Towards establishing what linguists think the general public should know about language: Salient versus important issues in linguistics
Year: 2023
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: In order to develop effective strategies of science communication and public outreach in linguistics, one needs to choose what topics to prioritise in such efforts. We carried out a global online survey study among experts in linguistics ( n = 538) asking what they perceive as the most important facts about language that the general public should be aware of. We used two distinct methods to collect the respondents' opinions: open‐ended text responses and rating questions. In this paper, we compare the findings from the two tasks and we discuss the differences between them. Thus, the paper constitutes a methodologically‐laden commentary on the nature of linguists' opinions on what everyone should know about language. We argue that both open‐ended responses and rating questions provide valuable information about linguists' views, but from different perspectives. In particular, we see a need to distinguish between what issues are the most salient to linguists, and what issues are perceived as the most important. The aim of our study is to provide a starting point for a rich and methodologically diverse line of research—and, consequently, for an empirically‐based debate—on the public relevance of language‐related knowledge and the role of linguists as science communicators in disseminating that knowledge.
Source: Language and Linguistics Compass
DOI: 10.1111/lnc3.12482
Authors: Tomas Lehecka, Jan‐Ola Östman
Institutions: Åbo Akademi University, University of Helsinki
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4319958286