English Language & Linguistics

Oral History

Interviews

Interview with Professor Christian Kay on the Historical Thesaurus of English project, by Dore van Haasterecht and Robert Lennon

Audio: Christian Kay 1 (mp3)
Transcription: Christian Kay 1 (pdf)
Summary: This is a short interview by Dore van Haasterecht and Robert Lennon, both Honours students in English Language, University of Glasgow, undertaken as part of the employability project in spring 2011. They interview emeritus Professor Christian Kay about her four decades of work on the Historical Thesaurus of English. This covers issues such as managing a large team of workers, the changing research environment, and the opportunities brought by advances in technology over this period. 

Interview with Professor Christian Kay on life as an academic, by Dore van Haasterecht and Robert Lennon

Audio: Christian Kay 2 (mp3)
Transcription: Christian Kay 2 (pdf)
Summary: This is a short interview by Dore van Haasterecht and Robert Lennon, both Honours students in English Language, University of Glasgow, undertaken as part of the employability project in spring 2011. They interview emeritus Professor Christian Kay about the career of an academic today, and how this has changed over time. They also discuss how the discipline of English Language has changed, student employability today, and the skills and attributes which a degree in English Language develops.

Research and Recordings, by Ellen Bramwell and Francesco Li Santi

Audio: Research and Recordings (MP3)
Transcription: Research and Recordings (PDF)
Summary: This is a discussion between Ellen Bramwell and Francesco Li Santi, both postgraduate students in English Language, University of Glasgow. They talk about the nature and practice of audio recordings in their research, in onomastics and phonetics respectively, and consider the differing priorities of qualitative and quantitative research based on recordings. This covers techniques such as semi-structured interviews, map-tasks, and word-lists. The discussion also touches on the practicalities of making recordings - location, background noise and overcoming nerves - and the advantages of using audio recordings as data.

Interview with Dr Linda Fleming

Audio: Linda Fleming (MP3)
Transcription: Linda Fleming (PDF)
Summary: Dr Linda Fleming of the Scottish Centre for the Book, Edinburgh Napier University, is interviewed here by Ellen Bramwell, a PhD student in  English Language, University of Glasgow. They discuss oral history projects on which Linda has worked, including the "Scottish Readers Remember" project investigating readers' engagement with the printed word through life-course interviews, and Linda's PhD work on the Jewish community in Glasgow from 1880-1950. The discussion ranges from the nature of oral history in general terms, to anecdotes of Linda and Ellen's experiences in carrying out recordings, whether for oral history or linguistic research. It also touches on issues of ethics, recording equipment, techniques for making recordings, and the transferable skills which such approaches develop in researchers.

 

Links

There is a wealth of information and resources available online that is helpful for those researching oral history. Many websites on the subject offer succinct guides to researchers who are just starting out, while some go further in detailing the procedures and equipment which will help ensure worthwhile results, as well as the ethical considerations which need to be factored in to such projects. The following offers a brief selection of some of the most useful or exemplary sites, although many of these have their own ‘links’ sections which are thoroughly worth exploring.

General Information

Oral History Society  www.ohs.org.uk/

The best place to start for researchers working on oral history in the UK. This site offers a thorough introduction to all aspects of such work, as well as sections on regional networks, journals and training courses which might be of interest, and a resource guide. It also includes a vacancies section publishing information on relevant jobs

International Oral History Association  www.iohanet.org/

Like the UK Oral History Society, this page contains a wealth of information including advice on conducting research, reviews of published material, and the details of their own journal and conferences. Immediately useful either to beginners or to those with more experience, this is a well-maintained site that is well worth consulting.

Scottish Oral History Centre  

This is the website of the Scottish Oral History Centre at the University of Strathclyde. It provides an idea of the research that is underway in Scotland at the moment. It gives some sound advice for beginners and details of the Centre’s seminars and conferences.

H-Oralhist  www.h-net.org/~oralhist/

Affiliated to the US Oral History Association, this is one of the important H-Net mailing lists which offers free subscription to a variety of electronic newsletters pertaining to the subject. A very good way of keeping up to date on events, jobs and publications in the area.

Making History – the making of oral history  www.history.ac.uk/makinghistory/resources/articles/oral_history.html

This online article, by Graham Smith, Chair of the Oral History Society, provides a wide-ranging introduction to the area of oral history. Most of the sections are brief, but the article is replete with hyperlinks to notes and relevant websites which offer further valuable reading.

BBC History – How to do History  www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/htd_history/

A website aimed very much at beginners and amateur historians, this gives a nice light introduction to the subject and a reasonable idea of the aims and procedures of such work as well as some good links to more in-depth sites.

International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives  www.iasa-web.org/index.asp

This website is aimed at professionals and keeps a good calendar of events that might be of interest to those involved in the creation and/or maintenance of recorded archives. It includes its own mailing list, which can be subscribed to from the menu bar at the top of the home page.

Resources – Corpora, Equipment and Software

Scottish Corpus of Text and Speech (SCOTS)  www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk

Primarily a linguistic resource rather than an oral history one, the SCOTS project at the University of Glasgow provides a valuable source of recordings many of which are relevant to oral historians. Digital audio interviews are especially useful, and a powerful search tool enables the user to locate these recordings. The major benefit of the SCOTS project is that all its material is instantly accessible online.

The Newcastle Diachronic Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English (DECTE) http://research.ncl.ac.uk/decte/

DECTE builds on the work of NECTE, above, to create a multimedia corpus of five decades' worth of language from Tyneside. The corpus will be available for download once it is complete.

East Midlands Oral History Archive, Equipment Page  www.le.ac.uk/emoha/training/equipment.html

Another regional resource which allows requests for recorded material specifically related to oral history, although this site does not provide the recordings online. It does, however, have a useful training section which includes good advice on acquiring and using equipment.

Praat Phonetics Transcription Software  www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat

An effective and straightforward piece of transcription software by two programmers, Paul Boersma and David Weenink. The website allows you to download Praat free of charge for a variety of operating systems, and includes a web version of the user’s manual.