Designing Questionnaires for Language Studies is a guide to the design and use of questionnaires for empirical linguistic research, particularly in the areas of dialectology, sociolinguistics, and linguistic anthropology. Whether completed via written correspondence or through interviewing, questionnaires play an essential role in linguistic research. Yet, the design of questionnaires is rarely taught formally, leaving researchers to learn effective design in practice. This practical and accessible text offers structured, step-by-step guidance to provide researchers with the skills they need to make the most of questionnaire-based research. It also provides a history of the use of this tool in linguistic research and critically examines the assumptions and motivations inherent in the creation and administration of questionnaires and the questions that populate them, and how biases can negatively affect the outcome of the research itself. Experience in this area has led to refinements in these instruments over time. Armed with this knowledge, readers can make informed decisions about how to structure their questionnaires as they embark on their own investigations, or they can simply use this background information to better understand the results of previous work in these areas. This book will be valuable reading to language scholars who want to carry out their own research projects or critically evaluate the research of others.

Dr Lamont Antieau is a Researcher of Linguistics at the University of Kentucky, USA and the author of Language and Linguistic Diversity in the US, An Introduction with Susan Tamasi.