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

这个科学和技术研究论文改进补助金调查如何交替语言界面英语影响语言多样性，种族平等和文化连续性的斗争，通过在美国的语言。S. 具体而言，该研究探讨了如何提供西班牙语选项的技术有助于构建什么是适当的“西班牙语”和“典型的西班牙语使用者”的标准，并探讨了这些技术中的“内置”意识形态结构如何在语言选择和民族种族认同的争议领域发挥作用。 关于美国拉丁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关于语言和用户的假设嵌入其设计中，LIT开发人员将语言多样性和种族多样性作为设计标准的权重，西班牙语LIT对拉丁裔的访问程度，这个群体使用这项技术的频率，拉丁美洲人自己如何看待这项技术，以及拉丁美洲人如何以不同于其制造商最初设想的方式使用西班牙LIT。这些目标是通过一项新英格兰地区研究来实现的，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的生产，我们将采访主要LIT公司的技术作家和其他关键的企业文化“内部翻译者”。这些为一个特定目标公司的更深入的企业民族志的可能性奠定了基础，该公司的LIT产品将被纳入研究的"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：马萨诸塞州霍利奥克。 在这里，研究将探讨如何有针对性的LIT的城市拉丁裔用户倾向于接受，修改，抵制和改造的技术科学的思想铭文体现在有针对性的技术的设计。 利用初步研究的经验，将通过开发和实施由共同主要负责人领导的关于拉丁美洲语言多样性和技术问题的录像社区讲习班来探索这个城市网站。一项支持性研究调查了附近一个小型中产阶级大学社区的拉丁裔居民，Amherst MA;发现这一群体经常面临独特的挑战，难以与其他两个地点的意识形态隔离进行谈判。在初步访谈后，这部分研究将为一个关于语言多样性和技术问题的参与式行动讲习班制定课程，以满足这一郊区社区家庭的具体需求。 将通过交流专门知识和物质资源，利用每个网站提供的独特资源，促进所有三个网站之间的有益联系。为了评估一个典型的“西班牙语发言人”的身份构建的方式，代理扬声器中的一些LIT产品的软件界面将检查存在的视觉比喻和语言标准。 例如，享有特权的西班牙语发言人经常以典型的安达卢西亚人出现。一个以语篇为中心的数据分析将被用于衡量微观和宏观的语言特征和对语言的态度。 语言多样性将通过真实的和"虚拟"使用者使用西班牙语和英语的标准和非标准方言的情况进行评估。 为了理解种族的影响，这项研究还将研究“模拟”演讲和其他隐蔽的种族化话语的存在。 对口音或口音感知的关注将是一个常数。该项目将加强STS中相对稀缺的关于种族、种族主义和语言意识形态的文献。该项目将通过对技术和文化如何共同构建的密切研究，加强在语言振兴和拉丁美洲研究领域工作的学者的工作。这项研究还将通过基于身份和区域范围的办法，为多地点研究奠定理论和实践基础。这项调查还将有助于“文化定位设计”（Eglash，2001年）的理论概念，特别是关于语言和民族多样性作为设计标准的放置。本研究提出一个协同教学模式，其中每个研究点可以收到重要的反馈，在其他两个调查的基础上。 具体结果将以公司报告、两个课程模式和一个社区网站的形式提供，所有这些都反映了研究中吸取的教训。这项研究直接涉及不同收入和教育水平的代表性不足的拉丁美洲人的参与。这项研究促进了人员和思想的交流，计算机专业人员，学生，家长和社区志愿者通过在不同地点为课程，演讲和其他活动做出贡献，跨越地理，民族种族和语言边界。该研究的结果还有助于为有关LIT对国家教育标准，国际多语言技术标准和语言界面技术全球市场的影响的辩论提供信息。此外，这项研究可以大大有助于围绕双语教育，黑人英语，英语立法和语言振兴正在进行的激烈辩论。

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.