Corpus of Australian English as a Second Language (AusESL)

The corpus of Australian English as a Second Language (AusESL) comprises audio-recorded sociolinguistic interviews with people who migrated to Australia as adults from non-English-speaking countries and have been living in Australia for at least two years. As of January 2024, the corpus has recordings with 30 Russian speakers (19 women & 11 men) and 30 Mandarin speakers (20 women & 10 men). The two groups are comparable in terms of age (average 36 years), age of arrival in Australia (average 26 years), and length of residence (average 11 years). All are tertiary-educated, and over two thirds have a post-graduate degree (N = 42). All speak English fluently, though with varying degrees of proficiency. The interviews were conducted in English by members of the respective communities in Sydney and Canberra in 2019. Individual interviews are about 60 minutes long, with 30 minutes (approx. 220,000 words) orthographically transcribed and automatically time-aligned at the segmental level, and can be accessed (with permission) through the Language Data Commons of Australia (LDaCA). As a sociolinguistic corpus, AusESL provides the opportunity to ask questions around second language speakers’ acquisition of sociolinguistic variation in Australian English at the phonetic, morphosyntactic or discourse level. The data can also serve to examine listener perceptions of foreign accented speech and speakers, relevant, for example, for testing linguistic discrimination in Australia. The content of the interviews itself offers insights into the lived experiences of members of these migrant communities in contemporary Australia.
Type
collection
Title
Corpus of Australian English as a Second Language (AusESL)
Collection Type
Collection
Access Privileges
School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics
Metadata Language
English
Data Language
English
Significance Statement
The corpus of Australian English as a Second Language (AusESL) is a unique collection of audio-recordings with people who migrated to Australia as adults from non-English-speaking countries. It currently comprises recordings with 60 first-language speakers of Mandarin and Russian. From some 60 hours of recordings, approximately 30 hours (220,000 words) have been orthographically transcribed and automatically time-aligned at the segmental level, making it well-suited for linguistic analysis. The interviews—covering such topics as the participants’ experiences growing up in their home countries; their migration stories; their linguistic background; and their lives in Australia—serve as a record of lived experiences of migrant communities in contemporary Australia.
Full Description
The corpus of Australian English as a Second Language (AusESL) comprises audio-recorded sociolinguistic interviews with people who migrated to Australia as adults from non-English-speaking countries and have been living in Australia for at least two years. As of January 2024, the corpus has recordings with 30 Russian speakers (19 women & 11 men) and 30 Mandarin speakers (20 women & 10 men). The two groups are comparable in terms of age (average 36 years), age of arrival in Australia (average 26 years), and length of residence (average 11 years). All are tertiary-educated, and over two thirds have a post-graduate degree (N = 42). All speak English fluently, though with varying degrees of proficiency. The interviews were conducted in English by members of the respective communities in Sydney and Canberra in 2019. Individual interviews are about 60 minutes long, with 30 minutes (approx. 220,000 words) orthographically transcribed and automatically time-aligned at the segmental level, and can be accessed (with permission) through the Language Data Commons of Australia (LDaCA). As a sociolinguistic corpus, AusESL provides the opportunity to ask questions around second language speakers’ acquisition of sociolinguistic variation in Australian English at the phonetic, morphosyntactic or discourse level. The data can also serve to examine listener perceptions of foreign accented speech and speakers, relevant, for example, for testing linguistic discrimination in Australia. The content of the interviews itself offers insights into the lived experiences of members of these migrant communities in contemporary Australia.
Contact Email
ksenia.gnevsheva@anu.edu.au
Contact Address
BPB W3.07 110 Ellery Cres. Australian National University Acton ACT 2601 Australia
Contact Phone Number
+61261252736
Principal Investigator
Ksenia Gnevsheva, Catherine Travis
Fields of Research
4704 - Linguistics
Socio-Economic Objective
130202 - Languages and linguistics
Keywords
Linguistics; Sociolinguistics; Australian migration; Second language speakers; Chinese speakers; Russian speakers; Australian English
Type of Research Activity
Pure basic research
Date Coverage
2019
2019
Time Period
Speakers in their 20s to 50s recorded in 2019
Geospatial Location
Sydney, Australia
Canberra, Australia
Date of data creation
2019
Year of data publication
2024
Creator(s) for Citation
Gnevsheva
Ksenia
Travis
Catherine
Publisher for Citation
The Australian National University Data Commons
Access Rights
Access may be requested through the Chief Investigators, consistent with the conditions agreed to by the participants.
Access Rights Type
Restricted
Licence Type
AusGoalRestrictive - AusGoal Restrictive Licence
Data Location
The data is located on a NECTAR provided server and held by the Chief Investigators.
Retention Period
Indefinitely
Extent or Quantity
60 files
Data Size
80 GB
Data Management Plan
No

Request data files

Number of files: 121

Size: 10 GB

Identifier: anudc:6272

Status: Published
Published to:
  • Australian National University
  • Australian National Data Service
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