MAIN als digitales Erhebungsinstrument zur Elizitierung narrativer Sprachdaten von Erwachsenen: Von der Idee hin zur Implementierung im bilingualen Kontext

English title:
MAIN as a digital survey tool for eliciting narrative language data from adults: From idea to implementation in a bilingual context

Katrin Karl is Associate Professor of Slavic Linguistics at the Institute of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Bern. Her research interests include aspects of current Slavic-German multilingualism, changes in language over the course of life with a particular focus on age, as well as topics relating to language policy and language use in Slavic-speaking countries.

Abstract

The elicitation of narrative language data with the help of picture stories is a method that is used frequently, but is structured differently in terms of the collection and evaluation design. The Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN), which is the focus of this presentation, was developed in order to be able to collect and analyse narrative data in a comparable way with the help of four specially designed picture stories. MAIN has so far been used particularly for testing bilingual children. For some years now, interest in testing in the digital space and with adults has been growing. This raises the question of how such a double transfer of a survey method can take place and still lead to comparable data. To answer this question, the most relevant differences between testing with children and adults and the possibilities of a digital survey will be presented with the help of a pilot study with monolingual people. This will be followed by a description of the implementation in a larger study with monolingual and bilingual people, which will show that the survey method can in principle be transferred well to the digital space and used in testing adults, but that new questions arise, such as the relevance of the addressee.