REU Site: Increasing Diversity in the Linguistic Sciences through Research on Language and Social Mobility

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。这个REU网站旨在通过调查未被充分代表的少数族裔学生在接受高等教育时做出的语言选择，增加语言科学的多样性。这项研究揭示了语言在社会流动中的作用，这是教育和经济发展中一个重要但未被充分研究的方面。因此，它支持代表人数不足的少数族裔的繁荣，许多调查结果可能会推广到其他美国人，从而使他们受益。该项目通过吸收历史上的黑人学院和大学(HBCU)和其他不提供语言学专业的少数族裔服务机构(MSI)的本科生参与，促进了语言科学的多样性。这项研究的发现为学院和大学提供了有关非裔美国大学生语言和文化性质的信息，这对教学和指导有直接影响。此外，该项目还为语言学、社会学和教育学做出了学术贡献。REU的参与者采访了非裔美国学生，收集了学术写作和社交媒体活动的样本，创建了一个公共档案，记录了未被充分代表的少数族裔学生的全面语言实践。在第二年，REU的活动在加州大学圣巴巴拉分校和加州大学戴维斯分校进行，以利用加州大学戴维斯分校将于2019年夏季主办美国语言学会两年一度的研究所这一事实。因此，该项目开始在HBCU和其他MSI之间建立一个对语言学感兴趣的教员社区，以便在大学之间建立基础设施。REU网站的主要目标是研究语言在社会流动中的作用，同时增加从事语言科学的本科生的多样性。该项目是第一个广泛记录和分析非裔美国英语本科生在接受高等教育过程中的语言选择和经历的项目。该项目通过让REU参与者在南加州的大学校园里记录非裔美国人的语言，创建了一个免费的非洲裔美国人英语公共档案馆。REU的参与者对非裔美国本科生进行了社会语言学访谈，并收集了他们的学术写作和社交媒体活动的样本，以记录受访者的全面语言实践。这项研究回答了非裔美国人在学术环境中如何使用和理解非裔美国人英语的问题，这反过来又揭示了语言对非裔美国学生的教育成就和社会流动性的影响。REU的主要培训目标是为HBCU和其他MSI的本科生提供语言研究方法方面的培训和经验，以及深入的指导和专业发展，以支持他们攻读语言学或相关领域的博士学位。研究方法包括社会语言学访谈、语料库建设、语法模式统计分析、工具语音分析和语篇分析。REU通过揭示语言在高等教育和非裔美国人社会流动中的作用，为语言学、社会学和教育做出了贡献。该项目的更广泛影响是为来自代表性不足群体的本科生提供语言学和相关领域的研究经验和准备，通过分享研究成果及其对本科非裔美国人讲英语的教学的影响，使学院和大学受益，并创建一个对语言学感兴趣的专业教师网络。该奖项反映了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. This REU site is designed to increase diversity in the linguistic sciences by investigating the linguistic choices that underrepresented minority students make as they navigate higher education. The research sheds light on the role of language in social mobility, an important but understudied aspect of educational and economic advancement. It therefore supports the prosperity of underrepresented minorities and many findings are likely to generalize to and thus benefit other American populations. The project fosters diversity in the linguistic sciences by involving undergraduates from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), which do not offer linguistics as a major. The findings of the research benefit colleges and universities by providing information about the nature of the language and culture of African-American college students, which has direct implications for teaching and mentoring. In addition, the project makes scholarly contributions to linguistics, sociology, and education. REU participants conduct interviews with African-American students and gather samples of academic writing and social media activity to create a public archive documenting the full range of underrepresented minority students' linguistic practices. In Year 2, REU activities are divided between the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of California, Davis, to take advantage of the fact that the University of California, Davis will host the Linguistic Society of America's biennial Institute in Summer 2019. The project thus begins to create a collaborative community of faculty interested in linguistics across HBCUs and other MSIs in order to build infrastructure across universities.The primary objective of the REU site is to examine the role of language in social mobility while increasing the diversity of undergraduates engaged in the linguistic sciences. The project is the first to extensively document and analyze the linguistic choices and experiences of African-American English-speaking undergraduates as they navigate higher education. The project creates a free public archive of African-American English by having REU participants document the language of African-Americans on college and university campuses in Southern California. REU participants conduct sociolinguistic interviews with African-American undergraduates and gather samples of their academic writing and social media activity to document the full range of interviewees' linguistic practices. The research answers questions about how African-American English is used and perceived by speakers in academic contexts, which in turn sheds light on the impact of language on the educational attainment and social mobility of African-American students. The primary training objective of the REU is to provide undergraduates from HBCUs and other MSIs with training and experience in the methods of linguistic research as well as in-depth mentoring and professional development in order to support their pursuit of a Ph.D. in linguistics or a related field. Research methods include sociolinguistic interviews, corpus building, statistical analysis of grammatical patterns, instrumental phonetic analysis, and discourse analysis. The REU contributes to linguistics, sociology, and education by shedding light on the role of language in higher education and African-Americans' social mobility. The broader impacts of the project are to provide undergraduates from underrepresented groups with research experience and preparation for graduate school in linguistics and related fields, to benefit colleges and universities by sharing research results and their implications for teaching undergraduate African-American English speakers, and to create a professional network of faculty interested in linguistics.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.