Recording Telephone Conversations
Recording telephone conversations | Simon Cole | May 19th, 2000
Dear All,
An MSc participant in Brazil, Francesca, very kindly put me in touch with a student of hers who works on the phone with Russian clients. I want to get some recordings, but I've never recorded a telephone conversation before. I can't quite think where to put the mic! Indeed, the problem is greater than that because I will be asking Francesca's student to record herself for me. Can anyone offer advice based on experience?
Regards,
Simon Cole
PS My interest in this stems from a concern for making English easier for adult beginners to learn successfully. (As long as English is considered to be "the" international language, it seems to me to be unfair that many people are excluded from mastering it). I want to analyze how non-native speakers use English to communicate successfully.
Re: Recording telephone conversations | Steve Mann | May 19th, 2000
Simon,
I reckon this is difficult. You can buy relatively cheap stick on mic - I borrowed on from Keith a few years ago - sorry - can't remember the model number. If you stick it near the earpiece it picks up things reasonably clearly. An alternative but expensive one is to borrow or purchase a recording telephone - in Britain the BT 'Caller Response' 510 is about 70 pounds. I've used one of these and the results were better than the stick on mic. It is also possible on my home phone to set the answer message tape to come on after one ring and it the records the first three minutes of the call.
Best
Steve Mann
Re: Recording telephone conversations | Jonathan Clifton | May 24th, 2000
Yes it is possible. Here in France some schools are into to telephone teaching in a big way. We have a simple tape recorder "plugged" into the phone so that we can play tapes over the phone. I tried it today with a colleague and was able to clearly record the conversation. The tape recorder has extra leads coming out of it that go into a little blue box. I'm sorry I am not technically minded so can't tell you what this blue box is nor what the leads coming out of the "normal tape recorder" are, but I am sure that if you explained the problem in an electrical store they would be able to explain how it works. If not I could make further inquiries here.
Best wishes and happy taping
Jonathan Clifton
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