ABSTRACT
Approaches to researching speaking are very eclectic. This reflects the fact that the spoken form touches many aspects of life and spoken language data are seen as relevant to a variety of research domains and research questions. These can range from the qualitative, for example, analysing role-plays using conversation analytical techniques to understand business negotiation in inter-cultural contexts, to the highly quantitative, for instance, a statistical analysis in an experimental setting of how listeners perceive accent. The reasons for choosing one approach over another are perhaps best understood by beginning from the relationship between research topics, data, and the conclusions that can be drawn from these. As noted elsewhere in this book, there is a complex relationship between spoken language and theories of language. Our view of language is strongly shaped by the means we have to collect, describe and then analyse it and this is particularly the case in researching speaking. This chapter examines both quantitative and qualitative approaches to research questions in the
domain of speech and discusses the role of speech data in relation to the methods used in each.
