Chapter 3 Methodology
3.1 Data collection
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experimental studies” (MOST101-2410-H-004-182-), and the follow-up study
“Consonant acquisition in Taiwan Mandarin: Evidence from observational and
experimental studies” (MOST102-2410-H-004-107-) for the normally-developing
children; “Consonant disorder in Mandarin children” (MOST103-2410-H-004-075-)
and “Consonant disorder in Mandarin children (II)” (MOST 104-2410-H-004-137-)
for the phonologically-disordered children.
3.1 Data collection
The normally-developing children were recruited from a non-profit parent forum
called Babyhome (http://www.babyhome.com.tw/). An advertising poster was posted
on the forum to gather the voluntary parents who were willing to have their children
attend the projects. The information provided on the poster contained the age of
children needed and the academic research purpose of the MOST projects. Those who
were willing to participate in the research projects were required to complete a
registration form created with a free online questionnaire “Google doc spreadsheet”.
Moreover, the subjects were asked to sign a human subject consent form in advance
of the data collection.
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On the other hand, the phonologically-disordered children who were engaging in
language therapy in Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Beitou District were
informed of the information about the purpose of the projects by a speech therapist as
well the Principal Investigator Yuh-Mei Chung of the projects. Parents who were
interested in participating the longitudinal observations during the language
therapeutic courses were asked to fill out a Declaration of Parental/Guardian's Consent
in which the approval of the Institutional Review Board of Taipei Veterans General
Hospital, the academic research purpose, and a detailed description of the process
executed were provided. Moreover, the author and the assistants who carried out the
data collection were required to attend a training program and obtain a training
certificate offered by the Institutional Review Board of Taipei Veterans General
Hospital.
3.1.1 Participants
This study aims to review two normally-developing children and two
phonologically-disordered children. The table below displayed the background
information of the four participants recruited from the two groups.
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Table 3.1 Participants’ background information
The normally-developing group includes two girls, labeled as WW and NN. They
were 10 months old and 9 months old at the time the recording began. They both
came from middle-class families in Taipei and have siblings. The caretakers were
their mothers, who spoke only Mandarin Chinese in daily life, and hence, the
children’s native tongue was Mandarin. The parental report showed that WW and NN
had no intellectual or hearing impairment. The phonologically-disordered group
includes two children, labeled as LL and HH. The former was a boy and the latter was
a girl, both of which were identified to have phonological disorder and have been
attending language therapeutic courses provided by Taipei Veterans General Hospital.
Their first recording report showed that LL and HH were at the age of 4;3 and 3;10.
The recording started in April 2015.
Participants Gender Age Duration Normally-developing
Group
WW Female 0;10-2;5 19 months
NN Female 0;9-2;4 19 months
Phonologically-disordered Group
LL Male 4;3-4;9 6 months
HH Female 3;10-4;3 6 months
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3.1.2 Data collecting procedures
The longitudinal observations of the normally-developing children group were
carried out at two-week intervals. The author and the assistants in the research team
were obliged to visit the children’s families twice a month for at most an hour data
collection. The video-recording and audio-recording were both employed. When the
children felt tired or impatient about the filming, the assistants would call off the
recording, thus some of the recordings did not last for an hour. In favor of eliciting
more natural spontaneous utterances from naturalistic settings, several activities,
inclusive of story-telling, drawings, games, free play with their caretakers and
assistants, were involved. The caretakers, usually the mothers, were encouraged to
interact with the children since the children verbalize the most when they are
interacting with those whom they are more familiar with.
On the other hand, the longitudinal observations of the
phonologically-disordered group were carried out in the speech therapy room in
Taipei Veterans General Hospital every two weeks. Only the audio recorder was used
for this group of children. The data collected contained both the spontaneous speech
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and imitation speech since the whole process of the treatment includes natural
interactions with the language therapist, naming pictures, which is a commonly
applied treatment in language therapy, and the correction for the error sounds
produced by the children. When the children mispronounced a target sound, the
therapists would correct the children by asking the children to repeat what they had
said. As a result, the data collected were composed of spontaneous speech and
imitations. In the beginning of each language treatment, the assistants would place the
sound recorder in the therapy room and stayed in the observation room in which a
one-way mirror and a speaker were set for the purpose of observing the children
during the treatment. The one-way mirror helped the assistants with identification of
the children’s production since the assistants were allowed to observe the whole
process of the therapeutic courses without letting the children feel uncomfortable. The
assistants kept a record of the sounds that the children uttered in IPA simultaneously.
3.1.3 Recording apparatus
The normally-developing group of children were both video-recorded and
audio-recorded during the data collection. Sony Handycam DCR-PJ5 Camcorder with
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steadyshot function was used for capturing children’s gestures, lips movement, and the
activities they involved in when they were on the move. In addition, the
audio-recording equipment used was SONY-ICD-UX543FT plugged with SV100
unidirectional microphone, which helped minimize the background noises for better
sound quality. With the video camera and microphone-plugged-recorder, transcribers
were allowed to identify the utterances and sounds produced by the children and to
infer the intentional meaning of each production within a given context. For the
phonologically-disordered group, only the SONY-ICD-UX543FT was used during the
data collection in order of the protection and comfort of the subjects during the
language therapeutic courses in the speech therapy room.