5 Language & Culture: Interview Project

In this project you will interview an individual who speaks English as a second language (about 10 minutes) and write a report.

• Select an individual who has a noticeably different accent.
  (Avoid someone who speaks English as a second language but is fluent and does not have a noticeably different accent)  If you speak English as a second language,  you should interview someone who speaks English as the first language or who speaks English in an accent very different from yours.
• You will audiotape or videotape this interview
• You must obtain the participant’s informed consent- (use the consent form provided on page 3)
• Analyse the contents of the interview by identifying distinct linguistic features.
  Focus on the sounds, pronunciation, grammar, expressions; the actual content of the interview is not relevant for analyses.

Detailed guidelines

• Your participant must be duly instructed and an informed consent for audio or video taping the interview must be obtained BEFORE the interview.
• Ask your participant about his/her cultural background for about 10 minutes.
  Keep the interview informal.  (Make sure that your participant talks more than you !).
  For the interview, the following questions may be used.
  You may tailor your interview around these and may add more/different questions if you wish:
  • What is your cultural background?
  • What similarities do you see in your culture and this (Canadian) culture?
  • What are the major differences between your culture and this (Canadian) culture?
  • When and how did you first learn to speak English?
  • What challenges you experience while speaking English to a native English speaker?
  • Can you think of some proverbs or sayings or phrases which are unique to your language – which you do not find in English language?
• Keep track of when you had to ask the participant to repeat what he/she had just said.
  As well, when the participant asked you to repeat what you had just said
• During the last 2 minutes of the interview, ask your participant to read a simple and interesting clip from a newspaper or a magazine (about 100-150 words) which you will provide.
  Make sure that this clip does not contain technical jargons.
• After the interview is over, continue the recording with you reading the same clip (for comparison)
  • Analyse the interview and the shared reading of the clip for the following
    (remember that the focus is on the Linguistic features, not on the interviewee’s  cultural experiences)
    1. Sounds (Phonemes):
       Which sounds were very different from yours?
       Which sounds were problematic for the participants to produce and for you to understand?
    2. Words (Morphemes):
       Which words were problematic for you to understand?
       Were there words used which were not incorrect, yet were problematic?
       e.g., “thrice” – instead of “three times”,  “lift”– instead of “elevator”
       Was there a different “accent” or emphasis on certain syllables in the word?
       e.g., Photographer instead of “Photographer”
    3. Grammar (Syntax) :
       Was there any grammatical challenges?
       How were the basic verb, object, noun organized?
       e.g., “School I go last night and no teacher showing”
    4. Cultural Variation in Communication Style: Was any of the following evident?
       A) Direct versus Indirect
       B) Elaborate versus Succinct
       C) Personal versus Contextual
       D) Instrumental versus Affective
    5. Culture reflected in Proverbs/Phrases/Sayings:
       What did you understand about the participants’ culture from the culturally specific Proverbs/Phrases/Sayings?
       e.g., Swedish Proverb:  “He who stirs another’s porridge often burns his own” indicates a very individualistic culture, while an Ethiopian Proverb; “When spider webs unite they can tie up a lion” reflects a collectivist culture.
    6. Any other observations about the communication pattern in general
    7. Do a scholarly research about the linguistic features of the first language of your interviewee
    8. Write up your report summarizing the above (about 800-1000 words). Include what advice you would give to an individual who plans to have a verbal communication with people whose linguistic background is similar to the person you interviewed?
       • Ø Add in the Appendix, a transcript of the selected conversation piece that you found most interesting and relevant for the analysis (this is NOT included in the 800-1000 word limit)

An A+ Assignment

• contains a title page
• is well-written in APA style
• begins with a nice introduction, followed by appropriate subheadings & paragraphs
  • is well-organized with points following a logical order
  • has analysed each linguistic component in a scholarly manner
  • has included all the required parts of the assignment
  • has integrated psychological terms, concepts pertaining to language & culture
  • has examined the application of the analysis to day-to-day life
  • has included appropriate scholarly references (one or two) to enrich the analyses