Introducing English as a Lingua Franca: an Online Tutorial

Table of Contents

1. What is English as a Lingua Franca?
2. The tutorial: who it's for and what it aims to do
3. The tutorial: how it works
4. Analysing talk (the slightly theoretical bit)
5. Recording and transcribing: why record, why transcribe, what to transcribe
6. Notation
7. Three examples of classroom talk with accompanying transcripts
8. The activity - section one: form a group
9. The activity - section two: select your recording equipment
10. The activity - section three: record your discussion
11. The activity - section four: transcription and analysis
12. The activity - section five: discuss your transcript
13. Photos of the project team
14. References
15. Further reading
16. Acknowledgements
17. How to print and cite this resource
18. Creative Commons Licence

Recording and transcribing: why record, why transcribe, what to transcribe

Recording your classroom discussion means that you are free to focus on talking, without having to worry about trying to write down everything everyone says. Even if you could write or type very quickly, it would still be impossible to time pauses, record overlapping talk and so on. Having a recording also means that if you disagree with your group about what you've transcribed, you call all listen to the discussion again to check.

But although it's important to have recording, it's difficult to listen to the recording and discuss it at the same time. Transcribing your discussion means that you have a written record to refer to; which is much easier than having to constantly re-play very small bits of recorded talk. Doing a transcription also has the benefit of forcing you to listen very carefully to the talk, much more carefully than you need if you only want a general impression of what was said. Finally, having a transcript which you can show to your group members and compare with theirs is a good way to start your discussion.

Trying transcription for the first time can be daunting and it is always surprising how long it takes to capture the tiny details. Depending on how detailed you want your transcript to be, you might find that transcribing one minute of talk can take about one hour.

In the video below you can hear Ilias, one of the members of the York St John University English as a Lingua Franca Enquiry-based Learning project, talking about trying transcription for the first time.

Ilias talking about the experience of transcribing his classroom talk for the first time

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