Home > Events > LSLT: Julie Sweetland (Framework Institute)
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LSLT: Julie Sweetland (Framework Institute)

Time: 
Thursday, September 05, 2019 - 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM
Location: 
Language Science Center (2130 H.J. Patterson)

Lunch available at 12:15, talk begins promptly at 12:30. 

Julie Sweetland (Framework Institute)

Shifting Mindsets on Language Diversity: An Empirical Approach

Abstract: Linguists concerned with the public good have a long history of documenting language attitudes and their implications, and working to align public thinking with the science of language. A project underway at the FrameWorks Institute  extends this body of knowledge, offering a novel analysis of how underlying conceptual models shape opinions, attitudes, and policy preferences about language – and, how to use a map of those embedded assumptions to steer public opinion toward more productive and accurate understandings. This talk will share findings from a large, national research initiative designed to identify and empirically test effective ways of shifting American language attitudes. It finds that ‘folk knowledge’ or ‘lay attitudes’ need not be taken as fixed, firm, or immutable. With a systematic approach to navigating public thinking, linguists and other science communicators can move public discourse to higher terrain.

GALLERY:

VIDEO: