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Rules for multiple-language projects
The following rules apply to projects that provide for interviewing in different languages.
Write the script all in one language; do not include foreign-language text in the script. All translations must be entered separately using Translation Utility. An exception is a question that asks what language the respondent wants to be interviewed in. Here, you may want to write the language names in the appropriate language. For more information, see Setting the interview language.
To ensure that the participant is interviewed in their preferred language, set the interview language either using a direct question or by reading the language from the sample record. If the interview script does not set the language, the interviewing program looks for translations in the respondent’s browser language. For more information, see Setting the interview language.
If you are using the multimode1.mrs sample management script, note that it expects each participant to have one language only. If you have participants who are willing to be interviewed in a number of languages (that is, their language sample field contains a list of languages), you will need to update the sample management script to deal with this.
Telephone interviewing projects
You do not have to write anything in the interview script to check that the interviewer can speak the respondent’s language. The sample management script does this.
Interviewers must have interviewer qualifications set that define the languages they can speak. See Interviewer qualifications for general information about qualifications. See “Creating User Property Groups” and “Adding Properties to User Groups” in the UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server Admin User's Guide for instructions on setting up interviewer qualifications, and “Defining Sample Management Parameters” in the UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server User's Guide for information on how to make projects use qualifications.
Sample records for participants must have a field that stores the language in which the participant wants to be interviewed. The name of the language field in the sample record must match the name of the language interviewer qualification. Most companies use the word Language as this is the name used by the multimode1.mrs sample management script supplied with UNICOM Intelligence Interviewer - Server.
multimode1.mrs compares interviewer language qualifications against the participant’s language using the "=" operator. It is therefore advisable that the interviewer language qualifications and the participant language requirements are specified in the same case. Case is important in case sensitive databases but not otherwise; however, is good practice to maintain consistency between the two settings as this reduces the likelihood of the script failing due to inconsistencies in case.
See also
Multiple-language scripts