CHILDES Workshop Wenjuan Qin Harvard Graduate School of Education
CHILDES WorkshopWenjuan Qin
Harvard Graduate School of Education
Agenda• CHILDES Overview
• CHAT Transcription
• Transcribing essays
• Transcribing classroom discussions
• Clause Coding
CHILDES• Child Language Data Exchange System
(Snow & MacWhinney, 1983)
• Automate the process of data analysis
• Obtain better data in a consistent, fully-documented transcription system
• Provide more data for children from diverse backgrounds
CHILDES• Child Language Data Exchange System
(Snow & MacWhinney, 1983)
• CLAN: Computerized Language Analysis
• CHAT: Codes for Human Analysis of Transcripts
• Database: CHILDES Database
CHILDES• Child Language Data Exchange System
(Snow & MacWhinney, 1983)
• CLAN: Computerized Language Analysis
• CHAT: Codes for Human Analysis of Transcripts
• Database: CHILDES Database
CLAN• Automate the process of data analysis:
• Lexical measures:
• word frequency, lexical diversity (vocd), morphological complexity, lexical density
• search for specific words/phrases in text
• Syntactic measures:
• words per clause, clauses per t-unit, main length of utterances (mlu), main length of turns (mlt)
• Personalized coding
CHAT
• CHAT Transcriptions
• Transcribing Essays (Manual1)
• Transcribing Discussions (Manual 2)
• *Clause Coding (Manual 3)
CHAT
• CHAT Transcriptions
• Transcribing Essays (Manual1)
• Transcribing Discussions (Manual 2)
• *Clause Coding (Manual 3)
Transcribing essays in CHAT
CHAT Essay Transcription
File Header(@)
Main Tier(*XXX)
Dependent Tier(%xxx)
File Headers• M1-p.1
• Hint:
• Super important for exporting results
• use the Template
Main Tiers• The main tier gives the basic transcription of what the speaker said or wrote (*STU).
• Basic Principals (M1-p.2)
• Punctuation
• Utterance terminators: . ! ? (should not appear in the middle of a main tier)
• Put all other punctuations used by the students in brackets [,] [:] [“] [!!!]
• Lowercase except for proper names, e.g. James_Brown
• Acronyms: e.g., U_S_A
• Numbers: written out in words, e.g., two hundred and fifty six
• @End: Each transcript must be completed with this symbol.
• A new line will be started at the beginning of each T-unit (M1 - Appendix I)
T-unit Coding• M1-Appendix I
• Definition of T-unit
• “T-units are defined as thematic units of complete and autonomous meaning, corresponding to a main clause plus all the subordinate clauses embedded in it.” (Hunt, 1983)
T-unit Coding (con’t)• 1 T-unit
• Single independent main clause
e.g. I like math class.
• Main clause with subordinating clause(s)
• Relative clause - e.g. The person who lives in that house is nice.
• Complement clause - e.g. I think that he is nice.
• Dependent clause - e.g. She helped me because she is nice.
• Adverbial clause - e.g. Sarah ran as fast as she could.
T-unit Coding (con’t)• 2 or more t-units
• Coordinate clauses
• clauses connected by coordinative conjunctions: and, but, for, nor or, yet, so
*STU: for my birthday [,] I got a new toy airplane.
*STU: and I got to go to the zoo.
Main Tier (con’t)• Standardized Spellings (M1-p. 3-4)
• Spelling errors [: ]
• Assimilations [: ]
• Contractions [: ]
• Apostrophe ’s (ha)s
Main Tier (con’t)• Example:
He’s gonna be angny at me.
CHAT Transcription:
*STU: he’s [: he is] gonna [: going to] be angny [: angry] at me.
Main Tier (con’t)• Example:
It’s okay if your opinion is different from other people’s.
CHAT Transcription:
*STU: it’s [: it is] okay if your opinion is different from other people (ha)s.
Dependent Tier• M1-p.4
• Dependent tiers are lines typed below the main tier that contain codes, comments, events and descriptions of interest to the researcher (%cod, %com, %xxx).
Example:
*STU: however, I disagree with him.
%cod: $OPN
Gem Header• Gem headers are used to mark the transcripts into segments.
Example:
@bg: paragraph
*STU: I believe schools should not sell junk food.
*STU: they are harmful to students’ health.
@eg: paragraph
@bg:paragraph
*STU: however, students should get some treat occasionally.
@eg: paragraph
CHAT Essay Transcription• Review:
• File header (use template)
• Main Tier (principals & standardized spelling)
• Dependent Tier (personalized coding)
• Gem header (marking paragraphs)
Let’s practice!• Create a folder to store essay transcriptions
• Set working directory in CLAN
• CLAN—Windows—Commands
• Open a blank document
• CLAN—File—New
• Start transcribing!
• Template1_Essay.cha
• Data1_MA_B_SWG_WS_TCU_3_KB
Transcribing Discussion in CHAT
CHAT Discussion Transcription
Multiple participants
@ID header for each participant
Multiple speakers on the main tier
Main Tiers• Basic Principals (M2-p.3) - what is different from essay
transcriptions
• Punctuation:
• Regular utterance terminator . ! ?
• Special utterance terminator
• +… +..? +!? +/. +/?
• Commas could be used to mark phrasal junction
• Pauses: (.) (..) (…)
• Unintelligible words: xxx
Main Tiers• Basic Principals (M2-p.3) - what is different from essay
transcriptions
• Retracing
• Repetition [/] Retracing [//] Reformulation [///]
Example:
*ST1: <I wanted> [/] I wanted to invite Margie.
*ST1: <I wanted> [//] uh I thought I wanted to invite Margie.
*ST1: <I wanted> [///] all of us thought we should invite Margie.
Dependent Tier• Use the %com line to note any noteworthy information
Example:
*ST1: after ten years, and they’re [: they are] like, [“] I don’t [: do not] care. [”].
%com: the student chuckles
• Use the %tim line to periodically indicate the time
*ST1: we’re [: we are] all done for now.
%tim: 01:05:40
Gem Header• Use gem headers to mark sections in the
discussion.
@bg: smallgroup
*ST2: maybe when he’s [: he is] bigger, he tells her.
*ST3: I don’t [: do not] agree.
@eg: smallgroup
Let’s practice!• Create a folder to store discussion transcriptions
• Set working directory in CLAN
• CLAN—Windows—Commands
• Open a blank document
• CLAN—File—New
• Start transcribing!
• Template2_Discussion.cha
• Data2_Barbieri CR Transcript_Cooper’s Lesson
Clause Coding• Manual 3_clause coding Manual
• Add [c] at the end of each clause after you have done a transcription
• “Save as” a different file in a separate folder: e.g., 001_c.cha
Review• CHILDES: CHAT, CLAN, Database
• CHAT
• Transcribing essays
• Transcribing classroom discussions
• Coding clauses
• Lay a solid foundation for CLAN Analysis!!!
Thank you!