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David Bowie (University of Central Florida)Attitudinal shifts among undergraduates in linguistics coursesLinguistics as a field makes several assumptions, some of which are tied to attitudes about language and its use. Typically, however,undergraduate linguistics courses focus on the theories and methods, not the attitudes, of linguistics. I asked whether students inlinguistics courses acquire attitudinal assumptions about language even when the content of the course does not focus on thetransmission of such attitudes. I report the results of a study that compared students' attitudes about language both in classes thatpresented language attitude issues and in classes that did not..Deborah J. Vause (York College of Pennsylvania)Using electronic American Englishes to introduce dialect studyUndergraduate linguistics students have difficulty maintaining the objective perspective necessary to analyze language and languageusage. In an effort to promote students' objectivity, students were asked to analyze the use of electronic American English, such asinstant messaging, and to place it within the context of contemporary American English dialects. Such electronic language appears toeliminate the pitfalls of racial and gender stereotypes, yet still enables examination of socioeconomic factors in shaping dialects.84