were noted to be relevant to phonology/morphology (15),
syntax (9), semantics/pragmatics (9), and/or psycholinguistics (1). Overall,
materials were evaluated as having worked fairly well to elicit the desired
structures, and most were willing to archive. This is good news, but it will
not be cost-effective for us to set up an archive of materials with so few
archivers. So, we need your help with a phase 2 survey.

Why archive? 

Firstly, archiving helps ensure that you get proper credit for the elicitation
materials you have created. Are you already sharing materials with other
researchers informally? If so, hopefully your colleagues have properly
acknowledged your contribution e.g. in publications arising out of that
research. But this might not always happen. By archiving your materials, you
can ensure that researchers can only gain access to the archive if they
formally agree to properly acknowledge/cite the creators of any materials that
are used. Secondly, funders are increasingly encouraging (and some are
requiring) that researchers make their data (including collected data but also
elicitation materials) accessible to other researchers via some kind of
archive. This would help meet such requirements. Thirdly, the more we all put
in, the more we all benefit. Would you be interested in having access to a
large archive of materials that you could use for your own research? If yes,
the only way this will happen is if we share with each other.

What next?

At a later stage (if researchers agree and there no copyright problems) this
material could be uploaded to a SignGram Cost Action archive. This should
allow different teams to use the same type of material to study the same
linguistic phenomenon in different sign languages (adapted for differences
among them studied, of course).

Those who respond to the phase 2 survey will be contacted again, with a
follow-up about the possibility (or not) of sharing materials. Note that
sharing is not required for this survey; any concerns or problems about
possibly sharing materials should be included in the survey. We will
distribute a report about this survey to everyone who responds to this phase 2
survey (as we have already done for those who responded in phase 1). The more
people who respond to this survey, the more useful this exercise will be for
everyone.

For questions, comments or suggestions, please contact Kearsy Cormier:

k.cormier at ucl.ac.uk

We hope that you find this initiative useful and we thank you in advance for
your time and for your invaluable help,

Josep Quer and Carlo Cecchetto
 

Linguistic Field(s): Discipline of Linguistics

Language Family(ies): Sign Language






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