Language: Science for Everyone

What will this session do?“This session addresses the needs and strategies for translating work in the linguistic sciences for more general (non-academic) audiences.” [Reviewer 1]

“This is an issue we all deal with – few people outside the field understand what we do. But not many linguists understand how to communicate beyond the comfortable boundaries of their own discipline.” [Reviewer 2]

“This session will provide very useful information to those who are applying for a grant and involved in administration, but not much with the general audience at the LSA.” [Reviewer 3]

Why bother

Identifying opportunities

How to get started

Building a team

Order1. Joan Maling (NSF) Linguistics and STEM

2. Laura Wagner (Ohio State)The Language Pod

3. Cecile McKee (Arizona) Linguistics in Festivals

4. Jeff Lidz (Maryland) When Linguists go to High School

5. Barbara Pearson (UMass) Resources you can useBrice Russ (LSA) … and where you can find themColin Phillips (Maryland)

6. Panel Discussion

7. Late morning: demos and discussion – Exhibit Hall

Public-facing Linguistics• Media mass audience, mostly 1-way communication

skilled ‘public intellectuals’“PechaKucha Datablitz”, Sat.

9am

• K-12 curriculum extended engagement, highly interactivesubstantial time commitmentLanguage in School Curriculum

(LiSC)– Sunday, 8am

• Public policy specific audiences, specific goalshigh stakes (don’t screw up!)Your LSA dues support this!

• Outreach brief interactions, highly interactivelow cost of entry, everybody can

do it

“gateway drug”

Order1. Joan Maling (NSF) Linguistics and STEM

2. Laura Wagner (Ohio State)The Language Pod

3. Cecile McKee (Arizona) Linguistics in Festivals

4. Jeff Lidz (Maryland) When Linguists go to High School

5. Barbara Pearson (UMass) Resources you can useColin Phillips (Maryland) … and where you can find themBrice Russ (LSA)

6. Panel Discussion

7. Late morning: demos and discussion – Exhibit Hall

linguisticsociety.org/eventguide

languagescience.umd.edu

langscape.umd.edu

Current vs. Future

Current

Mapping: 6400 lg. polygonsAudio/text: ~3000 lgsSearch: name or locationLanguage ID tool

Future Potential

Mapping: many layersResources: quantity & qualityInteroperabilityAdvanced searchAPI, etc. etc.

Langscape already has useful applicationsLangscape currently is a proof of concept for a global language portal

langscape.umd.edu

Some Questions1. Who participates – how do you get them involved?2. What does it cost (time, $$)? Who’s paying?3. All very nice, but you’re all old and tenured. I need to get papers written.4. How do you keep your team engaged, contributing fresh ideas?5. “Meet them where they are”: what does this mean?6. “Utilize your strengths”7. But my work just isn’t suitable for a general audience (unlike you folks

who do shallow sexy experiments)8. Does “Linguistics” sound too scary (eek – grammar class!)9. What has surprised you? 10. What’s with the gender imbalance (really: 13/16 on the symposium

proposal are female; are guys just useless)?