University of Rome III - Degree in Languages & International Communication - Convener: Patrick Boylan - Academic year   2006-07

COURSE: 612-o    English I for English minors, OCI + LL
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    Group ____ Group Leader: _________________
TASK N° 4     Due date: April 18, 2007 for the reports to the Group Leader,
April 20, 2007 for a copy of the reports plus this sheet to the teacher.


Ethnographic Report Evaluation Form


Formally
, s
tudents' writing should be in British academic style. Besides using SBE (South-east British English or Standard British English) as the norm-giving variety for lexico-syntax, it should have the 6 discourse characteristics indicated here. In particular it should make abundant use of the connectives indicated here.

POINTS:  1 = the paper seems written by a British academic:   0 = the style is conversational or follows Italian discourse conventions; too few connectives.


Content-wise, the Report should be marked as follows.

POINTS FOR THE TRANSLATION OF THE ITALIAN QUESTIONNAIRE : 1 = a good cultural-comunicative translation. 0 = a a poor cultural-comunicative translation or, even worse, a semantic translation.
Explanation: 1 means that the Italian version of the questionnaire was culturally adapted to the specific Italian interviewees, following the three rules for “cultural-communicative translation” explained in Appendix E of How to Interview, Section 5.  
0 means that the student translated into Italian all the ideas of the English version of the questionnaire (this is called a “semantic translation”), without adapting to Italian culture those ideas that an Italian interviewee would find difficult to understand. Or if the student did attempt to adapt the ideas in the original English version, s/he was not successful in doing so.

POINTS FOR THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF FINDINGS: 1 = The student's report is linear (for an Anglo mentality) and RESPONSIBLE (carefully documented).   0 = The report was impressionistic and scientifically irresponsible.
Explanation. 1 means that the student explains the "knowledge" she got from her/his interview of Italians, in a linear way (for Anglo readers) . S/he gave the conclusions she arrived at and then the premises and the reasoning, being constantly critical about her/his "knowledge." S/he also included transcriptions as evidence.    
0 means that the student gave mostly intuitive conclusions based on implicit premises with few or no transcriptions.


POINTS FOR THE CREATION OF THE ORIGINAL QUESTIONNAIRE IN ENGLISH: 1 = The questionnaire was truly qualitative and permitted obtaining the kind of knowledge sought (or if the questionnaire was quantitative, the student showed why s/he could not get the knowledge s/he wanted by using a qualitative interview). 0 = The questionnaire was quantitative, for no justifiable reason, or if it was qualitative, it was poorly constructed.
Explanation: 1 means that the student prepared a list of questions that condition the interviewees only minimally; the questions permit the interviewees to introduce the student into their world, as it is from their point of view.  
0 = The questionnaire contained qualitative questions that do not let the interviewees express their world or, if the questionnaire does permit this, the questions are neither focused nor coherent and do not permit arriving at any (tentative) conclusions..

POINTS FOR THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF FINDINGS
: 1 = In presenting her/his findings, the student made explicit her/his premises and reasoning.  The “knowledge” that the student believes s/he gained from the interview is presented problematically and, at the same time, in ways permitting some kind of verification, in particular through transcriptions from the interviews.     0 = implicit or purely intuitive premises, little criticism of knowledge obtained, little or no documentation.
Explanation. 1 means that the student demonstrates an awareness of the inevitable subjectivity of her/his findings and shows how s/he limited the risk of distortion through authentic empathy with her/his interviewer. S/he made explicit how s/he reacher her/his conclusions and provided documentation, for example in the form of transcriptions.    
0 means that the student gave mostly intuitive conclusions based on implicit premises with few or no transcriptions.

WRITE STUDENTS' NAMES ON LINE, CIRCLE POINTS FOR EACH CATEGORY, GIVE TOTAL.


1. _________________________  Form = 0 1       Content = 0  1  2  3  4         Total = __
 
Comment: _______________________________________________________________________
 
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2. _________________________  Form = 0 1       Content = 0  1  2  3  4         Total = __
 
Comment: _______________________________________________________________________
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 

3. _________________________  Form = 0 1       Content = 0  1  2  3  4         Total = __
 
Comment: _______________________________________________________________________
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 

4. _________________________  Form = 0 1       Content = 0  1  2  3  4         Total = __

 
Comment: _______________________________________________________________________


5. _________________________  Form = 0 1       Content = 0  1  2  3  4         Total = __
 
Comment: _______________________________________________________________________
 
________________________________________________________________________________
 

6. _________________________  Form = 0 1       Content = 0  1  2  3  4         Total = __
 
Comment: _______________________________________________________________________
 
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