Dissertation Research: For Spanish, Press Two -- Investigating the Mediation of Racial and Linguistic Diversity Via Language Interface Technology

这篇科学和技术研究论文改进赠款调查了英语的替代语言接口如何通过语言影响美国语言多样性、种族平等和文化连续性的斗争。具体地说，这项研究考察了提供西班牙语选择的技术如何帮助构建标准，以确定什么是适当的“西班牙语”和“典型的西班牙语使用者”，并探索了这些技术中的“内置”意识形态结构如何在语言选择和种族认同等有争议的领域发挥作用。关于美国的拉美裔人口及其与我们将称为“西班牙语界面技术”或“西班牙语LIT”的关系，这项研究将有助于澄清它的设计中嵌入了什么关于语言和用户的假设，LIT的开发者将语言多样性和种族多样性作为设计标准给予了多大的权重，西班牙LIT对拉美裔的接受度有多高，这一群体使用这项技术的频率有多高，拉美裔自己如何看待这项技术，以及拉美裔如何以与其制造商最初设想的不同的方式使用西班牙LIT。这些目标是通过新英格兰地区的一项研究来实现的，该研究追踪了LIT在“生产”和“接收”地点之间的流动。为了更好地了解LIT的制作，将采访主要LIT公司的技术作家和其他关键的企业文化内部翻译人员。这些为可能对特定目标公司进行更深入的企业人种学研究奠定了基础，该公司的文学产品将被整合到研究的“接待”地点。一个主要的接待地点将设在马萨诸塞州西部一个以拉丁裔为主的城市的研究地点：马萨诸塞州霍利奥克。在这里，这项研究将考察目标LIT的城市拉丁裔用户如何倾向于接受、修改、抵制和转变目标技术设计中体现的技术科学思想铭文。利用初步研究的经验，将通过开发和实施由共同PI牵头的关于拉丁裔语言多样性和技术问题的录像带社区讲习班来探索这一城市遗址。一项支持性研究调查了马萨诸塞州阿默斯特附近一个以大学为基础的小型中产阶级社区的拉丁裔居民；这一群体经常被发现在谈判疏远其他两个地点的意识形态隔离方面受到独特的挑战。在初步访谈后，这部分研究将为一次参与性行动启发的讲习班制定课程，该讲习班涉及语言多样性和技术问题，以解决这个郊区社区家庭的具体需求。将通过交流专业知识和物质资源，利用每个网站提供的独特资源，在所有三个网站之间建立有益的联系。为了评估典型的“说西班牙语的人”身份的构建方式，一些LIT产品的软件界面中代表的代言人将被检查是否存在视觉比喻和语言标准。例如，说西班牙语的特权人士通常看起来像是典型的安达卢西亚人。以语篇为中心的数据分析将被用来衡量微观和宏观的语言特征和对语言的态度。语言多样性将通过出现标准和非标准的西班牙语和英语方言对真实和“虚拟”说话者进行评估。为了了解种族的影响，这项研究还将考察“模拟”演讲和其他隐蔽的种族主义话语的存在。对口音或口音感知的关注将是常态。该项目将加强STS中关于种族、种族主义和语言意识形态的相对稀缺的文献。该项目将通过仔细研究技术和文化是如何共同构成的，加强从事语言振兴和拉丁裔研究领域的学者的工作。这项研究还将有助于通过以身份为基础和以区域为界限的方法，在理论上和实践上为多地点研究奠定基础。这项调查还将有助于“文化背景设计”(Eglash，2001)的理论概念，特别是关于将语言和民族多样性作为设计标准的问题。本研究提出了一个协同式教学模式，在该模式下，每个研究点都可以根据对其他两个研究点的调查得到重要的反馈。具体成果将以公司报告、两个课程模式和一个社区网站的形式提供，所有这些都反映了在研究中学到的经验教训。这项研究直接涉及不同收入和教育水平的代表不足的拉美裔人的参与。这项研究通过在不同地点的课堂、演讲和其他活动中的贡献，促进了人员和思想的交流，计算机专业人员、学生、家长和社区志愿者跨越了地理、种族和语言的边界。这项研究的结果还有助于就LIT对国家教育标准、国际多语言技术标准和全球语言接口技术市场的影响进行辩论。此外，这项研究还有助于围绕双语教育、黑人英语、纯英语立法和语言振兴等持续进行的激烈辩论。

This Science and Technology Studies Dissertation Improvement Grant investigates how alternate language interfaces to English affect struggles for linguistic diversity, racial equality, and cultural continuity via language in the U. S. Specifically, the study examines how technologies providing a Spanish language option help to construct standards for what constitutes appropriate "Spanish" and a "typical Spanish speaker," and it explores how "built-in" ideological constructions in these technologies play out in the contested domains of language choice and ethno-racial identification. With respect to the U.S. Latino population and its relationship to what we will refer to as "Spanish language interface technology," or "Spanish LIT," this study will help to clarify what assumptions regarding language and users are embedded in its design, what weight developers of LIT give to linguistic diversity and racial diversity as design criteria, how accessible Spanish LIT is to Latinos, how frequently this technology is used by this group, how Latinos themselves view this technology, and how Latinos use Spanish LIT in ways that differ from what was originally envisioned by its manufacturers. These objectives are approached through a New England regional study that traces the flow of LIT between sites of "production" and "reception." To better understand the production of LIT, interviews will be conducted with technical writers and other key "internal translators" of corporate culture at major LIT companies. These set the stage for the possibility of a more in-depth corporate ethnography of a particular target company whose LIT products will be slated to be integrated into the "reception" sites of the study. A major site of reception will be situated as a research site in a predominantly Latino city in Western Massachusetts: Holyoke, MA. Here the study will examine how urban Latino users of the targeted LIT tend to accept, modify, resist, and transform the technoscientific ideological inscriptions embodied in the design of the targeted technologies. Leveraging experience from a preliminary study, this urban site will be explored through the development and implementation of a video-taped community workshop on Latino linguistic diversity and technology issues led by the co-PI. A supporting study investigates Latino residents in a nearby, small, middle class, university-based community, Amherst MA; this group has been found often to be uniquely challenged to negotiate the ideological segregation distancing the other two sites. After initial interviews, this part of the research will develop a curriculum for a participatory action-inspired workshop on linguistic diversity and technology issues addressing the specific needs of families in this suburban community. Beneficial links will be fostered between all three sites via exchanges of expertise and material resources, taking advantage of the unique resources each site offers. To assess the way a typical "Spanish speaker" identity is constructed, the surrogate speakers represented in the software interface of some LIT products will be examined for the presence of visual tropes and linguistic standards. For example, the privileged Spanish speaker often appears as stereotypically Andalusian. A discourse-centered data analysis will be used throughout to gauge micro- and macro-linguistic features and attitudes toward language. Linguistic diversity will be assessed via the occurrence of standard and non-standard dialects of Spanish and English for real and "virtual" speakers. To understand the effects of race, the study will also examine the presence of "mock" speech and other instances of covert racializing discourses. Attention to accent or perception thereof will be a constant. This project will strengthen the relatively scarce literature in STS on race, racism, and language ideology. The project will augment the work of scholars working in the areas of language revitalization and Latino Studies by offering a close examination of how technologies and culture are co-constructed. The study will also contribute to a methodology for grounding multi-sited research theoretically and in practical terms via an identity-based and region-bound approach. This investigation furthermore will contribute to the theoretical concept of "culturally situated design" (Eglash, 2001) specifically with respect to the placing of linguistic and ethnoracial diversity as design criteria. The study advances a synergistic teaching model in which each research site can receive important feedback based on investigations in the other two. Concrete results will be provided in the form of company reports, two curriculum models, and a community web site, all reflecting lessons learned in the study. The study directly involves the participation of underrepresented Latinos of different income and educational levels. The study fosters exchanges of people and ideas where computer professionals, students, parents, and community volunteers cross geographic, ethno-racial, and linguistic borders by contributing to classes, presentations, and other activities at the different sites. The results of the study can also help to inform debates about the impact of LIT on national educational standards, international multilingual technological standards, and global markets for language interface technologies. In addition, the study can substantially contribute to ongoing and passionate debates surrounding bilingual education, Black English, English-Only legislation, and language revitalization.