Sign Language Assessment Procedures Parks 2011

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Sociolinguistic Sign Language Assessment

Procedure

Elizabeth Parks and Jason Parks

September 2011


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Table of Contents

1

Background research ............................................................................................................................ 4

1.1

Internet and library research ........................................................................................................ 4

1.2

Contact correspondence list ......................................................................................................... 6

1.3

Preliminary plan .......................................................................................................................... 6

1.4

Background report ....................................................................................................................... 6

1.5

Fieldwork itinerary ...................................................................................................................... 9

2

Fieldwork ............................................................................................................................................. 9

2.1

Engaging participants during fieldwork ...................................................................................... 9

2.2

Participant consent ..................................................................................................................... 10

2.3

Rapid appraisal research tools ................................................................................................... 11

2.3.1

Participant observation .......................................................................................................... 11

2.3.2

Asking questions at deaf schools .......................................................................................... 12

2.3.3

Sociolinguistic questionnaire ................................................................................................ 12

2.3.4

Natural signed texts ............................................................................................................... 13

2.3.5

Wordlist comparison ............................................................................................................. 13

2.3.6

Recorded Text Testing .......................................................................................................... 15

2.4

Daily organization of fieldwork data ......................................................................................... 172.4.1

Note-taking ............................................................................................................................ 17

2.4.2

Data filing.............................................................................................................................. 18

2.4.3

Schedule planning ................................................................................................................. 18

2.5

Team debriefing ......................................................................................................................... 19

3

Data organization ............................................................................................................................... 19

3.1

Working with Microsoft Word and Excel ................................................................................. 19

3.1.1

Creating documents with forms ............................................................................................ 19

3.1.2

Transferring form data to a spreadsheet ................................................................................ 20

3.1.3

Converting SLQ form data .................................................................................................... 23

3.2

Analyzing wordlist comparisons ............................................................................................... 24

3.3

Organizing email correspondence ............................................................................................. 29

3.4

Organizing observation data ...................................................................................................... 314

Qualitative data analysis ..................................................................................................................... 31

4.1

Participant observation notes ..................................................................................................... 31

4.2

Sociolinguistic questionnaires ................................................................................................... 32

5

Reports ............................................................................................................................................... 33

5.1

Types of information to include in the reports .......................................................................... 33

5.2

Confidential In-House report ..................................................................................................... 35

5.3

People Profile ............................................................................................................................ 37

5.3.1

Complete People Profile........................................................................................................ 37

5.3.2 Survey teams one page overview ......................................................................................... 38

5.4

SIL Electronic Survey Report (SIL-ESR) ................................................................................. 38

5.5

Reports to the local community ................................................................................................. 38

5.6

Ethnologueupdate and ISO-Code requests ............................................................................... 385.6.1

Ethnologueupdate process .................................................................................................... 395.6.2

ISO 693-3: New Code Element & Change Code Requests ................................................... 39

5.7

Academic journal submission .................................................................................................... 40

6

Archiving ............................................................................................................................................ 40

7

Appendix: Initial and follow-up email templates ............................................................................... 40

8

Appendix: Preliminary plan template................................................................................................. 41

9

Appendix: Sociolinguistic questionnaire template ............................................................................. 43

10

Appendix: Fieldwork debrief template............................................................................................... 44


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Appendix: Wordlist items .................................................................................................................. 46

12

Appendix: Wordlist handshape parameter coding chart .................................................................... 48

13

Appendix: Wordlist location parameter coding diagram ................................................................... 49


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The purpose of this paper is to record the sign language survey procedure that has developed during the 5years of our sign language survey research in the Americas Area for SIL International. We describe sixstages of the sign language survey rapid appraisal process: background research, fieldwork, dataorganization, data analysis, report writing, and archiving.

1

Background researchThere are five documents to create during the background research stage of rapid appraisal survey:

1.

Summary of pertinent information found through library and internet research,2.

Contact correspondence list that summarizes communication with contacts prior to fieldwork,3.

Preliminary plan that lists the survey teams goals for fieldwork,4.

Background report summarizing the relevant information found about the target deaf communityand their sign language(s), and

5.

Itinerary listing the target people and places to meet with during fieldwork.

During background research, organize all resources found during library and internet research (templateavailable). Make sure to include bibliographic details about where information was found, authors, date it

was accessed online, etc. Immediately start organizing the data into appropriate topic headings (e.g.education, religion, associations) assigning these topics as level one headings using the document stylestool. Assign descriptive titles to each resource that would be easily identifiable from the bibliographicdata (assigning them as level two headings using the styles tool). Finally, make a table of contents in thisdocument so that sections and complete resource data can be easily accessed using the hyperlink function.

1.1

Internet and library researchFor each of the key word searches described below, use the target countrys name with the terms listed inas Level 2 related to the target people group (e.g. Jamaica + Deaf). After exhausting these combinations(seeing the same resources appear), then search for the target countrys name and each of the termsrelated to the target people groups in combination with related topics in Level 3 (e.g. Jamaica + Deaf +Education). If working in a country with Spanish as the language of wider communication (LWC), it is

helpful to do these searches in both English and Spanish (or whatever the LWC is for the target country).

Word Level 1 English Word Level

2

Spanish Word

Level 2

English Word

Level 3

Spanish Word

Level 3

Country name Deaf Sordo Education Educacion

Hard of Hearing Sordomudo Church Iglesia

Hearing Impaired Sordera Ministry Cultura

Disability/Disabled Audicin Policy Asociacion

Handicap Discapacidad Rights Lengua

Hearing Perdida auditiva Culture Lenguaje

Hipoacusia Association Idioma

Cofosis Clubs SeasLanguage Signantes

Sign Signos

Audiology Audifono

Aids

Cochlear Implants Implante coclear

Other locations through in which to search for related information include:


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1.

Local library cataloguse local library catalogs (either online or in person) to see what types ofbooks, journals, etc. they have on site that can be checked out. In particular, local libraries probablyhave tourist guides that can be helpful for planning the survey trip itself (e.g. Lonely Planet, Moon,etc.) and cultural information that will be helpful in learning how best to interact in culturallyappropriate ways in country (e.g. country studies, etc.).

2.

Electronic journal searchuse Ebscohost and/or other search engines that may apply to the subjects

of social sciences, linguistics, language, disability, deafness, anthropology, etc. These can typically befound through your local librarys computers but may alsobe accessible online through yourmembership with another library.

3.

InternetWeb browsing using a number of internet search engines (e.g. google.com, yahoo.com, etc.)and follow up on the first 50-80 links given for each search engine before moving on to the nextsearch. Do not stop running searches until you are repeatedly seeing the same web pages. Look forinformation beginning with the websites listed below:

a.

General Demographicsi.

CIA Factbook for general demographic information about target country and simple maps(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/)

ii.

Wikipediafor general demographic info, city populations(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)

iii.

World Atlasgeneral demographics and maps (http://www.worldatlas.com/)iv.

United Nations Statisticspopulations of cities over 100,000 people(http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sconcerns/densurb/urban.aspx)

b.

Language & Linguistic Informationi. Ethnologueentry for linguistic and population information about target people group and

country (http://www.ethnologue.com/)ii.

International Bibliography of Sign Languagelist of published articles focused on signlanguages, linguistics, and deaf communities (http://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/BibWeb/Bibliography.html)

c.

Deaf Communityi.

Deaf Worldlinks to associations listed by country(http://www.deaflinx.com/WorldWide/world.html)

ii.

World Deaf Directory for email addresses of deaf individuals in target country(http://www.deafconnect.com/)

iii.

Deaf Ministry Connection for churches, ministries, etc.(http://deafministriesconnection.netfirms.com/)

iv.

World Federation of the Deaf for national deaf-led organizations (http://www.wfdeaf.org)v.

YouTube for any related videos (www.youtube.com)vi.

World BankDisability informationsearch by publications, region/country specificinformation(http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALPROTECTION/EXTDISABILITY/0,,menuPK:282704~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:282699,00.html)

d.

TravelLogistics and Safety

i.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to make sure that the team going for fieldworkhave the required immunizations and take necessary health precautions for traveling incountry (http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/default.aspx)

ii.

Trip Advisor for information about hotels and other itinerary planning resources(www.tripadvisor.com)
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Pagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Pagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Pagehttp://www.worldatlas.com/http://www.worldatlas.com/http://www.worldatlas.com/http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sconcerns/densurb/urban.aspxhttp://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sconcerns/densurb/urban.aspxhttp://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sconcerns/densurb/urban.aspxhttp://www.ethnologue.com/http://www.ethnologue.com/http://www.ethnologue.com/http://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/BibWeb/Bibliography.htmlhttp://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/BibWeb/Bibliography.htmlhttp://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/BibWeb/Bibliography.htmlhttp://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/BibWeb/Bibliography.htmlhttp://www.deaflinx.com/WorldWide/world.htmlhttp://www.deaflinx.com/WorldWide/world.htmlhttp://www.deaflinx.com/WorldWide/world.htmlhttp://www.deafconnect.com/http://www.deafconnect.com/http://www.deafconnect.com/http://deafministriesconnection.netfirms.com/http://deafministriesconnection.netfirms.com/http://deafministriesconnection.netfirms.com/http://www.wfdeaf.org/http://www.wfdeaf.org/http://www.wfdeaf.org/http://www.youtube.com/http://www.youtube.com/http://www.youtube.com/http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALPROTECTION/EXTDISABILITY/0,,menuPK:282704~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:282699,00.htmlhttp://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALPROTECTION/EXTDISABILITY/0,,menuPK:282704~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:282699,00.htmlhttp://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALPROTECTION/EXTDISABILITY/0,,menuPK:282704~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:282699,00.htmlhttp://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALPROTECTION/EXTDISABILITY/0,,menuPK:282704~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:282699,00.htmlhttp://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALPROTECTION/EXTDISABILITY/0,,menuPK:282704~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:282699,00.htmlhttp://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/default.aspxhttp://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/default.aspxhttp://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/default.aspxhttp://www.tripadvisor.com/http://www.tripadvisor.com/http://www.tripadvisor.com/http://www.tripadvisor.com/http://wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/default.aspxhttp://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALPROTECTION/EXTDISABILITY/0,,menuPK:282704~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:282699,00.htmlhttp://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALPROTECTION/EXTDISABILITY/0,,menuPK:282704~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:282699,00.htmlhttp://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALPROTECTION/EXTDISABILITY/0,,menuPK:282704~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:282699,00.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/http://www.wfdeaf.org/http://deafministriesconnection.netfirms.com/http://www.deafconnect.com/http://www.deaflinx.com/WorldWide/world.htmlhttp://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/BibWeb/Bibliography.htmlhttp://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/BibWeb/Bibliography.htmlhttp://www.ethnologue.com/http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/sconcerns/densurb/urban.aspxhttp://www.worldatlas.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Pagehttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/


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1.2

Contact correspondence listRecord any contact information that you have for people related to the local deaf community in the targetlocation. Make sure to record the best way to communicate with them (language, email, phone, culturalorientation, etc.). Start contacting these people with the introductory email templates after you have apreliminary plan created and fieldwork dates tentatively set. Keep track of when you contact them the

first time, what their reply is, and general information about your discussion with them. Make sure to saveall email correspondence in one folder for future archiving (this should include both emails that you sendand those that you receive).

When corresponding with local contacts, it is important to be clear, direct, and concise. Initial emailsshould include information about how you found their contact information, a brief description of who youare, the reason for your writing, and an invitation to respond if interested (See Appendix for possibleinitial and follow-up email templates). If the email bounces, mark this in the spreadsheet. If the personreplies, follow up with more specific questions based on their role in the local deaf community (secondemail template with possible follow up questions is available). While trying to build relationships, be sureto include enough information for them to know who you are but not so much that they are overwhelmed.In addition, many of the contacts may have low literacy levels, so written correspondence should be kept

simple.

1.3

Preliminary planIn the preliminary plan (See Appendix for a possible preliminary plan template), propose specificresearch questions, survey methodology including specific research tools, target contacts and researchlocations, estimated expenses, and fieldwork timeline. The preliminary plan should be determined basedon the information gathered during background research. Research questions should be proposed based onknowledge of the local situation and the desired information needed from the survey. Research toolsshould be chosen to answer the specific research questions, keeping in mind the financial and timelimitations of the survey fieldwork. This document typically needs to be approved before fieldwork isinitiated. It will help keep the researchers focused on the specific goal(s) of the rapid appraisal survey.

1.4

Background reportSummarize and describe the information you find in a background report. Background reports typicallyinclude section headings such as an overview of the country, disability in context, sociolinguistic factorsrelevant to the deaf community, deaf education and school, deaf and disability organizations, deafchurches and ministries, social access, sign language use and history, fieldwork recommendations, contactinformation, and references. At times there may not be enough information to fill out some of thisinformation or you may have found information that is important for a holistic understanding of thesociolinguistic situation of the target community. Feel free to combine, delete, or create new types ofsection headings in a way that best organizes the available information. The final section of this reportshould suggest next steps for survey fieldwork. The goal of this report is to have all of the backgroundinformation in one location, to make the information you gathered accessible to your teammates for group

discussion of survey goals, and to serve as the basis of the report to be written after the fieldwork iscompleted.

It is important to have a basic understanding of formatting and styles in order to create survey reports thatare clear and consistent. It is helpful to establish a standard style and format at the beginning of thebackground report so that it can the same report can later serve as the basis for reports to be distributed atthe end of the survey process. If at all possible, all formatting for reports should be done through the useof styles and not locally (e.g. changing fonts from the toolbar). A helpful web resource to understand how


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to work with styles and formatting is:http://addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm.We recommend thatyou use the template created for the SIL Electronic Survey Reports (ESRs) as the basis for all surveyreports (ESR template available).

In addition, the background report should have a working map of the target location. Maps of the countryor community should be included in the survey reports. Use the following techniques to adapt a map for

survey report purposes using the GIMP. The GIMP is a powerful image editor that is open-source andfree (download at:http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html).

Start with a basic country map (for most of our purposes, a country map is sufficient since the deafcommunities surveyed are spread across a country). The CIA World Factbook is probably the easiestplace to find a basic country map (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/refmaps.htmlselect the country from the drop down menu at the top of the webpage,right click on the country map and select Save Image As and it will be saved on your computer as a GIFimage file). You can also search on google images, but make sure the map image quality is not too low (atleast 300 pixel resolution and 30-50 KB in size) or the map is too colorful or cluttered. A simple colorscheme similar to the World Factbook is preferred.

This is a Paraguay country map as downloaded fromGoogle images (the World Factbook map actually hadaccents in the wrong places in city names). Notice thatthere are several cities and a mountain that were notsignificant survey/deaf community locations.

First, we will erase unimportant cities, mountains,rivers, etc.

Second, we will add any cities or locations thatwere visited during fieldwork or are important deafcommunity locations.

Third, if needed, we can add a continent map to

show broader context. Fourth, one method will be shown for how to

highlight an area of a country that has a uniquesociolinguistic situation or sign language.

1. Erasing Items

Select the Paintbrush or Pencil tool.

Select the background map color as your brushcolor by pressing and holding the Ctrl button andand clicking on the map at a point that is the coloryou want to use.

Paint over the cities/names that you want toerase.
http://addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htmhttp://addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htmhttp://addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htmhttp://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.htmlhttp://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.htmlhttp://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.htmlhttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/refmaps.htmlhttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/refmaps.htmlhttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/refmaps.htmlhttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/refmaps.htmlhttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/refmaps.htmlhttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/refmaps.htmlhttp://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.htmlhttp://addbalance.com/usersguide/styles.htm


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2. Adding Text

For Paraguay, we need to identify the location of Filadelfia,Caaguaz, and Coronel Oveido.

Select the Clone tool . Hold the Ctrl button

and click on an existing city dot. Then click on themap were other cities are located to produce a citymarker similar in size to the other city markers.

Caaguazu and Coronel Oveido are in line withAsuncion and Ciudad del Este, so make a rectangle

selection of the city names, copy, and pasteas new layer, then rotate the new layer with the

rotate tool to make room for other cities.

Select the Text tool . Choose a font that issimilar to the other fonts (in this case Arial, size 13looks pretty close). Type in the city names. If youneed to rotate the name so it fits, use the rotate tool.If you need letters with accents, one way to do thisis copy an accented letter from word and paste itinto the text box in GIMP.

3. Adding a Continent or Country Profile Map

You can search google images for a country profilemap. Or there are nice country outline maps atWorld Atlas.(http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/testmaps/maps.htm)

Save the country outline and open it in GIMP as anew image. Insert a new white layer and move it tothe background so the black outline is clearly seen.

Use the bucket fill tool to fill in the countryoutlines and highlight the appropriate country.Goto the country map and select the colors to use withthe bucket fill tool so that the profile and countrymap match.

Copy the outline map and insert it into the countrymapchange the layer size as needed and put it ina corner (move things around (as I did with the

Argentina country name) as needed).
http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/testmaps/maps.htmhttp://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/testmaps/maps.htmhttp://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/testmaps/maps.htmhttp://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/testmaps/maps.htmhttp://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/testmaps/maps.htmhttp://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/testmaps/maps.htm


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4. Highlighting an area

You may want to highlight a certain area of the map. In thisexample, we are highlighting the eastern part of Paraguay.

Create a selection with any selection tool (I used

the ellipse select tool here) and then bucket fill theselection with any color.

To make visibility of items possible, reduce theopacity of the filled selection with the opacityslider bar in the GIMP layers window (in thisexample, I used black color and set the opacity at13).

Save the final image as GIMPs native file format (*.xcf file extension) which will allow you to preservethe image in full quality with all layers maintained if you need to modify the map later. Also save theimage as a GIF image file which will have a much smaller file size, and insert this gif image file in yourreport documents so that the reports do not have too large of a file size. Make sure the map image has aresolution of at least 400-500 pixels on its longest side.

1.5

Fieldwork itineraryMake a list of key organizations, churches, hotels, and/or people to visit during fieldwork (itinerarytemplate available). For each subject, list known or pre-arranged meeting times, and include streetaddresses, maps, phone numbers, email addresses, etc. by cities planned to visit. Print a hardcopy for easyaccess during fieldwork travel (short and clear, 1-2 pages).

2

FieldworkIn this section, we discuss aspects of the fieldwork phase of survey work, providing guidelines on how touse various survey tools, including some pointers on how to engage participants during fieldwork, takedaily observation notes, obtain participant consent, conduct a wordlist elicitation, design and administer arecorded text test with the retelling method, daily organization of notes, and conduct a team debriefing atthe end of survey work.

2.1 Engaging participants during fieldworkThe purpose of this section is to address ways that surveyors can describe their fieldwork goals and inviteparticipation of target groups and individuals during these and other unscheduled meetings. We describe a

few things that we try to do and avoid in the table below.

DO AVOID

Describe SIL as a linguistic research organizationthat is interested in knowing the linguistic needs ofthe local community

Making any promises about activities SIL will do,especially avoiding a timeline

Describe yourself as a linguist in the context of SILbecause that is the role that you are playing at the

Declaring yourself as a missionary in context ofrepresenting SIL, because it is probable that their


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time. perception of a missionary is not representativeof the purpose of your visit

Emphasize that you are there to learn and not toteach

Talking more than you listen, interrupting, ordisagreeing

Answer all questions honestly andstraightforwardly

Adding more information to any answer than isneeded

Emphasize that you want to support the localcommunitys sign language and culture

Making statements about what you think their signlanguage or culture should be

Meet the leaders at each meeting: make sure theyknow why you are there, and invite you to stay

Sidetracking or taking charge of any meeting fromits original purpose for your own gain

Ask the leader of the group to participate in yourlinguistic research

Offering your own opinions or ideas that arecontroversial and not necessarily the opinion ofeveryone in SIL

Try to be involved in activities that the communityinvites you to attend

Committing time to activities that would make thecompletion of the survey goals difficult

Make sure they know your time in the area islimited but that you want to learn as much aspossible during that time

Giving exact dates of leaving the area or fieldworkschedules

Make it clear how many people you need, whattypes of characteristics they should have, and whyyou are investigating that group

Only including obvious clicks or members of onesocial demographic

Ask for pairs of volunteers rather than singling outindividuals among a group

Diving into work before establishing personalrelationship, unless time restrictions make itabsolutely necessary

Target both extroverted and introverted members ofthe community

Allowing your time to be dominated by a singlecommunity member

Affirm at all times Criticizing anyone

Encourage deaf community members to help aslocal survey guides and bridges to social groups (iftheir relationships in the community are positive)

Becoming the poster child or identifying solelywith one individual, group, or church at theexclusion of other groups

2.2 Participant consentIt is very important for potential participants to be aware of the purpose of the research and to be willingparticipants. All participants that take part in research tools, including sociolinguistic questionnaires,wordlist elicitation, intelligibility testing, and participatory method tools should be presented with thegoals of the research and given options as to what level of accessibility their data will be archived. Theirmetadata should also be recorded.

Research goals and the metadata form are the first two sections of the available sociolinguisticquestionnaire template. If the potential participant agrees to be involved in the research, have them signthe form (type in their name) or, if their literacy or computer skill level prevents this, type it in yourself

and show them for approval. After the participant has agreed to take part in the research, record the levelof privacy they want for their language data.

Questionnaire response data: Make it clear that the participants name will be kept priva te, but peoplemay want to know more about the local deaf situation and learn from their described experiences.Start with the most open level (available to anyone on the Internet) and work back to the most private.If metadata is being gathered for a video recording, ask if it is okay for other people to know a littlebit about them so that they can better learn about the local sign language.


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Video language data: Explain that, after you return home, you will be using the video recorded data tobetter understand their sign language and compare it with other sign language data that is beinggathered. Because it is video recorded, ask for their permission for others to see them signing. Make itclear that their name will be kept private, but that people may want to learn more about their signlanguage. Again, begin with the most open level of accessibility (on the Internet) and work back tothe most private. Mark not applicable if no video data is being recorded.

Sometimes it is easier to ask about data accessibility after they have finished providing their informationand/or their sign language sample has been video recorded. If you or your participant chooses to wait,make sure that you go back and mark accessibility. If accessibility is not marked, you must assumehighest level of privacy and the information must be destroyed following fieldwork analysis.

2.3

Rapid appraisal research toolsTo date, four main research tools have been used in rapid appraisal survey, including participantobservation, sociolinguistic questionnaires, wordlist comparison, and recorded text testing (retellingmethod). More recently, social-network analysis and participatory method tools have also been exploredfor use in rapid appraisal survey. Because we currently have little experience in these tools, we will not

attempt to describe them here. For more information about social network analysis, contact JasonHopkins, and for participatory method tools, contact Julia Ciupek-Reed or visit the participatory methodswiki on Insite athttps://www.wiki.insitehome.org/x/7gJfAQ.

2.3.1

Participant observation

Participant observation is primarily the process of becoming involved in community activities andobserving and recording sociolinguistic information from their natural life processes. Here are a fewexamples of issues to focus on during daily participant observation and to record during the note-takingsession:

Detailed physical address of meeting places and demographics of people involved

Any deaf meeting places or people that should be visited while in the area

Language and social attitudes about self and others

Ethnolinguistic identity displayed in various contexts

Standard of education in schools

Government and social support of local deaf people

Level of independence and collectivity demonstrated in deaf meetings

Identification of potential stakeholders

Commitments made to people that need to be followed up later

Reception and support of linguists, linguistic analysis, missionaries, SIL, etc.

Community indication of language development needs, etc.

Social networks present in pertinent deaf and hearing communities

Cultural notes of which future language development workers should be aware

How the team can work better together and with the local community (including conflict resolution, if

needed)

If multiple people were involved in an event or conversation, it is important to discuss perceptions as ateam as various participants may have differing opinions of what occurred or was said. Multiple membersare important checks for each other to ensure accurate informationlike multiple research toolstriangulate, team members can triangulate their perceptions with each other. Where there are drasticallydiffering perceptions, the team can discuss ways in which to verify information or at very least be carefulto exclude possibly incorrect information from the final report.
https://www.wiki.insitehome.org/x/7gJfAQhttps://www.wiki.insitehome.org/x/7gJfAQhttps://www.wiki.insitehome.org/x/7gJfAQhttps://www.wiki.insitehome.org/x/7gJfAQ


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2.3.2Asking questions at deaf schools

Deaf schools are often the first point of contact in a new deaf community, especially when arriving in acity with no prior relationships. This is a list of questions that you can help to guide understanding moreabout the general situation of the local deaf community and the school itself. These questions can beasked directly to a contact person, but the information you receive through that communication should

also be balanced with what you see on bookshelves, advertised in walls, and displayed in classroom andcasual interaction.

Philosophy of communication (e.g. total communication, bilingual-bicultural, oral)

Number of students

Ages of students

Where the students are from - the local city, the surrounding province, the entire country?

Is it a boarding or a day school?

Demographics of teachers - number, how many are deaf, are there deaf teacher aides?

Grade levels - if it is only elementary, ask where they go after completion. If it is more advanced,asked where students find work after completion.

Do all deaf students in the area go to this school or are there other schools?

Do schools get together regionally or nationally - are the schools communicating with each other?

What type of curriculum are they using? Are they sharing curriculum with any other schools?

Do teachers learn to sign before they start teaching in the classroom? Where and how do they learn?

Are parents involved in their childrens lives? Are there sign language classes for parents? Do parentssign with their children?

How is the school funded?

What are general impressions of the deaf community? Are any deaf adults involved at the school?Are children encouraged to attend association meetings?

Materials - where do they get materials? Dictionaries? Other things that they use in the classroom.

2.3.3Sociolinguistic questionnaire

The purpose of the sociolinguistic questionnaire (SLQ) is to investigate language use and attitudes, deaf

social demographics, and record metadata for any language samples elicited during fieldwork. We havefound that it works best to use one questionnaire per participant instead of combining multiple people intoa single form (for one type of questionnaire template, see Appendix A). If you include two or more peoplein a single SLQ elicitation time, open a separate SLQ template for each participant. If able to administermultiple SLQs during your time in the area, try to choose participants from a cross-section ofdemographics (e.g. male/female, young/old, etc.) that are involved in their local deaf community. If onlyable to include one participant from the area for the full SLQ, try to find a local deaf leader.

There are six main sections to the SLQs: Informed participant consent (for more details about participantconsent, see Section 2.2), Metadata, Deaf Services and Meeting Places, Language Use and Attitudes,Comparisons, and Notes. In all sections, except the Notes, information recorded should be solely thatprovided by the participant. If you begin a section with a participant, make every effort to have the

participant answer every single question in that section. Each section below indicates whether that part ofthe questionnaire is designed for participants who are deaf, hearing, or both.

This Deaf services and meeting places portion of the questionnaire is designed to gain a goodunderstanding of local deaf demographics, such as where they meet, go to school, and what services areavailable to them. If possible, participants for this section should include both hearing and deaf membersof the local community. This section probably only needs to be filled out two or three times in each


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community (or until you are getting the same information from the participants) and can be skipped onlater SLQs if you feel you have a well-developed picture of these targeted aspects of community life.

The Language use and attitudes and Comparison sections of the questionnaire are only for deafparticipants and investigate their perspectives of their own language use and attitudes, both spoken andsigned, and their perspective of the national deaf community in relation to where they, as individuals, live.

For the Comparisons section, use cards specifically designed for the local community, having them ranktheir perspectives about the included statements. Encourage them to rank all of the cards individually andnot place any of the cards on an equal level with each other (e.g. 4 of the 5 factors being equallyimportant).

The Notes section is the place to put any information that the participant provides that does not fit in thespecific SLQ questions. This is also a place for you to include any observation or personal notes that maybe helpful to understanding the local community or the SLQ participant. If you do decide to include yourown thoughts in this section, be sure to make it clear which statements are directly from the participantand which are researcher ideas.

2.3.4

Natural signed texts

It is good to elicit naturally signed texts, not only for language documentation purposes, but also becausedeaf people will often relate their particular deaf experience in the local social context. This will clue youinto a multitude of deaf experiences as told naturally in story-form as compared to responses given in amore constrained environment (such as when eliciting the information through a direct question). Wehave also found that asking a respected community leader often has entire histories of the deaf communityin their minds and can relate these in detail. Record histories of communities and the development of theirsign languages in this way can give detailed information found nowhere else. If possible, it is helpful tocollect multiple recounts of these events and important to check specific details against other informationyou have gathered.

2.3.5

Wordlist comparison

The purpose of the wordlist elicitation procedure is to gather all known lexical varieties for a list of wordsfrom a representative sample of each community. Because most sign language research has includedgathering wordlists of some kind, this is also a useful activity for language documentation. Arecommended set of wordlist items is listed in Appendix11,and PowerPoint presentations to use duringelicitations are available on Insite. The following steps should be followed when eliciting a wordlist froma new participant.

2.3.5.1 Introducing the process to potential participants

Introduce the wordlist elicitation goal, including the following points:

Explain your desire to learn the local sign language and any other helpful parts of the purpose of yourresearch.

Emphasize that it is not a test and that any information they provide will be helpful.

Ask them to include any and all signs they know that are used in for each word.

If it seems helpful, show a few examples from the wordlist and ask them and/or the group to providethe signs they know.

If there is time and the group dynamics seem favorable for working together, it may be helpful to gothrough the entire wordlist as a group while only videotaping a single participant.

2.3.5.2 Identifying a participant

Identify a person from the local community that has as many of the following characteristics as possible:


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Grew up in the city in which it is being elicited

Has had minimal international travel, or has traveled an amount that is representative of thecommunity

Is a native user of the target sign language

Is recognized by the group (if chosen from a group) to be a good representation of their sign language

Has a good command of the written language used in the wordlist (e.g. Spanish)

Helps to create a diverse demographic, as compared to other wordlist participants (try to get abalanced mixture of male/female, old/young, schools attended, social networks)

Has enough time to complete the wordlist (approximately 40 minutes, including the recording ofmetadata)

Whenever possible, include a person who is willing to have their data be accessible to others as thiswill increase the value of the wordlist as a type of language documentation

2.3.5.3 Video camera setup

If possible, have the participant seated to ensure they remain in the camera view.

Use a tripod, and if possible plug the video camera into an electrical outlet to save the battery forsituations where there are no electrical outlets available.

Make sure the video camera is set to record at the highest quality setting (Uultra setting on the JVCEverio camcorders), record at the 4:3 aspect ratio, auto focus/exposure settings usually work fineunless you are recording in poor lighting (if you notice a periodic blurring in low light, switch tomanual focus).

The video camera should be at least 10 feet away from the participant and zoomed in so the pictureframe captures from the participants knees to about one foot above their head when seated. Try tofind the best available location where people will not be passing through the filming area

Try to find a uniform and simple background.

Film in as much natural light as possible with the participant facing the main light source (avoidbacklight). If outside, do not film in glaring sunlight (overcast clouds or well-shaded areas are best).

2.3.5.4 Recording the wordlist

Record one participant signing the wordlist and

Ask what level of data accessibility/privacy they want for their recorded data, gain participantconsent, and record their metadata.

Explain to the participant that a card with the word will first be inserted into the camera view and thenthey should sign all the varieties they know for the word/image they see on the PowerPoint wordlist.

Use a Powerpoint presentation to elicit the wordlist items. We recommend a wordlist containing 215items listed in Appendix11.There are English and Spanish PowerPoint versions available in Insitewith file names "SL-Wordlist-English-Parks-2011-08-31.pptx", and "SL-Wordlist-Spanish-Parks-2011-08-31.pptx".

When they are done, they should put their hands in resting position (probably in their lap).

If there is one person running the camera and inserting the index cards and another running the

PowerPoint, they should check periodically to make sure they are at the same place in the wordlist.The index cards should be inserted about 2 feet away from the camera so that they only cover at most of the camera view and reduce the blurring effect as the auto focus adjusts to the card movement.

If a participant does not know the sign for a word, tell them that is no problem and move on. Try to

avoid them spending undue time trying to understand the written word or getting another personshelp.

If the participant does not seem to know a majority of the words, stop at slide number 82(NUMBERS)without making it obvious that you are stopping earlyand thank them for their help.


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If there are others watching the elicitation, it is okay for them to feed the participant signs, if theparticipant does not mind. Try not to allow more than 2-3 people to watch the participant to decreasepossibility for distraction or increased anxiety for the participant, and politely ask those viewing toleave if it seems to be bothering the participant.

The person running the PowerPoint should provide a lot of positive affirmation throughout thewordlist elicitation as they are the most direct link with the participant.

2.3.6

Recorded Text Testing

The Recorded Text Test (RTT) is a bilingualism test that assesses intelligibility of a language used in onecommunity in another language community. We have outlined procedures for the recorded text testretelling (RTT-R) method as we have conducted it. In following the retelling method (in comparison tothe question-answer method), we have found that the RTT-R has allowed for greater inclusion of deafpeople with lower amounts of formal education, has decreased test anxiety by encouraging interaction ofpairs of participants, and has tapped into pre-existing cultural norms by encouraging story-telling ratherthan answering questions.

2.3.6.1 Eliciting texts

The target text should be between two and five minutes in length and should be a personal narrativeincluding signs that are unique to the target language (not only classifiers and gestures) but about a topicfamiliar to almost anyone (minimal jargon). In order to elicit this text, it is likely that you will need tofilm a number of individuals signing stories and get feedback from native speakers in order to choose thebest one available. Keep in mind that it is rare to have a good text on the first attempt and multiple storyfilming sessions may be required.

Ideally, non-native speakers of the language should leave the room where the narratives are beingrecorded in order to avoid affecting the signing style of the person being filmed. It often works best tohave a hot-seat where each member of the group has an opportunity to sit and share a story to othernative signers in the room (the group should be two to eight people in number). This way the videocamera can be left unattended and ensure that the entire signed narrative is captured by the video camera.

If possible, have sample stories available either on a computer or in-person so that the native signers haveexamples of the type of story desired. Make sure that they are willing for their stories to be shown to otherpeople that they may know, as well as all over the world. Informed participant consent, metadata, andlevel of privacy for filmed data should be obtained for every language sample (for more information, seeSection 2.2).

2.3.6.2 Preparing the texts

After choosing an appropriate videoed text from a native speaker of the target language, import the videofile into ELAN and splice it into sections of one to two sentences each (target 8-15 seconds in length foreach section). Then translate each sections text in one tier and gloss each sign into English in a separatetier. Using a different text of the same language that is less than a minute in length, splice it into fivesections of 8-15 seconds in length. This second text will be the participants practice test while the first isthe actual scored text used for the RTT-R.

Note: It often helps to have the practice test include the persons name so that it is easier for the laterparticipants to know that they are repeating the participants story and not making up one of their own.

2.3.6.3 Administering the RTT-R

After the two texts are ready, have 5-10 pairs of participants retell the practice and target text to helpcreate the test. To do this, the surveyor should sit in a private room with a participant pair. First, show the


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practice test all the way through once to both participants. Then the surveyor should model the RTT-Rprocedure. In this description of the procedure, the person watching the text and relaying the informationwill be called the reteller while the person who does not watches the reteller but not the text and repeatswhat the reteller says will be called the listener.

To model the procedure, the surveyor watches the first section of the practice text while the participants

do not watch and then retells it to one of the participants The surveyor then asks the listening participantto retell it back, helping where needed and correcting where they are mistaken. When this modeling isdone, the two participants will each practice being the reteller and the listener twice.

Have the participant who repeated the first section back to the surveyor watch the second section. Havethem retell it to the other participant (the listener) and ask the listener to retell the section back to thereteller. Encourage the reteller to help the listener to get the text section correct, repeating and correctingwhen necessary. The reteller is allowed to see the practice text section again if they request it. Aftersection two is completed, the reteller should become the listener and the listener should watch sectionthree and retell it to the listener following the above guidelines. Alternate participants role as reteller andlistener until the practice test is done.

After they have finished the practice text, either ask for a volunteer or choose the participant that youthink did better on the practice test to watch and retell the entire second text. Have the chosen participantwatch the text all the way through. After the reteller finishes watching the text through once, turn on thevideo camera so that the dialogue between the reteller and listener can be seen in the screen. Have thereteller relate the text section by section to the listener (make sure they do not retell it to you as thesurveyor!), having the listener repeat each section as they go along. If the reteller asks to watch thesection a second time, it is allowed, but they must initiate the second viewing and each section may onlybe viewed twice. After the participants have completed the second text, be sure to get both of theirmetadata and level of desired privacy for their data. Unlike the recorded texts described in section 2.0,RTT-R texts that are recorded may be at the highest level of privacy if desired.

2.3.6.4 Creating the RTT-R

In order to create the test, go through each participant pairs videoed RTT-R and gloss and translate eachof the retellers signed sections into English. The listeners repetition of the text is not used for scoring,but if the reteller adds more information or corrects previously incorrect information based on promptingfrom the listener, the correct retelling is what is included in the analysis and the incorrect retelling isignored.

Compare the videoed retellers signed glosses with the original texts gloss in order to determine whatpart of the original text each reteller included in their version of the story. After doing this for all of theretellers, mark all of the glossed signs that were retold by 100% of the retellers. These signs are yourcontent points that will be used to score the RTT-R. In other words, if future retellers get these pointstheir intelligibility scores will go up.

It is helpful to do a lot of this analysis in a spreadsheet where each participants retold contentpoints canbe easily compared to the others. After the content points are identified, make a new spreadsheetincluding each content point in its own row. This spreadsheet template can then be used to analyze thehometown test and RTT-R scores of the created RTT-R test.

2.3.6.5 Hometown testing the RTT-R

In order to have a baseline score for the RTT-R, use the prepared practice and RTT-R texts in a separategroup of at least 5-10 pairs of native users of the language than was used for creating the text. The


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percentage of content points that these native users did not retell will be the percentage of the text that canbe considered flexible while still being fluent in the target language. For example, if 10 pairs of nativeusers were tested and all the retellers scored above 90%, then it can be expected that fluent users of thetarget language will score 90% or above. If testing in other communities shows that they are much lower,you can also infer that intelligibility of the target language is low.

2.3.6.6

Using the RTT-ROnce the RTT-R has been created and hometown tested, it is ready to be used in a different language

community. However, before using it, a practice test using the local language communitys native signlanguage should be created, following the directions given above for preparing the practice test.

Once the RTT-R is ready with the practice test in the targeted communitys native sign language, at leastten pairs of RTT-R participants should be tested in a single targeted community to determine their level ofbilingualism with the RTT-R text. For example, if you want to know about the level of bilingualism ofASL in Peru, then ten RTT-Rs should be done in Peru. However, if you want to make conclusions aboutthe level of ASL intelligibility in the capital city of Peru, ten RTT-Rs should be done solely in Lima.Follow the procedure described in administering the creation of the RTT-R and the hometown RTT-Rtests.

2.3.6.7 Scoring

To score the RTT-R, follow the scoring procedure described above, seeing which of the content pointseach participant retold. Each participants video should be imported into ELAN and each content pointretold should be glossed in a written language. The percentage correctly retold is their test score and canbe easily recorded and calculated in a spreadsheet using a binary 0-1 scoring system (e.g. 1 if they retoldthe target content point, 0 if they did not). Compare these with the hometown test scores in order todetermine relative level of intelligibility.

2.4

Daily organization of fieldwork dataIt is important to ensure that information gathered during fieldwork is safely recorded and clearlyorganized so that it can be easily accessed for analysis afterward.

2.4.1

Note-taking

The purpose of recording daily observation notes is to be able to collectively discuss information gatheredduring the days observation and record it in a central location for later analysis. Although usually at theend of a long day, each person should do their best to share what they learned in personal conversations,interviews, and observation, including information that may affect fieldwork plans and/or was notincluded in other written formats, such as questionnaires.

Choose a person to be the note-taker for the teams daily observation notes and ensure that notes arerecorded at the end of each day or activity. The note-taking session will probably last 30 minutes to an

hour, depending on the number of people involved and the number of activities experienced during theday. The team should make every effort to keep the note-taking time focused because it tends to happen atthe end of the day when team members are exhausted. If at all possible, note-taking should not bepostponed until the next day because information can easily be forgotten after sleeping on it!

Ideally, each person should have a small notebook on hand throughout the day to jot down notes during orafter each activity and then share these notes in the group note-taking session at the end of an event, whenpossible. This will help team members to remember what happened throughout the day, decrease


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confusion about who, what, when, where, why, and how various experiences happened, and help thegroup to remain focused.

For the purpose of participant observation note-taking, team members should be careful to focus on themost important aspects of their experiences and share few personal anecdotes that do not add to thesociolinguistic knowledge of the target community. The note-taking process should not be rushed as it

serves as a springboard for recording important information gathered during survey fieldwork, planningfieldwork activities, and also serves as a time of team building.

2.4.2Data filing

Choose a survey team member to be responsible for gathering and systematically filing all language dataat the end of each day (questionnaire forms, metadata forms, video files, ELAN files, etc). The filesshould be named according to a standard system by all survey team members as they are elicited. Inaddition, video files should be downloaded each day from the camcorder (for our video camcorders thiscan be done quickly with the USB cable). The video files should also be left on the camcorder (for mostfieldwork trips, a 30 GB camcorder hard drive should hold all of the videos collected during fieldwork).All files should be backed up to an external hard drive weekly.

Naming Files: The files should be named in a detailed and systematic way according to the type of file,country name, and numbering that shows the elicitation sequence of that data type for the country, andlocation elicited. A recommended system with examples is shown below:

Name: DataType-CountryAbbreviation-NumberAsElicitedWithinCountry-City.FileExtension

Questionnaire Document: SLQ-Jamca-01-Kngstn.doc

Questionnaire (wordlist video metadata only): WL-Hondrs-04-Tgcglp.doc

Questionnaire (text video metadata only): Txt-ElSlvdr-12-SnSlvdr.doc

RTT-R Metadata: RTT-RASL-DR-03-StDmngo.doc

Video RTT-R Retelling: RTT-RASL-Jamca-01-Kngstn.mpg

Video Wordlist: WL-Jamca-01-Kngstn.mpg

Video Wordlist (converted to mpeg-1 for ELAN): ELAN-WL-Jamca-01-Kngstn.mpg

Video Text: Txt-ElSlvdr-12-SnSlvdr.mpg Video Text (converted to mpeg-1 for ELAN): ELAN-Txt-ElSlvdr-12-SnSlvdr.mpg

2.4.3Schedule planning

After notes are recorded and files are saved, a few minutes should be spent as a team to plan and organizethe next days activities. This very brief planning session may touch on issues such as:

Determining the time at which the group needs to meet the next day

What and how many meetings are scheduled

Where and when people are planning to eat their meals

Any extracurricular activities planned and who is going

Ensuring each person knows their individual responsibilities for the next meetings

Tentatively looking at when the team will move to the next location Addressing any concerns about fieldwork plans, goals, methodology, etc.

There should be a clear end to the daily note-taking, organization, and planning sessions, preferably withprayer. Please keep in mind that team members are often in varying states at the end of the daywhilesome extroverts are energized by the high amount of human contact and want to spend a lot of timetalking, introverts may find themselves completely drained and ready to be alone. This is a time to beextra sensitive to each others needs.


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2.5

Team debriefingThe purpose of debriefing at the end of the survey fieldwork is to be able to collectively discuss thefieldwork experience, including building team unity, summarizing initial thoughts about survey results,and ensuring people know their responsibilities following fieldwork. Choose a person to facilitate thediscussion and take any necessary notes so that each team member can contribute to every question. The

debriefing discussion will probably take 4-5 hours, depending on the number of people involved in thediscussion.

The debriefing discussion facilitator should try to ensure that everyone is ready and able to discuss eachpart of the debriefing sections. It may help to send out the discussion template beforehand for people thatrequire more time to mentally process and or verbally construct their ideas. There are two main sectionsto the debriefing template (See Appendix), one that focuses on personal perspectives and the other thatfocuses on research methodology and follow-up. It may be beneficial to take a break after the PersonalPerspectives section of the debriefing template since emotions may be high after discussing personalexperiences, addressing interpersonal conflict, and looking to the future together. Nothing confidentialshould be recorded on this part of the template. In the Tools and Methodologies, Results, andLanguage Projects sections, researchers should take an honest look at the limitations of the research and

ways in which future research projects could be improved. They should also summarize initial thoughtsabout the results of the survey as it applies to future language projects.

After the team debriefing, the facilitator should save the completed debriefing template in the samelocation as the observation notes. The person(s) writing the confidential in-house background reportshould have access to it while writing the survey report. The information discussed by the team in thesecond half of the debriefing can serve as the springboard for information that can be included in an In-house report.

3 Data organization

After finishing fieldwork and archiving collected data, the next step of survey is to organize the data. Inthis section we present a few guides to help with organization and analysis of the data, includinginstructions of how to work with questionnaires and metadata forms in Microsoft Word and Excel, how toannotate wordlists in ELAN, and how to make maps for the reports including specifics from fieldwork.

3.1

Working with Microsoft Word and ExcelUsing forms in sociolinguistic questionnaires and metadata documentation can be very helpful. It allowsfor quick and easy data entry during elicitation sessions, and when all the data needs to be compiled foranalysis, data stored in forms can be transferred to a spreadsheet where responses from a variety ofparticipants can be compared.

3.1.1Creating documents with forms

It is helpful to have the Forms toolbar openwhen creating and working with forms (accessthrough View > Toolbars > Forms).


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There are three main form fields available in MSWord 2003text form fields (for open endedquestions), check box form fields, and drop downform fields (for closed questions where you canchoose from a discrete set of responses).

Be sure to save the document with the ProtectForm (padlock icon) highlighted.If forms areprotected, it will not be possible to edit thedocument structure. Only the form fields will beaccessible, and when importing the form data intoa spreadsheet all documents will be standardizedwith the same number of form fields.

3.1.2

Transferring form data to a spreadsheet

The form data must be saved into atext file which can then be importedinto a spreadsheet.

This is done by first editing the

documents save options accessedby: Tools > Options > Save Tab >

check box for Save data only forforms.


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Then click save and the Save as

dialog box will open where you canchoose where to save the file on yourcomputer. The file type should be set

to plain text (.txt) file.When youclick save, a file conversion dialog

box will open. For text encoding,choose Windows (default). Youshould see all of your form dataseparated by quotation marks in thepreview box. Click OK and formdata will have been extracted andsaved as a text file.

To import the text file into MS Excel, open a new spreadsheet and go to:Data > Import External Data > Import Data.

The Select data source dialog box will open where you can locate the text file on your computer that you wantto import. Then click Open.

A Text ImportWizard dialog boxwill open with 3 steps.In the first step, select

delimited for theoriginal data type (theforms in the text fileare separated bycommas). ClickNext.


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In the second step,select Comma as thedelimiter.

In the third step, click Finish. (All data can be imported as general format.)

Then the Import

Data dialog box willopen. SelectProperties.


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In the Propertiesdialog box, unselectSave Querydefinition.

Then, back in the Import Data dialog box, select the existing worksheet and the row (you can go to thespreadsheet and right click on the first cell of the desired row) where the data will go. Then click OK.El Fin

We use Microsoft Word to record participant consent, participant metadata, and sociolinguisticquestionnaire is recorded into templates using this form function. Because of this, the easiest way toinitially organize the information from these documents is to follow the above instructions. From theseorganized spreadsheets, individual participants information can be accessed and community data can be

more easily compared.

3.1.3

Converting SLQ form data

To convert SLQ Form Data to Comma Delimited .TXT files in Microsoft Word 2007:1.

Open the file.

2.

Click the Start Button (in Word)

3. Click Word Options

4. Click Advanced.

5. Under Preserve Fidelity when Sharing this Document, check Save form data as delimited text

file.

6.

Save a copy of the file in a different location.

7.

Close the file without saving changes.

To batch import delimited .TXT files into Microsoft Excel 2007

1.

Once you have finished converting all your files, save them in a single folder.

2. Run a DOS Command Prompt by typing cmd.EXE into the Search box in your Windows Start

Menu.


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3.

Navigate to the folder where you have your delimited text files saved.

4. Type copy *.txt all.txt exactly and press enter.

5.

Close the command prompt.

6.

You will now have a file in the same folder as your delimited text files named all.txt. This file

contains the contents of all of the SLQs in a single delimited text file.

7.

Run Excel.8.

Under the Data tab, select Import Data from Text.

9.

Select the all.txt file.

10.

Click Import.

11.Select the Delimited radio button and click next.

12.

Check the Comma box, making sure all the other boxes are unchecked, then click next.

13.Make sure the General radio button is selected, then click finish.

14.

Select the cell you want your data to be imported to, or choose a new worksheet.

15.

Click ok. Your data is now imported into Excel with a column for each question on the SLQ.

3.2

Analyzing wordlist comparisonsThe first step in analyzing wordlist videos is to mark or annotate the video for all sign tokens that wereelicited for each wordlist item. After each sign token is glossed, then the parameters can be coded forcomparison and similarity grouping calculations. By identifying the wordlist item for each sign token, it isalso very easy to locate sign tokens in the wordlist video for a specific item. For a detailed methodologydescription please refer to Jason Parks' 2011 MA thesis for the University of North Dakota: "SignLanguage Word List Comparisons: Toward a replicable coding and scoring methodology".

Step 1: Open ELAN and load the wordlist video file along with the ELAN wordlist coding template to beworked on.

1. Under the File tab, select New from the pull down menu.

2.

Locate and select the wordlist video file on your computer. Make sure the video file has been

converted to MPEG-1 (or MPEG-4) video format otherwise it may not play correctly in ELAN.3.

Click thebutton with the two arrows >> to move the video file into the selected files box.4.

In the Select box (where Media is the default selection), choose Template.5.

Locate and select the ELAN template file for coding wordlists called ELAN-Wordlist-Coding-Template-2011-08-31.etf.This template includes all of the wordlist items from the standardwordlist numbering developed in March 2008 including all known items from various studies.

6. Click the button with the two arrows >> to move the ELAN template file into the selected files

box.7.

Click Okay. ELAN should load the video and open it with the pre-assigned tiers for theparameters to be coded as well as the preset controlled vocabularies for each tier.

Note: Some background on the ELAN template structure.In order to make annotation on a video, there are three main aspects that will categorize or constrain the

annotation. They are listed in the order they must be created: Controlled Vocabularies (CV), Linguistic Types, and Tiers

After evaluating various wordlist comparison methodologies, we have chosen to focus on two parametersof a sign - handshape (HS) and location (LOC). Coding parameter values at both the initial position of thesign and the final position. These four parameters have each been assigned a tier in the ELAN template andhave a designated controlled vocabulary (CV) in order to consistently annotate each parameter. Eachparameter tier is linked to the Gloss tier (symbolic association option of the linguistic types), so that theannotation time segment for each parameter will be exactly the same as the time segment of the Gloss.


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Step 2: Identifying sign tokens for annotations (for a detailed methodology description please refer to JasonParks' 2011 MA thesis: "Sign Language Word List Comparisons: Toward a replicable coding and scoringmethodology").

Create a separate annotation for each sign token of a wordlist item. For instance, if the participantgives three sign tokens (signs) for one word, or if they give what appears to be a compound sign,create a separate annotation for each sign. For example, for the English word agree the ASL sign,THINK-HAPPEN, would have two gloss annotations: THINK and HAPPEN. Because of thismethod, there may be several annotations for the one gloss of 0010CAT in the wordlist. We willconsider each sign as being able to stand alone in comparisons with other wordlists, since we oftendo not understand the sign language well enough to make those determinations ourselves.

Make sure the selection covers the complete movement of the sign. Begin the gloss selection whenthe hands are just starting to move out of resting position (usually in the participants lap), and endthe selection when the hands have reached resting position again.

If the wordlist participant did not give a sign for a wordlist item, create a gloss annotation for thesegment of the video where the participant signs I dont know, or Dont have a sign for that, ornothing, etc. Later when coding the parameters, we will mark each parameter with "xxx" to showthat word was unknown.

If the participant is adding lots of description to a word, you can omit the description from the gloss(but only if you are 99.9% positive that the participant is not giving multiple signs that all couldrepresent the word). If you are unsure, make an annotation for each sign. Be familiar with theimages used in the Powerpoint elicitation, in order to recognize when descriptions are following theimage and not necessarily the meaning of the word.

Signs are coded as units, compounds may be coded as one sign the handshapes/locations are fluidwithout pauses (otherwise coded as separate sign), if there are three or more distinctlocations/handshapes, multiple sign tokens are coded. For example, many countries in LatinAmerica have the signs for MAN/MALE or WOMAN/FEMALE as compounds for many kinshipterms (boy/girl, son/daughter, grandfather/grandmother, brother/sister, etc), or they mightfingerspell "O" or "A" to match the difference in the word endings in Spanish. These gender signswere coded as separate sign tokens annotated under each gloss unless there was no pause between

signs then they were represented in the final positions. If the participant gives a sign and then participant says doesn't know the sign for that word, it may

be coded as ??? if high doubt is shown and if the sign given doesn't match with our experience incountry (despite sign being given). If signer seems confident, then sign is coded as normal.

If Spanish/LWC homonym is known for an elicited word, and appears obvious that thealternate/homonym meaning was signed, (not the English equivalent from other wordlists), then thesign token is coded as "???" and "homonym" is written in the comment tier.

If a sign is obviously being expanded upon (ex. "Lie, she always lies" or "doctor, I get sick, gohospital") and the annotator is confident that at least some of signs are explanation of the word andnot a possible sign that means the elicited word, those signs are excluded from glossing/coding.

Fingerspelling - treat it as a regular sign, code initial and final handshapes and locations. (ex. BSLegg, ASL months, rice, etc). Enter "fingerspell" in comment tier, even if only first few letters are

signed (ex. J-A-N of January). Don't count initialized signs as fingerspelled. Using ELAN statistics,you could tally the number of signs that were fingerspelled.

Suggested Comment Tier values: fingerspell, homonym (coded as ???), homonym? (coded aslegitimate sign), copy/describe elicitation image, regional variant, age variant, head/bodymovement only . . .

Step 3: Creating annotations in ELAN: annotating the Gloss tierFirst, make sure the Gloss tier is active (the active tiers name has bold font, the active tier can be changedby double clicking on the tier name on the left).


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There are two options for creating annotations: one using the mouse, one using the keyboard. Try bothmethods and go with what works best for you.

a)

Mouse:

i) To determine where to place the annotation, you can play the video by clicking and draggingthe mouse along the timeline. This allows for quick identification of where a sign begins and

ends without using the play button interface.ii) To select a region (selections are highlighted in blue on the timeline), click and drag the pointer

along the desired time segment of the video.

iii)To create an annotation for that region, double click inside the highlighted area within theactive tier.

iv)A drop-down menu will appear that contains the CV options, you can either scroll down themenu, or type the first few numbers of the standard wordlist number and it will skip to theword corresponding to those numbers typed.

v) Double click on the correct wordlist item for the sign token that is being annotated.

b)

Keyboard:

i) Turn Selection Mode on, by checking the box.

ii) To determine where to place the annotation, you can play the video by holding down thecontrol button and using the left (back) and right (forward) arrow keys (Ctrl + , or Ctrl + ).Holding down the arrow key will play the video at regular speed, or you can advance the videoone frame at a time by clicking the arrow key once. This allows for quick identification ofwhere a sign begins and ends without using the play button interface.

iii)To select a region (selections are highlighted in blue on the timeline), starting from the redtimeline marker, hold down the control button and move the arrow keys until the desired timesegment of the video is highlighted.

iv)

To create an annotation for that region, hold down the Alt button and press N (Alt + N).

v)

A drop-down menu will appear that contains the CV options, you can either scroll down themenu, or type the first few numbers of the standard wordlist number and it will skip to theword corresponding to those numbers typed.

vi)Once the correct word for the sign is highlighted, press the control button and enter to finalizethe annotation entry (Ctrl + Enter).

To begin selecting the next annotation time segment, clear the previous selection by using the shortcut (Alt

+ Shift + C), or pressing the Clear Selection button.

Helpful Tip:

Use ELAN shortcutsthey can save lots of navigation time. A separate window can be opened showing allshortcuts by selecting: View | Shortcuts from the ELAN menu.

Step 4: Coding the handshape parameters

When coding handshapes refer to the chart "Handshapes-Coding-Values-WithVariations-2011-08-30.jpg"

included in Appendix11.For a detailed methodology description please refer to Jason Parks' 2011 MAthesisfor the University of North Dakota: "Sign Language Word List Comparisons: Toward a replicablecoding and scoring methodology".


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Handshape parameter value clarifications:

1: includes "little D"

5: includes 5 with pinky/ring slightly flexed or bent (no images of this in Rozelle or Parkhurst)

F: includes when nonselected fingers are together

K-Text: includes K-Top or V-Top (or like 3 with thumb opposed, or V with thumb opposed), andincludes when 3 handshape has bent middle finger

L: includes middle, ring, & pinky fingers curled like making a "C" (ex. Paraguay #1 - "CITY")

Mbent: includes when thumb is together (not flexed over to pinky)

O: includes slightly flexed fingers or bunched fingertips (ex. food, grapes) - not quite Obent, Iusually use O instead of Obent if tip of thumb is right at same "level" as tips of fingers

Obent: requires straight fingers

Oflex+: includes when thumb is opposed but not flexed (Brazil #1 - 124 "NINE")

Olittle: includes when middle, ring, and pinky fingers are bent (Prgy#1 - NINE)

Olittleflex+: includes when index is flexed all the way to base of thumb (Prgy#1 - SIX)

R: includes Rbent

R-Text: includes Rbent-Text

Tcross: includes non-selected fingers (middle, ring, pinky) spread and extended, not just in a fist,includes thumb behind or in front of index finger

U: includes when thumb, ring, and pinky are not quite closed

W: includes 6 handshape

Step 5: Coding the location parameters

When coding locations refer to chart "Locations-Coding-Values-Diagram-2011-08-30.jpg" included in

Appendix13.For a detailed methodology description please refer to Jason Parks' 2011 MA thesisfor theUniversity of North Dakota: "Sign Language Word List Comparisons: Toward a replicable coding andscoring methodology".

General Notes:

There are 31 location parameter values in the recommended coding system: 25 body locations, and6 spatial locations.

If annotator is unable to determine if the body was touched (too close to distinguish), the location iscoded as a body location value and not a spatial location value.

In a two handed sign, if hands touch, then location of non-dominant hand is coded (not neutralspace). However, if both the dominant and non-dominant hand touch each other and a bodylocation, the body location is coded not the contact location on the non-dominant hand. (Dublinexample: "BED" has a location value of cheek not palm).

Non-dominant hand is not coded as a location if it touches dominant hand in lower arm or elbow(this is considered not significant in same was as non-dominant HS, loc, etc). If non-dominant handtouches wrist of dominant hand or above then it is coded as location (wrist, tips, etc).

If sign was difficult to distinguish between a movement and hold, the duration of time spent on the


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"hold" was looked at compared to time spent "moving" to that location. Location may be signedSN-Ear for DEAF vs. Ear-Ear DEAF depending on movement.

Initial and final locations are coded based on time spent in location and movement to and from.The transition or starting movements to get to the perceived "start" of the sign are not counted asinitial locations or handshapes. If sign seems to have a point of contact in the "middle" of the sign,

and the rest is neutral space, the point of contact is coded as an initial or final location since this isprobably important to the meaning, and the POC is determined to be initial or final depending onhow much of movement is after or before the POC (e.x. "FULL" in ASL, initial location isdetermined to be side-of-hand, and final location neutral space (rather than what may be perceivedas I-LOC: NS and F-LOC: NS without coding the POC) - the "initial" NS is uncoded as atransition location to the start of the sign.

Location parameter value clarifications

SFAHead (space in front of and above forehead): includes space around forehead level and above,obviously in front of head (not SUpCheek which is to the sides, or SAHead which is directly abovethe skull), if fully extended arms away from body, it would be coded as neutral space even if closeto face level (some location heights are influenced by chair armrests, etc - in these cases neutral

space may be extended a little . . .) SUpCheek (space to side of upper cheek/head): includes space above head height if it is obviously

to the side of head and not in front of the plane of the head

SFFace (space in front of face): is from eyes down to slightly below chin

SN (Neutral space): may include space "in front of face" if hand is far from face/head (airplane,skinny, snow etc). For example, if elbow joint makes a right angle as hand is located "in front offace" this is far enough away from face to call it SN not SFFace. Also take into account ifparticipant is seated in a chair or is signing everything "high" then unless the hand comes within 4-5 inches of face it should not be coded as SFFace.

BHead (back of head): includes "space" behind head if unclear (angle of video camera) (ex. Lion)

Fore-Temp (forehead/temple): includes high temple area at sides of forehead (if you drew a linearound the temples/sides of the head following the "edge" of the head where the head surface isperpendicular to the ground, this area would be coded as Forehead, above the line (parallel toground level) would be coded as THead.

Eye: includes top of cheek bone under eye (from eyeball halfway to nostril) - within about 1 inchof eyelids

Teeth: includes tongue

Wrist: includes front and backsides of hand

Palm: is used if hands are touching in multiple places (Fing, SHand, palm, wrist), centered at palm

Hip-Leg: includes thighs or anything lower than hip on the legStep 6: Save and backup annotation files

Save the ELAN annotation file with the same name as the video file. The ELAN annotation file extension(*.eaf) will be the only difference in file name from the video. We also recommended to store the ELANfile in the same folder on your computer as the video file. Once the glossing is complete, make sure the fileis backed up with the other survey data from the country it came from.


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Step 7: Analysis of wordlist data using Levenshtein distance metric

Download most recent versions of SLLED and Rugloafer programs and user manuals:https://sites.google.com/site/rugloafe

Documents

Sign Language Assessment Procedures Parks 2011