Abstract
Vignettes are short depictions of typical scenarios intended to elicit responses that will reveal values, perceptions, impressions, and accepted social norms. This article describes how vignettes were developed and used in a qualitative linguistics anthropology study to elicit those responses as experienced by mixed-heritage individuals in attaining heritage legitimacy despite their inability to speak their heritage languages. The vignettes were administered during in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Eight participants were asked to reflect and respond to prompts which revolved around typical experiences where speakers were limited by their lack of heritage language proficiency. Based on the vignettes, the participants described how the speakers would linguistically strategize to compensate their limited abilities in using the heritage languages. At the same time, the cultural means through which speakers gain legitimacy within their own heritage groups were also identified. Essentially the use of the vignettes facilitated in generating data that would have otherwise been challenging to elicit given the culturally sensitive as well as highly private nature of the phenomena under investigation. The application of vignettes provided a less intrusive and non-threatening way of obtaining perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes based on responses or comments to stories depicting lived experiences of the participants that the researcher is otherwise not privy to as an observer. However, application of this data elicitation technique can prove challenging for the researcher. A critical analysis of the development, implementation and validity of vignettes as a research tool is extrapolated here within the setting of a heritage legitimacy study as an exemplar.
Highlights
This article explores the use of vignettes as a data elicitation technique employed in a qualitative paradigm for an anthropological linguistics research investigating mixed-heritage individuals claiming heritage legitimacy
With reference to the sample highlighted above, the analysis revealed that the mixed-heritage individuals employed various communication strategies ranging from appeal for help to feigning understanding to salvage interactions with their monolingual family members
The option to use vignettes in the aforementioned study is borne out of necessity as the eight participants, comprising four mixed-heritage and four single-heritage individuals were reluctant to give access to the researcher to observe and record behaviours pertaining to the use of heritage languages in their community and families’ realm and private spaces
Summary
This article explores the use of vignettes as a data elicitation technique employed in a qualitative paradigm for an anthropological linguistics research investigating mixed-heritage individuals claiming heritage legitimacy. This examination is of particular interest in that it highlights the significant potential of using vignettes in place of participant observations for culturally sensitive research contexts that are regarded as highly private in nature, such as the heritage legitimacy study. Drawing from the research by Mahanita (2016) on mixedheritage people claiming heritage legitimacy, the development, applications and validity of using vignettes are examined and discussed This examination is significant as studies in using vignettes in the developing multi-ethnic world are emerging, but with no critical examination of their usefulness in such settings (Gourlay et al, 2014; Mahanita, Nor Fariza & Hazita, 2016). This article is, to the best of the researchers’ knowledge, one of the very few methodological papers to examine the development and use of vignettes in mixed-heritage legitimacy studies within the field of linguistic anthropology in Malaysia
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