Learn new ways to transcribe and analyse video recordings for your research in this short course from CRAL

The Centre for Research in Applied Linguistics is running the short course 'An introduction to multimodal analysis: CLAN and related software tools for transcribing and analysing video recordings of spoken interaction', 15th-16th January, 2015, at the Digital Humanities Centre.

This course is for researchers who analyse video or audio recordings of spoken interaction. It will provide a practical, step-by-step guide to using software tools that help with your research. The 2-day course takes place 15th-16th January 9.30-16.30 both days, providing a taught introduction with hands on practice and assistance.

We’ll focus on a tool called:

• CLAN (‘Computerized Language Analysis’) - a ‘time-stamping’ transcription tool, designed for coding and analysing spoken interaction. It’s great for making transcripts that you can play back alongside your original video data, but it also provides a powerful analytic tool for your research.

We’ll also use some related software programmes, which can work in conjunction with CLAN:

• ELAN (from Max Plank) - a similar ‘time-stamping’ tool.
• Praat for the phonetic analysis of speech.
• Quicktime for some of its presentation features.

For a brief overview of the schedule and content please see the programme (PDF).

The course will be led by Dr Janus Mortensen and Dr Spencer Hazel from Roskilde University, who have used CLAN for several large projects, including ‘LINGCORP’, which researches linguistic and cultural diversity in globalised workplaces, and Dr Sarah Atkins who uses the software for the sociolinguistic analysis of health communication at the University of Nottingham.

The course is particularly suitable for those doing research in linguistics, discourse or conversation analysis, but may be of interest to other disciplines in which video or audio is closely analysed. If you make detailed transcripts for Conversation Analysis, CLAN provides a full range of Jefferson notation and symbols to use.

If you have a laptop, we recommend that you bring it to work on. This enables participants to get the most from the taught workshop and carry on using the programme to transcribe their own data long after the course. Those teaching the course can also ensure everything works correctly on your laptop. Some computer terminals will be provided in the Digital Humanities Centre, if you prefer not to bring a laptop – let us know if you’ll need a computer.

If you have video/audio data which you are currently working on, you can also bring this with you and get started using the software right away. It’s a good idea to bring your own headphones! We’ll also have plenty of practice video clips on hand to try out.

Please sign up for the event if you want to participate.

Queries can be directed to Sarah Atkins.