REU Site: Increasing Native American perspectives in field and experimental linguistics

该项目由SBE理事会的本科生研究经验(REU)站点计划资助。它兼具科学和社会效益，集研究和教育于一体。该项目的目的是通过与美洲印第安人/阿拉斯加原住民社区特别感兴趣的主题--土著语言的振兴和科学研究--直接相关的研究经验，使STEM和高等教育更容易为美洲印第安人/阿拉斯加原住民学生所接受和包容。美国印第安人/阿拉斯加原住民学生在学术界的代表性严重不足，这种情况几十年来几乎没有变化。越来越多的研究指出，高等教育提高其文化能力的重要性和必要性，是使美国印第安人/阿拉斯加原住民学生等代表性不足的群体能够接触到高等教育的关键战略。相反，如果没有来自不同背景的观点来提供信息和改进，学术界就不可能取得卓越的成就。因此，该REU网站的广泛影响是多方面的：它使用一种文化知识和能力的方法，向美国印第安人/阿拉斯加原住民学生介绍语言学和语言学与之交叉的各种研究学科；通过这样做，它有助于增加美国印第安人/阿拉斯加原住民学生对高等教育和研究的参与；因此，该项目通过多样化的视角有助于加强学术界。通过REU网站，参与者完成多个语言学领域的研究轮换，特别是专注于实验语言学和语言文献和振兴。该项目在以社区为中心的跨学科方法中采用了基于用法的语言研究，这在本科生语言培训中是相对新颖的。REU的参与者可以接触到进行语言学研究所需的各种技能。这些研究轮换还补充了描述和实验语言学以及学术和专业发展讲习班等主题的课程作业。研讨会的重点是为学员提供在STEM开始职业生涯的技能，以及攻读语言学或相关领域的硕士和博士学位。这项工作的基本目标是通过语言学帮助学生成为STEM创新的积极推动者，寻求打破学科孤岛，重新确定科学的社会价值。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is funded from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the SBE Directorate. It has both scientific and societal benefits, and integrates research and education. The aim of this project is to make STEM and higher education more accessible to and inclusive of American Indian/Alaska Native students through a research experience that relates directly to a topic of particular interest to American Indian/Alaska Native communities – the revitalization and scientific study of Native languages. American Indian/Alaska Native students are greatly underrepresented in academia and this situation has remained virtually unchanged for decades. A growing body of research points to the importance and need for higher education to increase its cultural competency as a critical strategy for becoming accessible to underrepresented groups, such as American Indian/Alaska Native students. Conversely, academia cannot achieve excellence without perspectives from a diversity of backgrounds to inform and improve it. Thus, the broader impact of this REU site is manifold: It uses a culturally informed and competent approach to introduce American Indian/Alaska Native students to linguistics and the various research disciplines with which linguistics intersects; in doing so it contributes towards an increase in participation of American Indian/Alaska Native students in higher education and research; and as a result, this project contributes towards strengthening academia broadly through a diversification of perspectives. Through the REU site, participants complete research rotations in multiple areas of linguistics, specifically focusing on experimental linguistics and language documentation and revitalization. The program embraces a usage-based study of language within a community-centered cross-disciplinary approach, which is relatively novel in undergraduate linguistic training. REU participants are exposed to the full range of skills necessary to conduct research in linguistics. These research rotations are supplemented with coursework in topics on descriptive and experimental linguistics and academic and professional development workshops. The workshops focus on providing participants with skills to initiate careers in STEM, as well as pursuing master's and Ph.D. degrees in linguistics or related fields. The fundamental goal of this work is to help students become active agents of innovation in STEM through linguistics, seeking to break down disciplinary silos and reprioritize the societal value of science.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.