Experimental Research Methods in Sociolinguistics

Description

Research Methods in Experimental Sociolinguistics is an accessible, user-friendly guide to the variety of different experimental methods used in sociolinguistics. The text steps through the "how-to" of experimental methods used to investigate variation in both speech production and perception. All throughout it is aimed at practice and application. Experimental methods are used to explain and map out causation: these methods are growing in popularity with linguistics and a book mapping these is much needed. Drager's textbook takes the reader from defining the research question through to finding an appropriate research framework through to completing the project. Advice is given on ethics, how to measure production and perception and on how to construct and use corpora in this type of research. Both paid for and free tools are covered as well as statistics in experimental linguistics. The book includes a companion website with information on experiment-friendly software, sample experiments and suggestions for work to undertake.

Katie Drager is Associate Professor at University of Hawai'i at Manoa, USA.

This promises to be a fun book about an important topic. It is most likely to be adopted as a textbook in many sociolinguistic classes, and I'm sure that sociolinguistic students throughout the world will benefit from some clear explanations about how to conduct experimental research. -- Tommaso Milani, Associate Professor of Linguistics and Head of Department, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa The strengths include the theoretical breadth of the text, and the author's technical expertise; in addition, the author's undeniable ability to keep students eyes open and their minds on target, despite technical details which will follow in subsequent chapters. If one had any fears that she couldn't carry off this textbook project, the introduction makes clear that her distinctive voice and good humor will keep readers going even in the heavy chapters ... If the author manages to get this book out quickly, there will be nothing like it on the market, and no other researcher who could even come close to the breadth of coverage which her chapter headings promise. -- Malcah Yaeger-Dror, University of Arizona, USA It's a potentially very useful work that collects together a number of approaches rarely considered in one place. I like the fact that it brings psycholinguistic and phonetic methods into sociolinguistics, while also ensuring that psycholinguists and phoneticians would be exposed to the kinds of questions and data central to sociolinguists. -- Paul Foukes, University of York, UK I would tell colleagues that this book sounds like an excellent guidebook for experimental designs. Individual chapters would be excellent readings for students, especially the suggestions of possible experiments. Chapters or the whole book would be good both as class readings and as recommended readings for Ph.D. or M.A. students who are preparing for a dissertation or thesis. -- Erik R. Thomas, North Carolina State University, USA