You are invited to participate in a research study that investigates how different speakers respond to English sentences by Professor Abbas Benmamoun and Daniel Ross of the Linguistics Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. You were selected as a possible participant in this study because you are a speaker of English and because you are at least 18 years old.

If you decide to participate, you will take this online survey. The experiment will take approximately forty-five minutes. The online survey asks questions about the meaning and acceptability of a number of English sentences. First, you will provide answers to general background questions to identify the version of English that you speak, based on various factors such as location, English proficiency level (native speaker, fluent non-native speaker, etc.), other languages spoken, age, and/or educational level.

There are no known physical, psychological, social, or legal risks in this study. You will not be personally identified in any published or presented data; participants will be divided into groups based on the background information. Each participant will be identified by a number.

The only personally identifiable information in this study will be your name and your name will never be released in a publication or presentation or any other format. Your name will be used to identify the data for organizational purposes. It will be used to track participation (for example, to be sure that no participants complete the survey twice) and to confirm the background information if needed. Additionally, this will allow us to identify your information in the database if you have a question about your responses or decide to not participate in the study after you have begun the survey. Your name will only be associated with the data within the secured database and available only to the researchers. Any use of the data outside the database will refer to the participants anonymously by participant number.

There is no cost to you for participation in this project, nor will you be compensated for participation. We appreciate your participation!

Your decision whether or not to participate will not affect your future relations with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, or with the investigators. You are under no obligation to participate in the study. You are free to (a) discontinue participation in the study at any time (and your partial responses will be erased), (b) request to view your responses (after completing the survey or after deciding to discontinue participation), or (c) request that an already recorded session be destroyed and thus excluded from the study, as long as this is requested before the data is included in the results of the study. Participation in the study or withdrawal from the study will NOT influence your relations with the University of Illinois or with the investigators.

You are making a decision whether or not to participate. Beginning the survey indicates that you have read and understood the information provided above and have decided to participate. You may withdraw at any time after beginning the survey, should you choose to discontinue participation in this study. In that case, your responses will be erased.

If you have any questions now, please ask before beginning the survey. If you have any additional questions later, we will be happy to answer them. You can reach Professor Benmamoun at: benmamou@illinois.edu or Daniel Ross at djross3@illinois.edu. Should you have any questions concerning research subject's rights, you can contact the UIUC IRB Office (217-333-2670; irb@uiuc.edu). The IRB Office may be called collect.