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Bonus 66: Using a rabbit to get kids chatting for science
🕑 Added 2022-08-04 23:30:25 +0000 UTCIf you're looking to try to figure out how kids talk, you might start by asking them some questions, or showing them a picture and trying to get them to talk about it. The problem is, sometimes kids are shy or not accustomed to answering direct questions from strangers, so these methods can underestimate them. A linguist named Bill Labov had a different idea: what if he brought a live rabbit into a school, told the kids that the rabbit was nervous but would calm down if they talked to it, turned the recorder on, and then left the room? Maybe kids who weren't comfortable talking to a teacher or researcher would feel more relaxed and chatty with a furry friend. (Spoiler: it worked!)
In this bonus episode, Lauren and Gretchen get enthusiastic about a forgotten gem of a linguistics paper about a rabbit! We talk about how Linguistics Twitter got excited about tracking down this paper based on a vague rumour, Labov's history of coming up with unique ways to record language in more natural environments (Anyone want to write a linguistics mystery novel called From Death to Department Stores?), and useful takeaways about how to talk with children (Tired: questions you already know the answer to. Inspired: respecting kids as peers). Plus: the name of the rabbit (Vincent) and the broader educational context that this paper was written in.
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Here are the links mentioned in this episode:
- Betsy Sneller's original tweet asking about the paper
- Bill Labov in Crash Course Linguistics
- Linguist name pronunciation guide
- William Labov's French Wikipedia entry
- The paper has been found! Announcement on Twitter
- Finding Out About Children's Language by William Labov
You can listen to this episode on this page, via the Patreon RSS or download the mp3. A transcript of this episode is available as a Google Doc. Lingthusiasm is also on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com or chat to us on the Patreon page. Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic. Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.
To chat about this episode and other lingthusiastic topics with your fellow linguistics fans, join us on the Lingthusiasm Discord server.
Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our senior producer is Claire Gawne, our production editor is Sarah Dopierala, our production assistant is Martha Tsutsui Billins, and our production manager is Liz McCullough. Our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.
Comments
Tanner Gore
Only vaguely similar, but I took part in a small study for heritage and L2 speakers of German while at uni in Austria, where they had us interviewed by native speakers and then had us (heritage / L2 speakers) interview each other. Apparently they found some evidence that we were much more willing to be open and talk with each other, giving longer answers and attempting to use more complex sentence structures and grammar than with the native speakers, possibly because of the pressure and desire to not make any mistakes with the L1 speakers, thus deferring to simple structures and shorter answers.
