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Student voices on language variation

UW-Madison Student Voices

View the video here!
Your accent carries the story of who you are

Linguists of all kinds (including applied, experimental, language teachers, theoretical) have made progress in understanding and raising awareness about variation as an inherent part of human language. Beliefs about how languages work in humans’ brains and societies (language ideologies) are often influenced by nonlinguistic factors and can often be revealed indirectly, such as in small talk, classroom discussions, K-16 educational settings, places of work, and public policy. Linguistic awareness counters incomplete understanding and facilitates the acceptance of speakers of all varieties while providing a springboard to ongoing work to equitably distribute resources, particularly linguistic resources. Consequently, linguists and educators need to convert awareness into action.

Language Ideologies and Linguistic Discrimination (LILD) is a group of linguists who have been meeting for shared learning and discussion of possible new forms of outreach related to language ideologies and linguistic discrimination.

View the LILD mission statement.