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About Us

Thank you for your interest.

My name is Anastasia Boldireff and The HeartBeat to Learning Study is my doctoral research project conducted at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.
Over a period of two weeks, you will be asked to login and read one paragraph aloud. While this commitment is two weeks long, the task you are asked to perform each day is predicted to take 4-8~ minutes to complete. Before and after the experiment you will be asked to answer a few questions about yourself and to read some texts aloud.

The aim of this experiment is to understand how adult non-native speakers develop spoken English. With the knowledge gained from this study I hope to design activities for language learning that will help others.
Engaging in the tasks included in this study may also have an impact on your language proficiency.

Below you will find the button (let’s gets started) and you will need to complete the form in order to indicate your consent to participate in this study. After accepting the terms and conditions, you will be prompted to create a login to access the experiment.
Thank you for your participation!

What's Next

Fill the form

You need to fill out a form and accept our terms and conditions in order to receive your login credentials.

Receive access

If you accept the terms and conditions of an offer, you will automatically be approved and will receive a login access credential in an email.

Begin the study

Now you can start the experiment.

Study Information

Information and Consent to Participate in the Reasearch Study

Study title:

Heartbeat to Learning

Researcher:

Anastasia Boldireff

Researcher’s Contact Information:

anastasia.boldireff@mail.concordia.ca

Supervisor:

Dr. Steven Shaw

Supervisor’s Contact Information:

514-923-6180 / steven.shaw@concordia.ca

You are invited to participate in the research study mentioned above. I am a Ph.D. candidate at Concordia University in Montreal conducting a research study on second language learner’s pronunciation in English. I am also affiliated with Georgian College’s Research and Innovation Department and the Goethe University; these institutional logos are included in this experiment to accredit their support:

The study begins:

Day 1: In your email, you will receive a link prompting you to start the study. Open the link. You will be asked to listen to an example of a person reading aloud. You will then have a practice session by learning how to use to buttons to practice recording yourself reading a text aloud. Once you have finished your practice session, you can start the experiment! you will be asked to read and record yourself reading 20 words aloud. Next you will be asked to record yourself reading one paragraph aloud.
Congratulations: you have finished Day One of the experiment.

There will be a 24 delay between Day 1 and Day 2 of the research study. You will be prompted to return to the study to read another paragraph.

Day 2: You will then be prompted to return to the experiment to read and record another paragraph aloud. Congratulations you have finished Day 2 of the experiment.

You will need to wait 24 hours between each day of the experiment between Days 1-10 before you can access the next day of the experiment.

Days 3-9: You will read and record another paragraph aloud. Each day you will have a different paragraph to read.

You will need to wait 24 hours between each day of the experiment between Days 1-10 before you can access the next day of the experiment.

Day 10: On Day 10 of the experiment, you will be asked to record yourself reading two paragraphs aloud and 20 words.

There will be a 2-week break. You will need to wait two weeks before you can access Day 11 of the experiment.

Day 11: You will be asked to read and record yourself reading two paragraphs aloud and 20 words. Congratulations you have finished the experiment.

Your name will automatically be put into a raffle to win a $100 Amazon gift card with a 1 in 12 chance. Anastasia Boldireff is offering a free session to provide you feedback on how you did in the study after the data has been collected and analyzed if you choose. On behalf of Anastasia Boldireff, we thank you for your participation.

Data Collection:

Your sessions and assessments will all be saved and the data protected online and then analyzed.
Upon submission, your responses will be saved into a secured online database and will be accessed and analyzed by a member of the research team.
You can ask questions via email at: info@theheartbeattolearningstudy.com.

Withdrawal

Participating in this research is voluntary. You can discontinue your participation at any time. If you decide to participate, you can withdraw at any time during the study. You can also ask that the information you provided not be used, and your choice will be respected. If you decide that you do not want us to use your information, you must tell the researcher Anastasia Boldireff before July 1st, 2024.

*Participants may request that their information be excluded from the study until July 1st, 2024, after which date the data will have been analyzed and the results are written up for thesis and manuscript submission. If a participant withdraws within this deadline, their questionnaire, results, and any other information is taken by the researcher will be removed from the dataset. The participant’s data will also be excluded from any analysis in the study, including statistical tests and result discussions. If a participant withdraws, a new participant will have to be recruited to ensure equal numbers of participants to obtain reliable comparisons.

C. Risks and Benefits

There are no known risks associated with this research study. This research may assist you in learning something about rhythm in language. This could be relevant in case you want to improve your pronunciation of English.

D. Confidentiality

For this study, each of your sessions will be recorded. The audiofiles and data will be kept and stored in a secure server in Dorset, U.K. as such it will be subject to local law and there are limitations to the guarantee of the confidentiality. No personal information will be kept after the study ends. However, you will only be identified by your name early in the study. After the data have been collected, your data will be anonymized so that nobody will know your identity.

I will not allow anyone to access your results, except people directly involved in conducting the research including myself, my supervisors, and the IT members of this research team.

I intend to publish the results of the research as part of a doctoral thesis. However, it will not be possible to identify you in the published results. After five years, all the information you provide for this study will be destroyed.

You can opt-in to a free feedback session once the data is analyzed by emailing the researcher directly. The researcher will provide 10 minutes with you to assess your progress.

You will be entered in a raffle where you are eligible to win a $100 Amazon Gift Card

E. Conditions of Participation

Participating in this research is voluntary. If you decide to participate, you can withdraw at any time during the study.

You can also ask that the information you provided not be used, and your choice will be respected. If you decide that you do not want us to use your information, you must tell the researcher before May 1st, 2024.

There are no negative consequences for not participating, withdrawing, or asking us not to use your information.

If you wish to withdraw from the study or have questions about the scientific or scholarly aspects of this research, please contact the researcher Anastasia Boldireff at anastasia.boldireff@mail.concordia.ca. You may also contact Steven Shaw, the faculty supervisor at: steven.shaw@concordia.ca.

If you have concerns about ethical issues in this research, please contact the Manager, Research Ethics, Concordia University, 514.848.2424 ex. 7481 or oor.ethics@concordia.ca.

F. Participant's Declaration

I am 18 years old or older and have read and understood this form. I have had the chance to ask questions and any questions have been answered. By clicking, you consent to participate in this research under the conditions described.

If you have questions about the scientific or scholarly aspects of this research, please contact the researcher Anastasia Boldireff who can be contacted at anastasia.boldireff@mail.concordia.ca. You may also contact her faculty supervisor. If you have concerns about ethical issues in this research, please contact the Manager, Research Ethics, Concordia University, 514.848.2424 ex. 7481 or oor.ethics@concordia.ca.

I agree and wish to particiapte

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