Postgraduate Course: Research Methods in Developmental Linguistics (LASC11127)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | This course aims to provide students with knowledge and skills in conducting empirical research in developmental linguistics. The main focus will be on practical knowledge in using research methods, techniques and tools that can be applied to language developmental research in various populations including infants, children, adults and clinical groups. It also provides guidance on research management (such as recruitment, ethics and data management) as well as advanced research skills building up on those taught in Univariate Statistics & Methodology Using R. The course is designed specifically for students in the MSc Programme in Developmental Linguistics, but it will be open to other students who have the pre-requisites. |
| Course description |
Syllabus:
Research planning and practices
o Planning and managing a project
o Ethics and informed consent
o Special populations (children, clinical groups)
o Recruitment
o Data management
Data collection/analysis methods
o Spontaneous speech data: Corpus analysis and the use of CLAN
o Infant testing procedures: Visual fixation, habituation and preferential looking
o Elicited production
o Judgement tasks and the use of magnitude estimation
o Online experiments and the use of E-Prime
o Paper tasks: Questionnaires, standardized psychometric tests
o Neural methods: EEG and OT
Data processing
o Data transfer: From raw data to statistical packages
o Recoding and restructuring data
o Data reduction and transformation
Reporting
o Description of methodology
o Reporting the results
o Abstracts, proposals and articles
Transferable Skills:
o Project management
o Experimental design
o Recruitment
o Data analysis
o Report writing
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Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2015/16, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 18,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 9,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
69 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Methodological review of paper(s) (1,500 words) 50%
Analysis and reporting of mock data (1,000 words) 50% |
| Feedback |
Comments provided on submitted assessments |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- learn how to use major research methods in developmental linguistics, including corpus analysis, elicited production, comprehension tasks, judgment tasks, questionnaires and online measures, as well as relevant tools (e.g. CLAN, E-Prime)
- familiarise themselves with guiding principles managing empirical research, including those related to research planning, participant recruitment, ethics procedures and data management
- gain further research skills in data processing/analysis (e.g., aggregation, restructuring, transformation) and reporting (e.g., data presentation, writing abstracts / proposals)
|
Reading List
Blom, E., & Unsworth, S. (2010). Experimental methods in language acquisition research. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Hoff, E. (2012). Research methods in child language: A practical guide. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Mackey, A. & Gass, S. M. (2012). Research methods in second language acquisition: A practical guide. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Wei, L., & Moyer, M. G. (2008). The Blackwell guide to research methods in bilingualism and multilingualism. Oxford: Blackwell. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | developmental,linguistics,empirical,research,methods,skills |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Mitsuhiko Ota
Tel: (0131 6)50 3949
Email: mits@ling.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Toni Noble
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188
Email: Toni.noble@ed.ac.uk |
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