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)- Sounds (Phonemes):
Which sounds were very different from yours?
Which sounds were problematic for the participants to produce and 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” - Grammar (Syntax) :
Was there any grammatical challenges?
How were th