Terms and Conditions

Project Information

You are being invited to participate in a project titled “The Lancaster-Northern Arizona Corpus of American Spoken English” (LANA-CASE). Data collection for this project is being conducted by Jesse Egbert, Tove Larsson, Elizabeth Hanks, Doug Biber, and Randi Reppen from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona and Tony McEnery, Vaclav Brezina, Paul Baker, Gavin Brookes, Isobelle Clarke, and Raffaella Bottini from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.

The purpose of this project is to create a resource for linguistic research. We are collecting samples of spoken American English that will be used to inform research into the English language as well as the development of teaching materials for language learners. The recordings will be transcribed and then made into a publicly available resource in both audio and transcribed (written) form.

Participant Eligibility Criteria

You are eligible to participate in this project if you speak English as one of your primary languages, have lived in the United States since before elementary school, and are at least 18 years old.

Participant Activities

If you agree to take part in this project, you will be asked to complete several steps.

1. The first step is for Recorders only and comprises a questionnaire that asks you to agree to the terms and conditions, answer demographic questions about yourself, and register your speaker ID. This questionnaire will take about 3 minutes to complete and only has to be completed once per Recorder. The data will be anonymized.

2. The second step requires participants to record a conversation and answer a brief questionnaire about the conversation. You will meet with a group of 2-3 people who are all eligible to participate and agree to be recorded. Please record the audio of your conversation(s) using a personal device. Conversations of any length will be accepted. The subsequent questionnaire will ask you to upload your conversation and answer a few questions. This will take about 2 minutes to complete. 

The Recorder may submit up to six hours of conversation recordings (usually broken down into multiple submissions of shorter conversations). We recommend connecting to Wi-Fi so that the audio recording uploads quickly. The conversation you record in this step can be about any topic(s) you would like to discuss. To protect the speakers, however, we recommend avoiding discussions of illegal activity.

3. In the third step, Recorders ask their conversation partners to complete a brief questionnaire. The questionnaire asks speakers to agree to the terms and conditions, answer demographic questions, and register a speaker ID. This questionnaire will take about 3 minutes to complete and only has to be completed once per speaker. It may be completed by the speakers themselves or by the Recorder on behalf of the speaker (with their express permission). The data will be anonymized. Data sent after October 15, 2024 will not be accepted.

By participating, you agree that the research team has permission to store indefinitely, transcribe, and otherwise use recordings of your speech, and you agree that such data may be stored and used in perpetuity. You also agree that other researchers throughout the world have permission to use recordings and transcriptions of your speech for research and/or language teaching indefinitely. 

Participant Compensation

The Recorder is eligible to receive a $25 Amazon e-gift card* for every two hours of conversation that they submit as part of Step 2.* (NOTE that this month is a double payment promotion month--participants will receive a $25 Amazon e-gift card* for every hour of conversation they submit as part of Step 2) .The Amazon e-gift card* will be sent to the email you provide. Payment* will be sent on the 16th of each month until all necessary data has been collected. Only one Recorder may receive remuneration for each 2-hour block.* 

Each recording submitted will enter Recorders into a drawing to win an additional $50 Amazon e-gift card. Results from the drawing will be publicized on the 16th of each month until all necessary data has been collected. 

The following requirements must be met in order to be remunerated:

• All questions in the questionnaires are answered in full

• The recording includes a conversation between 2-3 speakers

• All speakers are eligible to participate and have registered speaker IDs

• The audio in the recording is clear and of good enough quality that 90% of the conversation can be understood (e.g., record in a relatively quiet location without much background noise and keep the recording device in a central location so it captures audio from all speakers)

• The Recorder has not yet met their maximum submission of six hours of recordings

We reserve the right to not remunerate Recorders for the submission of files that cannot be used in the corpus. In such cases, the recordings will be deleted and payment will not be sent.

Protection of Risks

As with any online-related activity, the risk of a breach of confidentiality is possible. We will minimize this risk by saving all data on an encrypted, password-protected server. Additionally, the research team will protect your privacy by removing personal information (such as references to people, places, and institutions) from the transcription. Your recording and transcription will be available only to researchers who have completed a data use agreement and are accessing the data strictly for research and/or language teaching purposes.

Your participation in this project is completely voluntary and you can withdraw at any time. If you choose not to participate, it will not result in any penalty or loss of benefits to which you are otherwise entitled. 

Contact information

If you have questions about this project, you may contact the research team at ShareYourVoiceEnglish@gmail.com.

*If Recorders participate as a school assignment, they are eligible to receive class credit as determined by their instructor rather than monetary compensation. These participants are eligible to submit conversations after their school assignment is complete, for which they will be remunerated with Amazon e-gift cards.