Draft 1 Methodology

1. METHODOLOGY
The design of my experiment is comparative research as I am investigating linguistic differences
between a male and female interviewer. My investigation will follow a positivism perspective as my
conclusions will be rooted in fact. This means that if someone else were to carry out the same
investigation as me, they will reach similar or the same conclusions making my study reliable.
I will gather my data by selecting an interview from both talkshows to focus on. I will then transcribe
the interviews in order to make it easier for me to analyse frameworks. As my data is in the public
domain it doesn’t involve a lot of ethical concerns as I do not have to ask for permission/consent for
the interviewers work. When I select the interviews I want to use, I will make sure that they are not
harmful or offensive in any way.
The method I will be using will be framework analysis. This is because I will be producing transcripts
and then analysing them in order to see what type of lexis, semantics, discourse and pragmatics
both interviewers use. I assume both interviewers will use different lexis in order to conduct their
interviews based on their different dialects. Furthermore, I think that the lexis used within the
interview will depend on who the interviewee is and perhaps their gender as well.
I will also use theories which are relevant to my work. For example, I will use language and gender
theorists such as Tannen who suggested that men seek to achieve the upper hand or prevent others
from dominating them and they see the world as a place where people try to gain status and keep it.
On the other hand, Tannen stated that women talk to gain confirmation and support for their ideas
which will be interesting to observe in the two interviews I am analysing.