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FreeTxt: A corpus-based bilingual free-text survey and questionnaire data analysis toolkit
,
Nouran Khallaf,
Paul Rayson,
Mahmoud El-Haj,
Ignatius Ezeani,
Steve Morris
Applied Corpus Linguistics, Volume: 4, Issue: 3, Start page: 100103
Swansea University Author:
Steve Morris
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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.acorp.2024.100103
Abstract
Qualitative free-text responses (e.g. from questionnaires and surveys) pose a challenge to many companies and institutions which lack the expertise to analyse such data with ease. While a range of sophisticated tools for the analysis of text do exist, these are often expensive, difficult to use and/...
| Published in: | Applied Corpus Linguistics |
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| ISSN: | 2666-7991 |
| Published: |
Elsevier BV
2024
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70086 |
| Abstract: |
Qualitative free-text responses (e.g. from questionnaires and surveys) pose a challenge to many companies and institutions which lack the expertise to analyse such data with ease. While a range of sophisticated tools for the analysis of text do exist, these are often expensive, difficult to use and/or inaccessible to non-expert users. These tools also lack support for the analysis of English and Welsh text, which can be a particular challenge in the bilingual context of Wales. This paper details the key functionalities of the first corpus-based ‘FreeTxt’ toolkit which has been designed to support the systematic analysis and visualisation of free-text data, as a direct response to these two key needs. This paper demonstrates how, by working in partnership, software engineers, natural language processing (NLP) experts and corpus linguists can collaborate with end-users and beneficiaries to provide effective solutions to real world problems. Through the development of FreeTxt (www.freetxt.app), we aimed to empower end-users to direct and lead their own analyses of both small-scale and more extensive datasets to maximise the reach and potential impact generated. The approaches reported here, and the bilingual toolkit developed, can be replicated and extended for use in other language contexts and across a range of public and professional sectors. FreeTxt is now available for the analysis of Welsh and/or English, for use by anyone in any sector in Wales and beyond. |
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| Keywords: |
Corpus tools; Qualitative analysis; Free-text responses; Questionnaires |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Funders: |
The FreeTxt project was funded by AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) follow-on funding for impact and engagement (grant number AH/W004844/1). This work also feeds more broadly into the work carried out as part of the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) and AHRC funded Corpws Cenedlaethol Cymraeg Cyfoes (The National Corpus of Contemporary Welsh): A community driven approach to linguistic corpus construction project (grant number ES/M011348/1). |
| Issue: |
3 |
| Start Page: |
100103 |