PROJECT
Developing
social meaning
of English
not much time?
fan of detail?
people's person?
OMG IN NUMBERS
Belgian Dutch preadolescents
(6-13 y/o)
26
114
hours of conversational data - collected during the pandemic
7
different data types: individual and group data sessions
90
data sessions, 52 of which were conducted online
2
researchers:
1 PhD student
1 supervisor
8
months of data collection and preparation (April - November 2021)
3
research fields: sociolinguistics
developmental linguistics
contact linguistics
25
kg of research equipment:
2 cameras and stands + 6 lavelier mics
green km (1.988 miles) traveled during data collection
3.200
∞
research focuses
opportunities
encounters
enjoyment
Curious to read more?
OMG IN WORDS
WHAT?
speaker . context . nature of English
In the OMG project, we investigate how the social meaning of English lexical resources in Belgian Dutch preadolescents develops and how that depends on:
WHY?
While we do know that English insertions are nearly absent in the speech of Belgian Dutch preschoolers and abundantly present in their later produced youth language, we have no understanding of what happens in the transition from childhood to adolescence.
Aiming to uncover parts of the sociolinguistic acquisition process of contact-induced variation
Theoretically:
-
combining the as of yet unconnected fields of developmental sociolinguistics and contact linguistics
-
foregrounding the preadolescent age group
+
HOW?
Fieldwork with 26 Belgian Dutch preadolescent members (7- to 13-year-olds) of a local sports club.
-
12 boys - 14 girls
-
monolingual speakers Belgian-Dutch
-
high SES
-
no formal instruction of English
7 different data types, both individual and group sessions.
sociolinguistic
interviews
spontaneous
speech
sociolinguistic
interviews
-
individual interviews
-
online (MS Teams)
-
April 2021
-
26 1-hour data sessions
metalinguistic
interviews
Questionnaires
stylization tasks
(elicited roleplay)
stylization tasks
(elicited roleplay)
-
individual online session
-
face-to-face group session
-
May-June 2021
-
26 1-hour data sessions
-
12 90-min group sessions
metalinguistic
interview
-
individual session
-
face-to-face
-
November 2021
-
26 2-hour data sessions
spontaneous speech
-
group sessions
-
face-to-face
-
May 2021
-
no researcher present
topically controlled speech
-
group sessions
-
talking with topic cards steering /not steering towards English
-
face-to-face
-
May 2021
-
no researcher present
topically controlled speech
Questionnaires
-
(1) Questionnaire investigating perceptions and attitudes about contact-induced variation (English- and Dutch-prone societal roles, targeting adults)
-
(2) Questionnaire on English media exposure
Picture Vocabulary
Size Test
-
reduced 48-item PVST
-
conducted on a laptop
-
researcher present
Picture Vocabulary Size Test
CORPUS
DATA
TRANSCRIPTION
114 hours of conversational data
7 hours of data per respondent
78 hours of individual data
12 hours of group data
52 hours of online data
34 hours of face-to-face data
Estimated number of 120.000 utterances
Transcribed via the CHAT-conventions of the CHILDES project (MacWinney 2000)
Data collection
Transcription progress
114 / 114 hours (100%)
55.000 / 120.000 utterances (46%)
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