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What kinds of questions do interviewers
ask?
Why
do they need to tape record the interview?
What
exactly do the interviewers do with the interview?
Who
listens to the interview?
What
good does the interview do for the community?
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What
kinds of questions do interviewers ask?
Interviewers try to ask questions
that will produce casual, relaxed conversation. This
usually involves questions about topics ranging from
childhood games to current activities. Since our major
focus is on what people are interested in as they
talk, we focus on getting people to talk about their
favorite topics.
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Why
do they need to tape record the interview?
The interviews
need to be tape recorded because the interviewers
are interested in many aspects of the community’s
language, not just in hearing one or two unusual pronunciations
or a new word. We can’t listen for all the different
features we’re interested in all at once --
and pay attention to what’s being said -- without
making a tape that we can go back and listen to as
many times as we need to. One of our main goals is
to paint as accurate a picture of the language as
possible; tape and video recordings help us ensure
that the descriptions we develop are based on real-life
language use and not on vague impressions.
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What exactly
do the interviewers do with the interview?
We go through each interview in order to describe
exactly how different structures pattern. We also
compare different language items across different
groups of speakers within a community. For example,
we may look at how a particular type of sentence structure
or even a single vowel is produced by older people,
middle-aged people, and younger people to see how
the language is changing over time. Some of the things
that can be done with a tape recording are pretty
amazing. For example, we can isolate a vowel in a
particular word and enter it into a computerized program
that measures exactly the physics of the sound waves
that result in a particular production. The idea behind
all the analysis is to describe honestly and exactly
how Texas German works.
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Who
listens to the interview?
The only people who listen to the interviews are
those doing language studies under Hans Boas’
direction. Special permission must be granted by the
interviewee if the interview is to be used by anyone
else for any other purpose. Taped interviews are given
coded labels and stored in a locked office to further
protect the privacy of each interviewee. When parts
of interviews are used for educational purposes such
as academic conferences, class presentations, or for
presentation over the Internet (for wider accessibility),
the privacy of interviewees is guaranteed.
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What
good does the interview do for the community?
We are very concerned with sharing the knowledge
that we get from communities with them. In fact, a
critical part of our project involves working with
communities to celebrate their language traditions.
We do this in several ways. For example, we will write
a popular account of the Texas German dialect that
can be used in historical preservation efforts. We
will share this with local schools, preservation societies,
and museums that are concerned with preserving cultural
heritage through language. Furthermore, we will put
together an archival tape collection of selected descriptions,
narratives, and oral histories for these institutions.
And we hope eventually to set up a central location
within Texas where these kinds of materials can be
preserved for future generations.
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