Consent form
Study: Teaching Italian Prosody
Researchers: Catherine Scanlon (cscanlon@ucsb.edu) and Antón de la Fuente (cadelafuente@ucsb.edu)
Faculty supervisor: Matt Gordon (mgordon@linguistics.ucsb.edu)
 
Purpose:
You are being asked to participate in a research study being conducted by Catherine Scanlon and Antón de la Fuente at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Participating in this study is optional. The purpose of this research study is to test a web-based method of teaching Italian intonation.
 
Procedures:
If you choose to be in the study, you will complete an online training program to practice Italian intonation. There are three sessions one week apart. The first two sessions will take 30 minutes, and the last session will take 15 minutes. In total, participating in the study will take one hour and fifteen minutes.
 
In each training session, you will record yourself reading Italian statements and questions out loud. You will also listen to recordings of native speakers of Italian saying the sentences and record yourself repeating those sentences, and you will hear your recordings played back to you.

In addition, the first session will include a brief survey about your language experience, and the last session will include a brief survey for you to provide feedback about the training.

Recordings from the study will be anonymously rated by native speakers of Italian as well as linguistically analyzed by the researchers.
 
You can stop participating at any time. Your name will not be linked with your recordings or survey responses.
 
Limits of confidentiality
Recordings collected as part of this study will essentially be public. Your name will not be associated with your recordings in any way, but voices can be recognizable and it’s possible someone who knows you could recognize your recordings. You may request that your recordings be deleted at any time.
 
The recordings will be kept by the researchers and shared with others as necessary to complete the research. In particular, the recordings will be rated by native speakers of Italian. In addition, the recordings may be shared in conference presentations, journal articles, etc. The study will be written up as a paper and submitted for publication in an academic journal. Your identity will not be made known in written materials resulting from this study.
 
Drawing:
You may choose to enter a drawing for a $100 Visa gift card. You get one entry for each session that you complete and an additional entry for completing all 3 sessions. Odds of winning the drawing will depend on the number of people who sign up, but we expect them to be approximately 1/500 to 1/50 depending on how many people sign up and how many sessions you complete. The drawing will take place after the data collection is complete.
 
Contact Information:        
​If you have questions about the research, you can contact Catherine at cscanlon@ucsb.edu or Antón at cadelafuente@ucsb.edu. You can also contact our faculty supervisor Matt Gordon at mgordon@linguistics.ucsb.edu.
 
If you have any questions regarding your rights as a research participant, please contact the Human Subjects Committee at (805) 893-3807 or hsc@research.ucsb.edu. Or write to the University of California, Human Subjects Committee, Office of Research, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-2050.

If you want to participate in this study, type your name below. If you’d like to ask questions before deciding whether to participate, please contact us at the email addresses given above.