Dr. Yuriko Oshima-Takane
Department of Psychology, McGill University

This page contains links to the course materials and manuals on the CHILDES System as well as a number of web quizzes that you can use to test your knowledge of the CHAT transcription system and the CHILDES analysis programs (CLAN).  Please note that this page and its links are still under development.
 

Course Materials
  Glossary of the CHAT transcription system
  Examples of CHAT transcripts
      CHAT files
      Sonic files
      Video files
  List of the CHILDES programs
 

Manuals
  Conventions for manual transcription of spontaneous language recordings
  Calculating MLU
  Counting unintelligible and intelligible utterances
  An Introduction to the CHILDES Editor
  Introduction to MOR
  Notes on important rules for CHAT transcription
  Coding imitative and spontaneous speech
  Coding pronouns and proper names
 

Quizzes
Below are a number of quizzes, each dealing with a particular aspect of the CHAT transcription system and the CHILDES programs.  By working through the quizzes below, you will be able to gain a solid working knowledge of the system at your own pace.  You can use these quizzes to review the learned materials and to test your knowledge.

Level 1 quizzes are arranged in the order in which you will encounter the material in the CHILDES manual and cover the symbols and programs you will learn in the course.  Level 2 quizzes start with simple material and progress to more challenging questions.
 

I.  CHAT Symbols and Conventions

Level 1
  MinCHAT (CHAT Quiz 1-1)
  File headers (CHAT Quiz 1-2)
  Word symbols (CHAT Quiz 1-3)
  Morpheme symbols (CHAT Quiz 1-4)
  Terminators and linkers (CHAT Quiz 1-5)
  Scoped symbols (CHAT Quiz 1-6)
  Dependent tiers (CHAT Quiz 1-7)
  Coding on dependent tiers (CHAT Quiz 1-8)

Level 2:  Review
  CHAT Quiz 2-1
  CHAT Quiz 2-2
  CHAT Quiz 2-3
 

II.  CHILDES Programs (CLAN)

Level 1
  Basic commands (CLAN Quiz 1-1)
  CHECK (CLAN Quiz 1-2)
  COMBO (CLAN Quiz 1-3)
  FREQ (CLAN Quiz 1-4)
  KWAL (CLAN Quiz 1-5)
  MLU (CLAN Quiz 1-6)
  MOR (CLAN Quiz 1-7)
  RELY (CLAN Quiz 1-8)

Level 2:  Review
  CLAN Quiz 2-1
  CLAN Quiz 2-2

Link to:
Psychology 204-561B
CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System)

Dr. Yuriko Oshima-Takane is the director of this Instructional Technology Project and the webmaster of this page.  Please feel free to e-mail questions or comments about this site to her at yuriko@hebb.psych.mcgill.ca.

The web-based quizzes were created with Half-Baked Hot Potatoes freeware by Mai-Gee Hum and Sonia Guerriero under the supervision of Yuriko Oshima-Takane.

This project is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Brian MacWhinney of Carnegie Mellon University and was funded by a grant from McGill University's Faculty of Science to the Psychology Department and a matching grant from the Royal Bank Innovative Teaching Grant and McGill University's Faculty of Science to Yuriko Oshima-Takane.

Last updated 5 March 1999.