CLAN Manual for the CEAPP project 1 About CHILDES, CLAN, and CHAT This manual explains how to transcribe audiovisual interactional data using the CLAN- CHAT program. The program was built by Brian MacWhinney and his associates at Carnegie Mellon University as part of the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES) project. While the project has also developed a number of tools for data analysis (e.g., frequency count across multiple transcripts), this manual deals only with the basic transcription process pertinent to the CEAPP project for the sake of simplicity. If interested, you can find more information in the official manuals (http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/manuals/clan.pdf http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/manuals/chat.pdf). Preliminaries Download CLAN http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/clan/ Ø PC users must also download the QuickTime player because CLAN uses it in the background. http://support.apple.com/kb/dl837 Create a folder dedicated to the CLAN system anywhere you won t forget. Make sure the system is linked to the appropriate folders Ø If you open the CLAN software, the Commands window will pop up. Ø working should be linked to the CLAN folder you have created. Ø lib and mor lib should be linked to the CLAN library that comes with the software. Commands window Preparing the transcript file Open a new transcription window (Command+N). Save the transcript file in the CLAN folder you created earlier (Command+S). Select CAfont under the Font option. Input the following headers (after a colon, always hit the tab key, not the space). Ø @Begin Ø @Languages: eng Ø @Participants: (described below) Ø @Options: heritage, CA Ø @Media: (described below) Example of headers
CLAN Manual for the CEAPP project 2 Participants header Ø The format for this header is XXX Name Role, XXX Name Role ² There is only a limited number of Roles accepted by the program (see depfile.cut under the lib folder for details). For our purposes, Teacher and Student should suffice. Ø Include a dummy participant (I call it placeholder, PHD) ² e.g., PHD Placeholder Student ² This will be extremely helpful when linking video and transcript using the Transcriber Mode (described below). Ø Once you are finished with the Participants header, go to Tiers and click update. This will register the participants names. You can insert their names in the transcript by pressing Command+number (1, 2, 3, etc.). Media header (associating transcript file and video) Ø Copy the name of the video file you would like to transcribe. Ø Make sure the video file is saved in the same place as the transcript you are working on. Ø Rename the video file if there are spaces between words. Ø Once you are finished with the Media header, press esc+0. This will associate the video file and the transcript file. The sound waves should also appear at the bottom. Ø Control the sound waves with +/- V (vertical zoom in and out) and +/- H (horizontal zoom in and out) for optimal viewing. Transcribing Press Command+number to insert the participant s name. Ø This corresponds with the Participants header you created. Use the dummy header when the same participant speaks over multiple lines and when there is a gap between turns. Ø You can search and remove the dummy headers after linking the transcript to the video (Command+R). Ø Example: *KIM: hello *PHD: i haven t seen you for ages. *PHD: how have you be::n. *PHD: (1.2) *MIC: who are you? Locate the beginning of the interaction in the sound waves. Ø The video will play when you highlight (select) a portion of the sound waves. Ø When you find the beginning of the interaction, highlight that part and press Command+I to insert a timestamp (bullet point).
CLAN Manual for the CEAPP project 3 Ø You can rewind the video to the moment if you triple click on the time stamp. Transcribe using the CA conventions (see Appendix). Ø Highlight a portion of sound waves to listen to the video. ² Command+left-click to listen to the same part again. Ø Use the shortcuts (F1+something) to insert special symbols (see Appendix). Ø Mac users must change the computer settings to use the shortcuts because the F keys are reserved for other functions (such as brightness and sound controls). ² Apple menuà System Preferencesà keyboardà tick use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys Ø The sound waves will give you clues for loudness of speech. Ø You can see the length of a pause by highlighting it in the sound waves ² You will see a little black rectangle right above the sound waves. W: the beginning and the end of the sound waves within the window. D: the duration of the highlighted part. C: the current location of the cursor. Limit each line to 8-10 words so that it will be easy to copy to other programs, such as Word. Error check Ø After you finish transcribing, run an error check by pressing Esc+L. The program will identify the lines that do not meet the requirements. Linking video and transcript By putting a timestamp next to each line, you can link the transcript to the video. There are two major ways to do this. Ø Sonic Mode (sound waves) ² As you did when you identified the beginning of the interaction, you can highlight the part of the waves corresponding to a line and press Command+I. ² Pro: Precise ² Con: Time consuming Ø Transcriber Mode (recommended!) ² After transcribing some data, disable the sound waves by pressing esc+0. ² Bring the cursor to the first line of transcription. ² Press F5. The video will play. ² Listen to the video and hit the spacebar at the end of each line. A timestamp will be inserted and the curser will move to the next line. ² Repeat the process until you reach the end of the transcript. ² You need a dummy participant (described above) to use this mode because the program does not recognize lines without names. ² Pro: Quick ² Con: Less precise then Sonic Mode Please contact Daisuke Kimura at dxk968@psu.edu for more information, or read the official manuals in the web links provided at beginning of this document.
CLAN Manual for the CEAPP project 4 Command+N: Create a new file Command+S: Save Appendix A Useful Shortcuts Command+R: Find and replace (remove). You can use this to get rid of the placeholders. Command+number (1, 2, 3, etc.): Insert a participant s name Command+I: Insert a timestamp (bullet point) Command+left-click: Replay the highlighted part of sound waves. Esc+0: Enable/Disable sound waves Esc+8: Play the entire video. This will be useful when you present your transcript. Esc+L: Error check. F5: Transcriber mode. Use this to insert timestamps while watching video. Triple click on a bullet: Jump to the corresponding part in sound waves
CLAN Manual for the CEAPP project 5 Appendix B Basic CA Conventions and Shortcuts (See pp. 87-88 of the CHAT manual for more symbols) [ ] Overlapping utterances = Contiguous utterances (latching) (.) Micro-pause; if there is a number inside the parentheses, that represents the length of the pause. : Elongation (more colons demonstrate longer stretch). Fall in pitch at the end of an utterance, Slight rise in pitch at the end of an utterance - An abrupt stop in articulation? Rising in pitch at utterance end (not necessarily a question) CAPS Marked upstep in intonation (F1+up arrow) Marked down step in intonation (F1+down arrow) Loud speech Soft speech (F1+0) _ Stress/accentuation (Command+U) > < Surrounds talk that is spoken faster < > Surrounds talk that is spoken slower (( )) Description of nonverbal conducts ( ) Uncertain utterances. Surrounds the transcriber s best guess. (X) Unintelligible syllables; the number of Xs represents the number of unintelligible syllables.