here - Linguistic Society of America

Invited Plenary PanelGrand Ballroom Salons G-KFriday, 4 January, 7:00 8:30 PMLanguage in the Public Sphere:Policy Implications of Linguistics ResearchOrganizers:Participants:Sponsor:Terrence C. Wiley, Center for Applied Linguistics/Chair, LSA Committee on Public PolicyAlyson Reed, Executive Director, LSATerrence C. Wiley, Center for Applied Linguistics/Chair, LSA Committee on Public PolicyMyron Gutmann, Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic (SBE) Sciences, National ScienceFoundationElizabeth R. Albro, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of EducationAmy Weinberg, Center for the Advanced Study of Language, University of MarylandPhilip Rubin, Haskins Laboratories, Yale University, and the White House Office of Science and TechnologyPolicy (OSTP)LSA Committee on Public PolicyThe value of basic linguistic research has long been recognized by federal funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation. However,our research does not typically factor strongly in informing policy decisions within government and the public sector. The Committee on PublicPolicy of the LSA hopes to narrow the gap between linguistic research and public policy through informing the membership about policy arenasand issues and by bringing the results of linguistic research to the attention of policy makers. The goal of this session is to explore theintersection of linguistics research and public policies that are relevant to public understanding of the complex role of language in our society.In a recent report, Rebuilding the Mosaic: Fostering Research in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences at the National ScienceFoundation in the Next Decade (National Science Foundation, 2011), four major topic areas were identified for increased emphasis: populationchange; sources of disparities; communication, language, and linguistics; and technology, new media, and social networks. Drawing on themesexpressed in over 250 white papers, including several from members of the LSA, the report envisions multi-disciplinary and collaborativeresearch in behavioral, social, and economic sciences to address critical issues facing our increasingly interconnected world communities. It isnoteworthy that language issues figure prominently in the priorities of the NSF, signaling an opportunity for linguistic research to play astronger role in public policy matters. The co-author of this report, Myron Gutmann, Head of the NSFs Directorate for SBE Sciences, willdiscuss plans for implementing this increased emphasis on communication, language, and linguistics within the broader context ofmultidisciplinary research. In his remarks Dr. Gutmann will link NSF's interest in language to its broad interest in spurring interdisciplinaryeducation and research, and to the creation of new research infrastructure that will allow for better access to data about language.Given the central role of language in education for learning and teaching, from the teaching of language arts and other subjects to the practice ofeducating a diverse student population, the knowledge base of linguistics is a valuable contributor to public policy in education. Thedevelopment of the Common Core Standards in language arts and mathematics and ongoing discussions of reading pedagogy are two areas ineducation that could benefit from the rich body of linguistics research. But to what extent does this happen? The head of National Center forEducation Research, one of four centers within the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education, Elizabeth Albro, willdiscuss the role of linguistics research in the development and evaluation of educational interventions and measures focused on languageacquisition and proficiency in the school setting. In one project, researchers are building an assessment battery for adolescent readers thatincorporates all levels of language processing sub-lexical, lexical, morphological, sentential, and discourse levels and will test the degrees towhich variability at these different levels of language processing are associated with reading comprehension outcomes. With this specificity oflinguistic knowledge, the researchers anticipate that schools will be able to more accurately and efficiently identify where instructional resourcesshould be devoted. Linguistics research also has much to contribute to our understanding of the ways in which the language that students speakat home influences students participation in learning at school. Building measures and interventions that incorporate knowledge of AfricanAmerican dialect or Spanish may contribute to improved academic outcomes for students at risk due to their language backgrounds.The role of linguistics research in contributing to national defense, intelligence, and economic competitiveness is perhaps better recognized inthe public sector and within the federal agencies charged with addressing these areas. The need for speakers with high levels of proficiency indiverse world languages, and the importance of understanding language acquisition and communication processes in defense and commercearenas underscore the relevance of linguistics. Amy Weinberg, Deputy Executive Director of Center for the Advanced Study of Language, auniversity-affiliated research center of the Department of Defense, will discuss how these connections can be made stronger and moretransparent for a broader audience of government officials and the general public. The session will conclude with a discussant, Philip Rubin, alinguist who has been directly engaged in numerous social science policy debates and issues. He will respond to the panelists and suggest waysthat LSAs Committee on Public Policy can address its charge to advance the field of linguistics through public policy initiatives and identifythe best strategies for linguists and policy makers to work together on these complex issues.83