English Language Teaching in its Social Context

Chapter 20Joan SwannRECORDING AND TRANSCRIBING TALKIN EDUCATIONAL SETTINGSIntroductionHIS CHAPTER PROVIDES GUIDANCE FOR those who wish to carry outT an investigation into aspects of spoken language. It is designed mainly for use ineducational settings, and will probably be particularly appropriate for teachers and othereducationists engaged on small-scale research projects. Many of the techniques andprinciples it discusses, however, apply equally well to investigations of spoken language innon-cducational contexts.I shall discuss factors to take into account when making audio and video recordings ofspoken language, then look at different ways of making a written transcript from thcserecordings. The article does not provide detailed guidance on analysis, but I shall refer toother chapters in this volume that serve as examples of different ways of analysing talk.Preliminaries: deciding what information you need and how tocollect thisI am assuming that, as a reader of this chapter, you will alrcady have in mind a clear purposefor recording and analysing spoken language - that you will have identified certain issuesto focus on, perhaps specified, in a formal project, as a set of research questions. Thesequestions will affect the setting in which you carry out your research, the people and eventsyou decide to observe and record, the stance you adopt towards others involvcd in yourrcsearch, the particular types of recording you make and how you transcribe and analysethese.Selecting a sample of people and eventsSince you cannot, and will not wish to record everything that is going on you will need toselect people and events to focus on. If your interest is in aspects of classroom talk, you maywish to focus on talk betwcen the teacher (yoursclf or a colleague) and pupils, or betwcendifferent pupils, or both. You may be interested in wholc-class discussion or small-grouptalk.You may wish to compare contributions from a small number of pupils in differentcontexts, or to monitor one child closely in a range of activities.