Interactive Fieldmethods: Creating a Shared …...Interactive Fieldmethods: Creating a Shared...
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Interactive Fieldmethods: Creating a Shared Learning Space John Gluckman | Linguistics Department Fieldmethods Observable benefits Linguistic fieldmethods is a collaborative, groupwork-oriented course. Students develop linguistic skills to document and analyze a language unfamiliar to the class participants by interviewing a native speaker of the language in and out of class. Course information ● LING 541/741 taught yearly in Spring ● Mix of advanced undergraduates (juniors and seniors) and graduates ● Average of 9 students/semester Goals ● Produce a grammatical sketch of an unfamiliar language (which for Spring 2020 was Turkmen) ● Acquire and utilize practical linguistic fieldmethods skills including elicitation techniques, data storage and management, informative presentation of new data ● Learn about linguistic diversity through interaction with a novel language and culture ● Strengthen collaborative skills while diagnosing interesting phenomena and developing analyses ● Students utilized the data-entry website to great effect. Fieldnotes were perfectly organized and students clearly appreciated the workflow for data entry. ● Reduced instructor time teaching how to input data and file organization. Reduced student time entering data. ● Students observably learned from each other by reading shared fieldnotes and sharing observations. ● Slack chat was used regularly by only a subset of students. This is likely due in part to intimidation; shy users are reluctant to share publicly. ● Slack polling suggested that many students “didn’t have anything to contribute” and that their “contributions weren’t heard or responded to.” Thank you to the students of Spring 20202 LING 441/741 for sharing their time, data, and feedback with me. This work was supported by CTE’s 2020 January Jumpstart What went right: Website and workflow Areas for improvement: Slack integration ● Reduced instructor time teaching data input and correcting shared document ● Easily accessible and searchable fieldnotes → students accessed ● Intuitive workflow: Data entry and audio files are centralized and fully accessible ● Increased communal learning and student engagement. Students engaged with each other to identify and solve issues that arose. Overall. students were more engaged with the material and with each other. Observable bObsevable benefits of website: enefits of website: Observable benefits of website Observable benefits of Slack Reflections Challenges Access to data ● Because language elicitations are conducted in groups both in and out of class, students do not have direct access to at least one half of the collected data. ● Inputting and accessing data files is burdensome for students, and so they often fail to enter data, which further hinders data access for the rest of the class. Student collaboration ● Linguistic fieldmethods is by necessity a collaborative enterprise, but students have a difficult time sharing ideas in real time. ● Students are required to work together to create a grammatical sketch of the language, but it is difficult for students to contribute individual findings while also taking into account the findings of their peers. ● Collaboration with Drake Prebyl ‘22 Computer Science major, Linguistics minor ● Creation of website that provides intuitive and centralized data input and storage ● Linked with OneDrive for full accessibility ● Compatible with point-and-click linguistic orthography (International Phonetic Alphabet, seen to the right) and audio-file streaming, for easy typing and time-stamping ● Shared space for collaboration and student-led learning ● Increased focus on and facilitation of group work ● Slack channels allow for simple group organization ● Slack polls (Polly) allow for quick instructor feedback Course transformations to increase collaboration and data access Collaboration Slack chat Data entry with streamed audio of recorded elicitation, input boxes for language (Turkmen), English translation, and comments on example. Charts show clickable phonetic symbols for transcribing sounds not available in English. List on the right displays session progress. Intuitive and centralized workplace Web interface for data collection
Transcript of Interactive Fieldmethods: Creating a Shared …...Interactive Fieldmethods: Creating a Shared...
Interactive Fieldmethods: Creating a Shared Learning Space John Gluckman | Linguistics Department
Fieldmethods Observable benefits Linguistic fieldmethods is a collaborative, groupwork-oriented course. Students develop linguistic skills to document and analyze a language unfamiliar to the class participants by interviewing a native speaker of the language in and out of class.
Course information ● LING 541/741 taught yearly in Spring ● Mix of advanced undergraduates (juniors and seniors) and graduates ● Average of 9 students/semester
Goals ● Produce a grammatical sketch of an unfamiliar language (which for
Spring 2020 was Turkmen) ● Acquire and utilize practical linguistic fieldmethods skills including
elicitation techniques, data storage and management, informative presentation of new data
● Learn about linguistic diversity through interaction with a novel language and culture
● Strengthen collaborative skills while diagnosing interesting phenomena and developing analyses
● Students utilized the data-entry website to great effect. Fieldnotes were
perfectly organized and students clearly appreciated the workflow for data entry.
● Reduced instructor time teaching how to input data and file organization. Reduced student time entering data.
● Students observably learned from each other by reading shared fieldnotes and sharing observations.
● Slack chat was used regularly by only a subset of students. This is
likely due in part to intimidation; shy users are reluctant to share publicly.
● Slack polling suggested that many students “didn’t have anything to contribute” and that their “contributions weren’t heard or responded to.”
Leading into lecture Online supplements
Thank you to the students of Spring 20202 LING 441/741 for sharing their time, data, and feedback with me.
This work was supported by CTE’s 2020 January Jumpstart
What went right: Website and workflow
Areas for improvement: Slack integration
Slack
● Reduced instructor time teaching data input and correcting shared
document ● Easily accessible and searchable fieldnotes → students accessed ● Intuitive workflow: Data entry and audio files are centralized and
fully accessible ● Increased communal learning and student engagement. Students
engaged with each other to identify and solve issues that arose.
Overall. students were more engaged with the material and with each other.
Observable bObsevable benefits of website:
enefits of website:
Observable benefits of website
Observable benefits of Slack
Reflections
Challenges
Access to data ● Because language elicitations are conducted in groups both in and out
of class, students do not have direct access to at least one half of the collected data.
● Inputting and accessing data files is burdensome for students, and so they often fail to enter data, which further hinders data access for the rest of the class.
Student collaboration ● Linguistic fieldmethods is by necessity a collaborative enterprise, but
students have a difficult time sharing ideas in real time. ● Students are required to work together to create a grammatical sketch
of the language, but it is difficult for students to contribute individual findings while also taking into account the findings of their peers.
● Collaboration with Drake Prebyl ‘22
Computer Science major, Linguistics minor ● Creation of website that provides intuitive and
centralized data input and storage ● Linked with OneDrive for full accessibility ● Compatible with point-and-click linguistic
orthography (International Phonetic Alphabet, seen to the right) and audio-file streaming, for easy typing and time-stamping
● Shared space for collaboration and student-led learning ● Increased focus on and facilitation of group work ● Slack channels allow for simple group organization ● Slack polls (Polly) allow for quick instructor feedback
Course transformations to increase collaboration and data access
Collaboration Slack chat
Data entry with streamed audio of recorded elicitation, input boxes for language (Turkmen), English translation, and comments on example. Charts show clickable phonetic symbols for transcribing sounds not available in English. List on the right displays session progress.
Intuitive and centralized workplace Web interface for data collection
