Welsh Language Study

The aim of this study is to find out more about how people speak Welsh, especially in informal settings.

You have been invited to take part because:

• You are aged 18+.
• You learnt Welsh at home from early childhood.
• You have access to a computer and a reasonable internet connection.
• You can listen to audio recordings (you’re not deaf or hearing impaired, your computer can play sound files, and you have somewhere quiet to complete the study)

We understand that it can be disappointing not to be eligible to take part. Eligibility restrictions are imposed in order to reduce variability in the data. We have restricted eligibility in this way because one of the things we want to study is the impact of one’s early childhood region on how people use Welsh.

You will listen to a series of audio recordings, each containing two short sentences. You will hear the second sentence twice. Please rate the second sentence according to whether or not you consider it to be an acceptable sentence in spoken Welsh. There are no right or wrong answers: we’re interested in the way you use Welsh in informal situations day-to-day – not what a grammar book might say, so you don’t need to have been taught Welsh in any formal context. The experiment should take no more than 30 minutes.

At the end of the experiment, you will receive a link to submit your completion code, name and email through a Microsoft Form, in order to receive your gift card. This is optional.

No. Participation is voluntary, and you can withdraw at any time just by closing the browser tab of the experiment.

For the research itself, we do not ask for any identifying information. We do ask for the following:

• the score you give each sentence
• how old you are (within a 5 year range)
• what age (approximately) you started learning Welsh
• your gender identity
• the region where you grew up
• the region of Wales you live in now, or if you live outside of Wales
• how often you use Welsh now

However, if you want to request a gift card, we do need to collect some data that could identify you:

• your name
• your email address

Your IP address will not be collected.

Your name and email are not stored with the rest of the research data. They are linked to your responses only by your unique completion code, which will be deleted after no more than six months. Your name and email address will only be used to send you your gift card.

Anonymous data will be publicly accessible:

• The results of this research will appear in academic publications, including a doctoral thesis, conference presentations, reports for external organisations, websites and videos.
• Anonymous research data will be stored in a research data repository for at least 3 years after publication or public release of the work of the research, where it can be accessed by other researchers.

Data that could identify you will be visible to the following people and entites:

• Microsoft Forms system administrators: completion code, name and email.
• The company you choose to receive the gift card from: name and email.
• The researchers, Frances Dowle, David Willis & Louise Mycock: all data, including experiment responses, name and email.

Your name and email will need to be shared with an external company in order for you to receive your gift card. You can choose whether to receive your gift card from Argos, Asda, All4one, Sainsbury’s or Tesco. You can read the relevant companies’ privacy policies, which outline how they will use this data, here:

• Argos
• Asda
• One4all
• Tesco
• Sainsbury’s

The University of Oxford is the data controller with respect to your personal data and, as such, will determine how your personal data is used in the research. The University will process your personal data for the purpose of the research outlined above. Research is a task that we perform in the public interest. Further information about your rights with respect to your personal data is available from here.

This research is being carried out by Frances Dowle, under the supervision of Louise Mycock and David Willis, who are all attached to the Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics at the University of Oxford.

This research has been reviewed by, and received ethics clearance through, a subcommittee of the University of Oxford Central University Research Ethics Committee [R86744/RE001].

If you have a concern about any aspect of this research, please contact the doctoral student researcher Frances Dowle (frances.dowle@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk, in Cymraeg or English) or the supervisors, Louise Mycock (louise.mycock@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk, English only) and David Willis (david.willis@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk, Cymraeg or English) and we will do our best to answer your query.
We will acknowledge your concern within 10 working days and give you an indication of how it will be dealt with. If you remain unhappy or wish to make a formal complaint, please contact the Chair of the Social Sciences & Humanities Interdivisional Research Ethics Committee at the University of Oxford who will seek to resolve the matter as soon as possible:

Email: ethics@socsci.ox.ac.uk

Address: Research Services, University of Oxford, Boundary Brook House, Churchill Drive, Headington, Oxford OX3 7GB