LING 333 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2.2: Language Documentation, Ethnography, Informed Consent
Document Summary
The history of research abuse tells us that consent is the cornerstone of ethical research practices. Completely anonymous observations of public behavior are arguably of no grave consequence to the people being observed. While language documentation usually involves very straightforward understandings between researcher and speaker about the nature of the work (see chapter 4), other kinds of research involve a certain amount of vagueness or even deception. Sociolinguists prefer to downplay their interest in language in order to elicit as unselfconscious speech as possible (see chapter 6). This means that they may prefer not to inform speakers of the kinds of analysis they will be doing of their recordings. Getting informed consent involves not only telling people what you are going to do, but what you are not going to do. Ethnographers can be mistaken for spies, but also for social workers.
