Analysis of Chinese Speakers' Responses to Survey Intention Questions

• Activity Number: 613
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 5, 2010 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Anna Yukyee Chan*+ and Yuling Pan
• Companies: U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Census Bureau
• Keywords: cross cultural ; cognitive interviewing ; Chinese respondents ; data quality

Abstract

This research explores the linguistic behaviors of Chinese-speaking respondents and their impact on the quality of data collected in survey interview settings. This study examines whether respondents provided sufficient, relevant, or contrary-to-face value (CTFV) responses to the proposition of a survey question asking respondents their intention to participation in a future survey. It compares the responses of Chinese speakers to those of English interviewees and explores how social factors such as educational attainment and dialect preference relate to the linguistic behaviors of Chinese-speaking respondents. Findings from this study are significant and insightful for our understanding of the characteristics of Chinese institutional discourse in comparison with other language groups and how these characteristics impact the quality of their responses in structured survey interviews.