Bilingual Voices in the U.S./Mexico Borderlands: Technology-Enhanced Transcription and Community Engaged Scholarship

FAIN: PW-269430-20

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Edinburg, TX 78539-2909)
Katherine O'Donnell Christoffersen (Project Director: July 2019 to January 2026)

A project to evaluate transcription tools and methods and develop a preservation plan for two sociolinguistic corpora documenting contemporary language practices of Spanish/English bilingual speakers in South Texas and southern Arizona.

Linguists at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) and the University of Arizona (UA) have collected over 157 hours of audio-recorded interviews with Spanish/English bilinguals documenting language varieties along the U.S./Mexico border. However, due to the time-consuming nature of manual transcription, many of these interviews have not yet been transcribed, limiting access to this valuable collection. This project pilots technologically-enhanced transcription methodologies, such as speech recognition and time alignment, to speed and streamline the transcription process. It also pilots a sustainable, community-based approach to the transcription of interviews by undergraduate and graduate students in research internship courses. This assessment, outcomes and findings of this project will guide other scholars seeking to develop their own community-based sociolinguistic corpora.