2013 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
International Corpus of Spoken Engineering English (ICSEE)
Project/Area Number |
25370423
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Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
Principal Investigator |
HANDFORD Mike 東京大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (00466781)
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Project Period (FY) |
2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
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Keywords | 談話研究 / コーパス語用論 |
Research Abstract |
The plan for this research has been to develop a corpus of spoken engineering English. For the first year, the plan was: 1. conduct sampling of ideal sites and data, 2. contact companies, 3. conduct recordings, both within and outside of Japan, 4. start transcribing recordings, 5. begin analysis of single speech events. In addition to the data, we will also build a contextual database relating to the recordings, based on ethnographic research and follow-up interviews. Once compiled, the corpus will then lend itself to quantitative research, using corpus linguistics, in the form frequent words and multi-word chunks. So far, I have collected and am having transcribed around 100,000 words of on-site construction site interactions in the UK, and have recorded a further 8 lectures from the Engineering School of the University of Tokyo. The lectures have not been transcribed yet, and I intend to use these as back-up, in case sufficient professional interactions cannot be recorded. Several interviews with professional engineers and people involved in engineering education have been conducted, to provide more contextual information. However, more recordings are needed to make the corpus more representative. While the collection of data is somewhat less than I had hoped, the development of training materials from the interview data and recordings has started ahead of schedule.
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Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Data has been collected on a number of on-site construction projects, mainly from UK contexts. Several interviews with professional engineers and people involved in engineering education have been conducted, to provide more contextual information. However, more recordings are needed to make the corpus more representative. While the collection of data is somewhat less than I had hoped, the development of training materials from the interview data and recordings has started ahead of schedule.
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Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In the next year, I plan to do the following: 1. continue conducting recordings, 2. have recordings transcribed, 3. anonymize transcriptions, 4. compile corpus, 5. analyze data quantitatively and qualitatively, 6. start developing online training materials. The main aim is to collect more professional engineering interactions, and a trip to record on an English-speaking construction site in Asia should happen (probably in Singapore). This would complement the data already collected in the UK.
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Expenditure Plans for the Next FY Research Funding |
The funds so far have largely paid for the recordings that have taken place on sites in the UK, and for trips to interview professionals and academics in the field. Furthermore, as gaining permission to record in people`s workplaces is very difficult, inevitably some trips to ask permission have not been successful in terms of achieving recording access. Nevertheless, such discussions still provide contextual information on the issues in the industry. For the completion of the corpus and the collection of appropriate data, it is necessary to continue travelling to sites and having the recordings transcribed. In the coming year, the funds will be used for the following purposes: to further transcribe the existing data and that which will be collected; to travel to sites abroad where English is used (e.g. the UK and Singapore) and collect more recordings; to attend conferences to disseminate the findings so far.
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Research Products
(3 results)