I have to admit, I cringed a bit when I saw the words "online questionnaire", but I'm glad I went for it anyway. I would be fascinated to know more about what you're actually studying here, and to hear about the results.
I would like to emphasise that in my own responses - and I don't feel any need to be anonymous, so do ask if you want more details - many of them would in real life vary after the first few words, according to the attitude of the other person. I’ve assumed in my replies a neutral expression on the face of the other person, and in general that I don’t know them particularly well.
ETA: I don't know how people work out how long it will take a respondent to go through a questionnaire. I've done it in bits as and when through the morning so it's a bit difficult to judge, but I reckon I've spent nearer an hour than ten minutes. Perhaps I'm just slow.
Thanks for participating :) I pre-piloted the questionnaire asking several people to measure the time they needed for completion. Most of them took 10 to 15 mins to complete it. I guess it basically depends on the length of your responses. Again, thanks a lot :) As for the type of study, I'm researching the use of politeness strategies comparing learners of English (Slavic speakers) with native English speakers. It's from the field of interlanguage pragmatics. Classifying the responses would be fun and I'm really looking forward to it, but doing statistics afterwords... :)
Like, dorsetgirl I cringed a little when I saw it was an online survey for native English speakers, but this one was so cool!
Also, I wonder how different your responses will be between British and American speakers (and other native speakers from different parts of the globe). I know for me, the second I read the first question I thought, 'Oh wow~ We're British.' Of course, I didn't have any difficulty understanding the questions, but I did answer them as I would, in my American English. So... you may have used 'flat,' but I didn't. From a more cultural perspective, the train question was quite interesting because I've never been on a train, so I had to imagine that scenario from things I've seen in movies.
I'm really glad you liked the questionnaire, and I appreciate your comments :) What I'm actually doing is replicating an existing (and published) study, so the situations are not my invention. But most of the comments I get are about the train-situation that you mentioned :) and also about the video club-situation ("who goes to video shops nowadays?" or "heard of online rentals?":)) I agree :) but the instructions say: Imagine... And I know that part is easy since most, if not all, are real life situations:) However, I truly recommend a train trip at least once in a lifetime, it can really be a relaxing and romantic adventure ;) (of course, with a ticket:D) Anyway, apart from a few lexical items, there haven't been many differences between AmE, BrE (and other "Englishes":) responses in the survey so far. And since I'm not dealing with semantics or syntax, but pragmatics, I suppose it won't significantly affect the study. But we'll see...
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I would like to emphasise that in my own responses - and I don't feel any need to be anonymous, so do ask if you want more details - many of them would in real life vary after the first few words, according to the attitude of the other person. I’ve assumed in my replies a neutral expression on the face of the other person, and in general that I don’t know them particularly well.
ETA: I don't know how people work out how long it will take a respondent to go through a questionnaire. I've done it in bits as and when through the morning so it's a bit difficult to judge, but I reckon I've spent nearer an hour than ten minutes. Perhaps I'm just slow.
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I pre-piloted the questionnaire asking several people to measure the time they needed for completion. Most of them took 10 to 15 mins to complete it. I guess it basically depends on the length of your responses. Again, thanks a lot :)
As for the type of study, I'm researching the use of politeness strategies comparing learners of English (Slavic speakers) with native English speakers. It's from the field of interlanguage pragmatics. Classifying the responses would be fun and I'm really looking forward to it, but doing statistics afterwords... :)
Reply
Also, I wonder how different your responses will be between British and American speakers (and other native speakers from different parts of the globe). I know for me, the second I read the first question I thought, 'Oh wow~ We're British.' Of course, I didn't have any difficulty understanding the questions, but I did answer them as I would, in my American English. So... you may have used 'flat,' but I didn't.
From a more cultural perspective, the train question was quite interesting because I've never been on a train, so I had to imagine that scenario from things I've seen in movies.
Reply
What I'm actually doing is replicating an existing (and published) study, so the situations are not my invention.
But most of the comments I get are about the train-situation that you mentioned :) and also about the video club-situation ("who goes to video shops nowadays?" or "heard of online rentals?":)) I agree :) but the instructions say: Imagine... And I know that part is easy since most, if not all, are real life situations:) However, I truly recommend a train trip at least once in a lifetime, it can really be a relaxing and romantic adventure ;) (of course, with a ticket:D)
Anyway, apart from a few lexical items, there haven't been many differences between AmE, BrE (and other "Englishes":) responses in the survey so far. And since I'm not dealing with semantics or syntax, but pragmatics, I suppose it won't significantly affect the study. But we'll see...
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