Creating a corpus of English spoken as a lingua franca between Japanese and cultural others: For the future purpose of developing authentic materials for conversation and intercultural training

2014 Fiscal Year Research-status Report

• Project/Area Number: 26370659
• Research Institution: Joetsu University of Education
• Principal Investigator: ブラウン アイヴァン 上越教育大学, 学校教育研究科(研究院), 准教授 (80436774)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): エルダトン サイモン 新潟県立看護大学, 看護学部, 助教 (30512066)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 英語会話コーパス / 会話分析 / 異文化コミュニケーション / 日本人英語学習者 / 在日英語母語話者 / 相互作用能力 / 会話方略

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

Four CA data sessions in Tokyo were attended, significantly improving the investigators’ analytical skills. At the Yamanashi CELES conference, valuable information was obtained about the state of English conversation training in Japanese schools. Almost all necessary equipment for recording, transription and analysis has been obtained, and 7 main sets of appropriate and useful recordings have been collected, totalling over 25 hours (exit interviews for over 2 hours of these). A total of 6.5 hours of recordings have been transcribed, of which 2 hours in CA format. An evolving corpus has been created within a Transana database. Related teaching materials have been piloted with useful observation notes. Presentation at CA data session and overseas data-gathering have been planned for FY2015.

Current Status of Research Progress

1: Research has progressed more than it was originally planned.

Reason

1. All the planned targets for the first year have been achieved, as mentioned in the summary above.
2. The initial target for quantity of recordings for the 1st year was 2 hours, but over 25 hours have been collected, which is over 12 times the original target. Moreover, although they were all collected in Japan, and the eventual aim is to collect further recordings in different cultural environments overseas, this total is also equal to the target for total quantity of recordings for the whole project.
3. The initial target for transcription was 2 hours, but more than 6.5 hours of recordings have been transcribed, more than 3 times that expected.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

Although one co-investigator (renkei-kenkyusha) has left Japan, thereby leaving the project, this is not expected to significantly affect the project. For FY2015, the following is planned:
(1) Presentation of a sample of the data for discussion, analysis and evaluation at a CA data session in Tokyo on July 18th; (2) Further data-collection in the U.K. in early August 2015, involving the principal investigator and a research collaborator, in collaboration with researchers at one or two British universities; (3) Data-collection by the co-investigator in at least one overseas location; (4) Transcription of at least 4 hours of this data; (5) Pilot-testing of corpus and mid-term evaluation of the project.

Causes of Carryover

Regarding surpluses in categories other than travel costs: (1) Surpluses of ￥41,409 in equipment & consumables and ￥28,000 in miscellaneous items, due to unforeseeable delay in selecting appropriate PC and some microphones, and decision to postpone web-host set-up; (2) Surplus of ￥34,300 in labour costs, due to lower-than expected availability of assistants.

Expenditure Plan for Carryover Budget

Of the carried of amount of ￥68,125, ￥50,000 will be allocated to travel costs, in order to cover the extra opportunities found for collecting recordings, and the remainder, ￥18,125, will be allocated to equipment and consumables, in order to ensure sufficient funds are available for extra storage (hard drives) and a PC for mobile transcription and data presentation.