ENG 385: Case Study Presentation
(Nervous about answering questions in class or about making a video? Check out my ample list of available accommodations and modifications.)
Any single authority’s point of view (including the instructor’s!) will inevitably distort or skew our understanding of what’s really out there. Thus, the only way to get the most accurate sociolinguistic picture possible of present-day English, and to ensure that our data is up-to-date and thorough, is to multiply our central ‘starting points’ and our number of authoritative perspectives. To adequately multiply our perspectives, each of us will have to gather our own data in, become expert in, and present our findings from one present-day variety. Luckily, each of us also exemplifies at least one variety of English local to Toronto.
The Case Study assignment is the keystone assignment of this class: it will help us understand how sociolinguistic data, both present-day and historical, relate to the real-world people and situations they claim to describe (i.e. “word-to-world fit”)—by positioning each student as an observer and as a subject being observed. Starting in Week 3, each of our course material assignments (see our course schedule) will feature a few student video presentations, each of which will present a case study — of a variety of English used by a fellow student.
Your presentation, which you’ll have to have ready by your assigned date, must include: 1) a 60- to 90-second audio clip of an interview you conducted with your partner, in a format you can share with the class; 2) a four-minute video lecture that you will upload to the class Google Drive file; 3) a virtual handout (pdf or doc), which must include an interlinear IPA-PDE transcription of your audio clip, a list or chart of 3-5 salient features you identified and researched, and footnotes and citations for that research; 4) a real-time Q&A, during the class session for which your peers were required to view your materials, in which you are ready to answer fellow students’ questions in a thoughtful and informed way.
Within the first week of class, I will present an example of a Case Study Presentation. It’s a complex assignment, though not too complicated — be sure to read and follow these instructions carefully:
To start, email your TA after the first class meeting:
Your email to your TA should include your top three choices of presentation date (any class meeting after the Week 2 quiz, listed in order of preference) and two or three examples of linguistic communities in which you are comfortable being identified in public as a member (we’ll talk on the first day of class about what that means) and an email address at which fellow students can contact you and whether you’re available to meet in person or only online.
Wait for a follow-up email from your TA, which will let you know your presentation date and your interview subject (the name and email of one of your fellow students). Students will be assigned in pairs — your interview subject will also be interviewing you — but do not have to present on the same day.
Next, record a interview with your partner:
Outside of class, you must arrange to conduct a friendly, informal interview with your partner — either remotely or, preferably, in person — which you must record, on whatever device or app you have available (if you have no available recording devices, contact me; make sure your partner knows they are being recorded). During your interview, pay attention to any features of your subject’s phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, or semantic that strike you as salient — while doing what you can to make your partner feel at ease, comfortable, un-self-conscious, and natural (I recommend meeting for drinks or food and asking your partner to share silly or amusing anecdotes about their younger years). Give your partner time to loosen up and speak from the heart or the gut; keep things friendly and chill.
Do not try to pressure your partner, however lightly, to produce salient data (this is not only bad scholarship but disrespectful!) — seriously, relax and just let things happen — and trust that you’ll find something interesting in the remembering or recording. Many interviewers get nervous that they won’t be able to find anything salient and usable, but everyone always does (and the best presentations are usually the ones that just let the data take shape, rather than trying to force things); if you don’t notice anything at first, you’ll likely surprise yourself when you start transcribing the recording.
Ask your interview partner about which linguistic communities they identified to the TA; check with your partner, too, to find out whether there’s anything that relates to their use of English that they don’t want included in a presentation (and honour those wishes, obviously).
Next, choose 60-90 seconds’ worth of that recording and transcribe it into PDE and IPA:
Listen to your recorded interview, paying still closer attention to any features that strike you as salient. Choose a 60- to 90-second clip of the recording that includes as many salient features as possible and transcribe it, in an interlinear transcription—both PDE and IPA, aligned clearly. Do not transcribe your own voice — only your partner’s. The full transcription should be roughly 250 words long; be sure to choose a clip that includes at least 200 words. If you wish, you can splice together shorter clips to make your 60- to 90- second clip.
The transcription process will force you to listen especially closely to your partner’s phonology, morphology, and syntax — again, take note of salient features here, because new features may likely emerge. Remember: by salient I mean salient to you — any way of saying something that differs from how you, in any context, might say something, or think you say something.
Using the Type IPA website will be very useful in creating your transcription; you may also opt to use a computer printout for the PDE (and word count), then handwrite the IPA, then scan or photograph it and share. Figure out how you’ll share your recording with the class (it can be as simple as bringing your device to class — I’ll have a speaker to hook it up to — or emailing me with a link to the audio file). As you prepare your work, keep a conversation going with your partner: bounce ideas off of your partner and see what they think.
Next, draft your handout:
Your handout, which you will upload to our Google Drive file along with your video lecture, must include:
The PDE and IPE interlinear transcription you made
A clear list or chart that identifies 3-5 salient features that you found in your partner’s spoken English, each presented with a short description that relates them to an already-researched "recognized" feature or variety. Remember: these features can be phonological, morphological, syntactical, lexical, or semantic. You'll need to do a bit of research, using the library and other resources we mention in class — as well as the handouts made by previous presenters — to establish what has already been said about the closest match for the features you found, and to figure out how your data either aligns with or deviates from what has been said by prior scholars (finding something no scholar has yet mentioned is a particularly impressive deviation).
Footnotes and citations (linked to the list or chart) that make clear where you got the information you gained from research.
Next, put together your four-minute video lecture:
Choose one (and only one!) feature from your list. Draft a four-minute lecture-style class presentation that works through that one feature in more detail, offering thoughtful observations, contextualizations, interpretations, analyses, and/or questions (and, ideally, some kind of innovation or disagreement with respect to scholarly work already published) that will provoke discussion among your fellow students. Keep the conversation going with your partner as you work: is your partner okay with your choice of feature? Be sure your video runs truly four minutes long — you’re being evaluated for how well you manage your time. If possible, please combine your video lecture and audio sample into one continuous five-minute video file, but you can also submit two separate files if that’s easier.
Meanwhile, send a draft copy of your handout to your partner:
Send a draft copy of your handout to your partner at least three days before you present. Invite feedback from your partner: if there is anything that doesn’t sound correct or true to your partner, consider making a change or incorporating your partner’s difference of opinion in a way that identifies variable interpretation. And if there is anything that makes your partner uncomfortable, cut it immediately (this is very unlikely to happen, assuming that you kept the conversation going with your partner from the beginning). Your partner is responsible for identifying any uncomfortable material in your handout or presentation within 48 hours of when you send it their way—if there’s no response in 48 hours, then we will assume it approval—so be sure to leave 48 hours of time between when you send a draft to your partner and when you’re required to upload your materials.
By the date specified for your presentation group on the course schedule, you must upload all materials to the course Google Drive:
Again, that includes, all in formats that you can share with the class, 1) a 60- to 90-minute audio clip of an interview you conducted with your partner; 2) a four-minute video lecture (preferably attached to the audio clip); 3) an electronic handout, which must include an interlinear IPA-PDE transcription of your audio clip, a list or chart of 3-5 salient features you identified and researched, and footnotes and citations for that research.
HOW TO UPLOAD: If you have any kind of account with Google, or are willing to make one quickly, then as long as you’re signed into Google you can just open up the ENG 385 Google Drive file and drag your files into your groups “Case Studies” folder. If you do not have a Google account, then email your files to me directly at sergi.utoronto@gmail.com by the deadline specified on our course schedule. Please name each file clearly and consistently — ideally following the formula “STUDENTNAME_SUBJECTNAME_MATERIAL.filetype” (so, my files might be named matt_morgan_videolecture.mp4, matt_morgan_interview.mp3 and matt_morgan_handout.pdf).
Then, during the real-time class session for which your peers were required to view your materials, you will be called on to respond to your fellow students’ questions or comments in a thoughtful and well-informed way.
I’ll evaluate and grade your presentation based on a variety of criteria: the precision of your IPA transcription (usually measured using 6-8 random checkpoints, which will make up one third of your assignment grade); the innovation of your selection of interview sample and salient feature, and especially the way you position yourself with respect to prior scholarship (including fellow students’ prior presentations!); your informed analysis of the feature you focus on; your synthesis of your findings with class material and discussions; the provocation factor (i.e. the quality of conversation sparked by your presentation); your complex understanding of the subject and its contexts throughout; your organization and focus during the presentation (and its timing).
Your Case Study Presentation is not only an exercise, but also a real contribution to class material! A history of the English language presented from a single perspective would be very inadequate, as we will see quickly: we can only approach the vast breadth of English through a collaborative effort…
…which means, by the way, that material from student presentations will be included on the Week 7 Take-Home Test. Any feature that a student has lectured on is fair game — but I will not ask about anything that isn’t also clearly indicated on the student’s handout.