Record and Mark Text

Recorded Text Testing
Background Research
Intelligibility Interviews
Choose Kind of Test
Choose Test Points
Materials
Obtain a Text
Develop Questions
Create Introduction Text
Assemble Pilot Test
Administer Pilot Test
Select Final Questions
Build Reference Tests
Develop Post-RTT Questions
Administer Text Test Set
Process Scores

Obtaining a Text
Find a Good Storyteller
Find a Good Text
Record and Mark Text
Translate Phrases of Text

The following steps will walk you through the process of eliciting and recording a text. In order to complete these steps, you will need to be familiar with the use of a MiniDisc (MD) recorder.

1. Describe the type of story you want to the storyteller, and allow him or her some time to think of one and summarize it.
2. Check the main idea to be sure it meets the basic requirements. You might do this by having the storyteller tell you a bit of the story; it will also give him or her some practice telling the story.
3. Assemble the recorder equipment and double check that it is working properly.
4. Speak and record the language and/or dialect name, location, and date on the disc that you'll use for the story.
5. When you are ready to record the story, cue the storyteller to begin.
6. Insert "marks" to define tracks at every pause or at the end of what you suspect might be a sentence. Do not allow tracks to exceed ten seconds in length. Tracks that are longer than ten seconds can be difficult to translate accurately.
7. When you have finished recording the entire story, check that it has at least 30 tracks and that the duration of the story is between two and five minutes. If you have fewer than 30 tracks, or if the text is less than two minutes long, it may be difficult to generate the number of questions you will need. A very long text can make listeners tired and takes a long time to translate. If these requirements are not met, you should elicit another story.
8. Write the first and last track numbers and a description of the data on the disc's label. (Example: "Tracks 1-42: Sirba village hometown")
9. Thank the storyteller for his/her help. Be sure to write in the data notebook the information you want to keep for future reference about the storyteller: name, age, occupation, education level, birthplace, etc.