Intonation units in spoken interaction: Developing transcription skills
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Juurd H Stelma
Juurd H. Stelma received a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Leeds in 2003 and is currently a Lecturer in TESOL in the School of Education at the University of Manchester. His main research interest is the development of methodology for exploring the dynamical nature of language in use.
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Lynne J Cameron
Lynne J. Cameron is Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Centre for Language and Communication at the Open University. Her research seeks to understand how language is used in building understanding between people, particularly through metaphor. She has published widely on the use of metaphor in different settings, including the co-edited
Researching and Applying Metaphor (1999, with Graham Low) and her bookMetaphor in Educational Discourse (2003).
Abstract
This paper describes the transcription process and the development of transcription skills in a research project using recorded spoken interaction as its main data. The spoken data was transcribed using intonation units, and the paper traces the development of the first author's skills in identifying such intonation units. Intertranscriber checks of transcription, involving three researchers, were used to highlight ways in which the identification of intonation units could be improved. Subsequent re-transcription of the data highlighted stretches of talk that included many hesitations, false starts, and speech used to regulate ongoing spoken interaction. These features were linked to low levels of intertranscriber agreement. It is argued that the existing literature on intonation units does not address how to best deal with this quality of spontaneous spoken interaction. The paper concludes with an agenda that may be used to improve the quality of transcription in similar research projects, and to develop the transcription skills of the researchers that are responsible for transcription.
About the authors
Juurd H. Stelma received a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Leeds in 2003 and is currently a Lecturer in TESOL in the School of Education at the University of Manchester. His main research interest is the development of methodology for exploring the dynamical nature of language in use.
Lynne J. Cameron is Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Centre for Language and Communication at the Open University. Her research seeks to understand how language is used in building understanding between people, particularly through metaphor. She has published widely on the use of metaphor in different settings, including the co-edited Researching and Applying Metaphor (1999, with Graham Low) and her book Metaphor in Educational Discourse (2003).
© Walter de Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Formulations and the facilitation of common agreement in meetings talk
- Folk notions of um and uh, you know, and like
- Reformulations of agentless talk in psychotherapy
- Conceptual manipulation by metaphors and frames: Dealing with rape victims in legal discourse
- Intonation units in spoken interaction: Developing transcription skills
Articles in the same Issue
- Formulations and the facilitation of common agreement in meetings talk
- Folk notions of um and uh, you know, and like
- Reformulations of agentless talk in psychotherapy
- Conceptual manipulation by metaphors and frames: Dealing with rape victims in legal discourse
- Intonation units in spoken interaction: Developing transcription skills
