Christine Mallinson (UMaryland, Baltimore County) will present a talk entitled "Bridging Professional and Public Linguistics" in the colloquium on Friday, October 9 in 10 Washington Place (first floor classroom). A reception will follow in the second floor.
Abstract:
I discuss how linguists (including but not limited to sociolinguists) have integrated public outreach with professional teaching, research, and service and how this work is positioned in a history of language-related activism and outreach within the field. I focus on one of the most pressing and longstanding U.S. social problems: The “achievement gap,” also known as the “opportunity gap,” which refers to the structural hurdles that hinder the opportunities for academic success for students from historically marginalized backgrounds. Linguists have contributed greatly to understanding and problematizing the role of language use as a basis for educational stratification, though more research and outreach is needed. Along those lines, I profile four of my recent projects that address educational inequalities faced by linguistically diverse students, primarily students who speak African-American English. Via publications, workshops, service-learning endeavors, and individual tut
oring programs, linguists and graduate students disseminate relevant linguistic information to educators and address the specific needs of students and educators in various schools and communities. These examples not only illustrate some ways in which professional linguistics and public linguistics may be merged, but also reveal how linguistic insights may be critical in helping address social issues, such as those surrounding language differences, learning processes, and educational achievement for marginalized students in the U.S.