Linguistics Project Reflection

Reflecting on my first linguistics project, there were a multitude of things which I enjoyed as well as some aspects of the project which could have been improved or expanded upon.  The original idea for my project was to interview people about their difficulties concerning the English language -so whether it was a tricky word, a syntax issue, or something else of that nature- I wanted to dissect their individual issues and see how linguistics played a role.

However, as I began working on my project and trying to find volunteers that I could interview, I realized that my project concept was harder than it sounded.  So many of the people I had asked, either didn't have an issue speaking, didn't want to be on camera, or just didn't have any time to meet.  Looking back on my project execution, I would have loved to have done a video presentation, because I feel that videos are always a little more engaging and might have captivated the audience more. 

I do believe though that by creating and presenting an interactive website, with multiple pages to view and click on, was the next best thing to creating a video.  Overall, I had a fun time creating this format to present my project information and findings.  Everything from making design choices, like colors, backgrounds, fonts, etc., to doing one on one interviews with people (which made them and myself more relaxed), was a great experience.

Focusing now on things I would have changed: I would have loved to interview more people, with more diverse backgrounds/back-stories, also I would have loved to at least incorporate some videos into my project as well.  Lastly, I would have loved to include some linguistic diagrams or videos, which talked about the speech process and the speech organs responsible for the way we talk.  That information would have played a key role in explaining the methodology and connections between the interviewees and my findings.  But, in general the project was fun and I enjoyed learning real life cases where the study of linguistics plays a large role within people's everyday lives.