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6. Research task: LSBQe

In the LSBQe, the task start screen is followed by the three main sections of the LSBQe on Language and Social Background, Language and Dialect Background, and Community Language Use Behaviour respectively.

For more details on the contents of the LSBQe and how this differs from the standard version of the LSBQ, see [Breit-Tamburelli-EtAl-2023].

Any mandatory fields that haven’t been completed by the participant will be flagged up if the user attempts to continue to the next page without having fully completed any section of the LSBQe or the response entered in a field is invalid (e.g. text entered in a field expecting a date).

The user is given instructions on how they should complete the missing fields if this happens.

For researchers using the app, or a specific localisation of the LSBQe for the first time, it might be useful to complete the LSBQe and purposely leave all fields blank before trying to submit so they can read through and familiarise themselves with the user-feedback provided for each field.

Fig. 6.1 Mandatory fields that remain unanswered or contain invalid input will be flagged in red

6.1. Loading a generic version of the LSBQe

Several generic versions of the LSBQe (e.g., English, German, Italian) are available for you to use if the languages pertinent to your research location are not available amongst our four LSBQe versions, or if you prefer a generic or customisable version of the LSBQe.

The generic versions that are currently visible are English and Welsh. If you wish to make the German and Italian generic versions visible, this can be done by following the path below:

C:\Users\admin\Documents\lart-research-client\research_client\lsbq\versions

Next, choose the generic version you wish to make visible. Using the German generic version as an example, right-click the file and remove the initial underscore (_) by selecting the Rename option as seen in Fig. 6.2 below:

Fig. 6.2 Locating and renaming the German generic version

Once the app has been restarted, the generic version will appear in the dropdown list.

Fig. 6.3 German generic version as an available option

You can select a generic version of the LSBQe from the dropdown list. For example, if you wish to use the generic version for British English, you would choose “English-generic (United Kingdom)”.

Fig. 6.4 Loading a generic version of the LSBQe

This version of the LSBQe will give you English and “Other Language” at every juncture where both languages are named.

6.2. Customizing a generic version of the LSBQe

You may wish to customize a generic version of the LSBQe if you would like the LSBQe to present a specific language pair to use during your study.

Generic versions can be identified by the fact that the file name contains the sequence [Zzz], a placeholder code for “unknown language” (for example, the file for the generic version for British English is called [EngZzz_Eng_GB]).

If you wish to customise a generic version of the LSBQe, open the relevant file (e.g. [EngZzz_Eng_GB] for British English, or [GerZzz_Ger_DE] for German, and so on) by following the path below:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Programs\LART\ResearchClient\lart_research_client\lsbq\versions

Fig. 6.5 Opening versions folder

Firstly, you must “save as”, following the ISO standard code sequence (see Localisation and Adding Translations for standard code sequence generating) (See tutorial_naming_conventions)

For example, if you wish to customize a version for English and Irish for use in Ireland through the medium of English, you will create a file called [EngGle_Eng_IE] (see Fig. 6.6).

Fig. 6.6 Save the generic files as and follow the ISO code sequence

After your new version is saved, you must change the version_id and version_name to reflect your customization. Your version_id should match your file name.

Fig. 6.7 New LSBQe file EngGle_Eng_IR

A further customization that you can make inside the file relates to how your LSBQe version will refer to the language you wish to include.

To do this, you must search for “RML” in your [EngGle_Eng_IE] and change “the other language” to the language name you wish to be displayed. In our current example that would be “Irish” as shown in Fig. 6.8 below:

Fig. 6.8 Customizing inside your LSBQe file.

It is not mandatory to include English as one of the languages on your LSBQe version. For example, if you require an LSBQe version to study Ulster Scots and Irish in Northern Ireland, you would call the file [ScoGle_Eng_GB] and apply the relevant changes in Fig. 6.6 and Fig. 6.7 .

Additionally, in order to change the default “English” in the LSBQe, you would have to search MajorityLanguage and change each instance of “English” to “Ulster Scots” (see Fig. 6.8)

Fig. 6.9 Customizing both languages in your generic LSBQe file

Note

Note that the third label in the file name [ScoGle_Eng_GB] remains “Eng”, as this refers to the language in which the LSBQe is presented, which in this case is still English.

See Localisation and Adding Translations for more details on file naming and ISO codes.

6.3. Excludable Questions

The LSBQe allows users to include or exclude certain questions depending on the nature of the language communities to be researched (see Breit et al. 2023 for details on the rationale behind these choices).

Below you’ll find instructions on which questions allow this option and how to go about excluding them.

6.3.1. “Other” Sex

As default, the LSBQe contains three options that a participant may select as their sex: “Female”; “Male”; “Other”.

Fig. 6.10 Default options for sex on LSBQe

However, some researchers may prefer to use a binary choice (e.g., where biological sex is a research variable) and therefore exclude “Other” from the available options.

To do this, open your LSBQe version file from the following path:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Programs\LART\ResearchClient\lart_research_client\lsbq\versions

With the file open, you will see that below the section options the line labelled lsb_show_other_sex` is set to true:

Fig. 6.11 The feature “lsb_show_other_sex” set to “true”

To exclude the Other option in your version of the LSBQe you simply need to set that option to false.

Fig. 6.12 The feature “lsb_show_other_sex” has been changed to “false”

Note

Make sure to restart the app so that the change can take effect.

Fig. 6.13 How the question appears in the app after removing Other

If you wish to change it back to including Other, you must reverse the above procedure and change the setting back to true.

6.3.2. Minimum required languages

In the “Language and Dialect Background” section, the opening question asks participants to list all the languages and dialects that they speak and give information regarding where they learned each of them, when they learned them, and if there were significant periods where the participant did not use any of them.

By default, the LSBQe requires a minimum of two required language names, by presenting participants with two blank lines that must be filled before continuing.

While participants have the option of adding more language varieties via the Add Line button (i.e. for participants who are multilingual), only two lines will appear as default (see Fig. 6.14)

Fig. 6.14 The opening question on the Language and Dialect Background section set to two minimum required languages

Should you wish to make three or more languages the default without having to add more lines, for instance if you’re researching trilingualism within a community, you may set the minimum required languages to three.

To do this, firstly, open your LSBQe version file from the following path:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Programs\LART\ResearchClient\lart_research_client\lsbq\versions

With the file open, you will see that below the section options the line labelled ldb_minimum_required_languages is set to “2”:

Fig. 6.15 The feature “ldb_minimum_required_languages” set to “2”

To change this to a different number, e.g., 3, you simply type “3” in place of “2”:

Fig. 6.16 Changing the minimum required languages to three

Note

Make sure to restart the app so that the change can take effect.

Fig. 6.17 How the question appears in the app with a minimum of three required languages

If you wish to change the option back to two languages, you must reverse the above procedure and change the setting back to “2”.

6.3.3. Reading and Writing:

In the “Language and Dialect Background” section, participants are asked how much time they spend engaged in speaking, listening, reading, and writing in each of their languages.

Fig. 6.18 How the question appears in the app with “Reading” and “Writing” options

The “reading” and “writing” parts of the questions can be removed. For example when researching a community whose one or more languages is only/mostly oral or doesn’t have an accepted orthographic system, making the “reading” and “writing” options irrelevant to participants.

To remove the “reading” and “writing” options, firstly, open your LSBQe version file from the following path:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Programs\LART\ResearchClient\lart_research_client\lsbq\versions

With the file open, you will see that below the section options the lines labelled ldb_show_reading and ldb_show_writing are set to true:

Fig. 6.19 The features “ldb_show_reading” and “ldb_show_writing” are set to “true” by default

To exclude these options from your version of the LSBQe, simply change the values to false:

Fig. 6.20 Setting the “reading” and “writing” options to “false”

Note

Make sure to restart the app so that the change can take effect.

If you wish to change it back to including “reading” and “writing”, you must reverse the process and change the values back to false.

Fig. 6.21 How the question appears in the app with “reading” and “writing” options removed

6.3.4. Show code-switching

The LSBQe’s Community Language Use Behaviour section contains a final section on code-switching where participants are asked how often they code-switch in different contexts (see Fig. 6.22)

Fig. 6.22 CLUB section with code-switching question included

The code-switching question can be removed if this information is not required in your study.

To remove the code-switching question, firstly, open your LSBQe version file from the following path:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Programs\LART\ResearchClient\lart_research_client\lsbq\versions

With the file open, you will see that below the section options the line labelled club_show_codeswitching` is set to true (see Fig. 6.23)

Fig. 6.23 The feature “club_show_codeswitching” is set to “true” by default

To exclude the code-switching question from your version of the LSBQe, simply change the value to false (see Fig. 6.24)

Fig. 6.24 Setting the codeswitching option to “false”

Note

Make sure to restart the app so that the change can take effect.

After removing the code-switching section, the CLUB section finishes on the question prior to the code-switching question that asks participants to indicate which language or dialect they generally use for various activities (see Fig. 6.25).

If you wish to change it back to including the code-switching question, you must reverse the process and change the value back to true.

Fig. 6.25 How the question appears in the app with “reading” and “writing” options removed