Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods in Sociolinguistics

The course aims to provide students with a solid theoretical background in quantitative and qualitative methods used in sociolinguistic research, including but not limited to methods used in variationist linguistics, ethnography of speech, and discourse analysis. Students will explore multiple techniques for getting spoken and written language data such as observation, participant-observation, sociolinguistic interviewing, and surveys. This course focuses on both quantitative and qualitative approaches to gathering and analyzing language, and privileges research methods in studies of bilingualism and multilingualism. The course will also cover monolingual variation, issues of sampling, and research ethics.

The main aim of the course is to introduce students to the research methods and tools used in the studies of sociolinguistics and multilingualism; to develop practical skills in conducting original sociolinguistic research—from research design, data collection and analysis to academic paper which focuses on empirically-based research findings.

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Introduction to course: research methods in sociolinguistics and multilingualism: key concepts and paradigms. Links between research design, method, and data collection. Observations and recordings (audio vs. video). Transcription. Statistical tools and quantification. Corpora Social network analysis. Conversation and interactional analysis Critical discourse and narrative analysis Multimodal analysis Media-based language studies: Television, greeting cards, advertisements, radio Research question & design based on media-related language topic Quantitative vs. qualitative research: concepts and definitions Study design: cross-sectional, longitudinal, case group, experimental, quasi-experimental Interviews and questionnaires Doing linguistic ethnography Writing the research paper: formulating a research question, constructing hypothesis, designing the research, situating the research in a broader context (literature overview), presenting and discussing the findings Types of data: diachronic vs. synchronic research. Data collection: selection process (informants, researcher’s identity, observer’s paradox) Reliability and validity of data. Ethical issues

1. Written assignments: individual practice of interviewing and transcribing, team-based short research reports (corpus analysis) 2. Seminar activities: informed consent design, language attitudes self-analysis, application of (multimodal) discourse analysis, curriculum design for language assessment 3. Midterm exam: a methodological review of three articles (written essay). 4. Final examination: a research proposal on a selected topic (oral presentation and written essay).