Sociolinguistics has a long tradition of tackling ‘problems of human wellbeing’ in the context of educational opportunities, access to justice, employment practices, gender equality, and so on (cf. Labov 1982; Wolfram... [ view full abstract ]
Sociolinguistics has a long tradition of tackling ‘problems of human wellbeing’ in the context of educational opportunities, access to justice, employment practices, gender equality, and so on (cf. Labov 1982; Wolfram 1993). It has only been in recent years, however, that scholars have started to theorise more explicitly about the social relevance of sociolinguistic research and to position such research within funder and governmental guidelines about ‘impact’ (cf. see Lawson & Sayers 2016 and Corrigan & Mearns 2016 for some recent examples).
This colloquium builds on this growing interest and brings together papers which focus on the application of language research in the pursuit of improved quality of life. In doing so, these papers showcase sociolinguistic research which has: 1) identified problems of human wellbeing; 2) developed research methods to offer solutions and ways to translate its findings; 3) achieved positive real world outcomes as a result.
This process is not linear, as the relationship between social problems, research into them and outcomes that ameliorate them are complex and multifaceted. Central to many papers in this colloquium is how external stakeholders and partners have been jointly involved in the co-creation of outcomes and outputs directly relevant to their own context. Contributors offer practical lessons about the process of engagement, reflecting on what worked and why. Since the papers discuss the hands-on details of applying one’s research findings to engage with stakeholders in pursuit of tangible and replicable outcomes, this colloquium presents work which falls under a rather different genre to traditional research presentations where data, theory and method are the central concern.
References
Corrigan, K.P. & Mearns, A. (eds.). 2016. Creating and Digitizing Language Corpora, Volume 3: Corpora for Public Engagement. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan.
Labov, W. 1982. “Objectivity and commitment in linguistic science: The case of the Black English trial in Ann Arbor.” Language in Society 11 (2): 165–201.
Lawson, R. & Sayers, D. (eds.). 2016. Sociolinguistic Research: Application and Impact. Oxon: Routledge.
Wolfram, W. 1993. “Ethical considerations in Language Awareness Programs.” Issues in Applied Linguistics 4 (2): 225–255.
