Vanesa Sabala, U. of
Strathclyde, "Decolonising the Curriculum: a case study of Spanish at Strathclyde University" at #AULC2023

Analysis of Spanish-language textbooks shows that Spain Spanish is framed as modern, Latin American Spanish is framed as exotic.

Shout it from the rooftops:

"Decolonisation. We cannot look back."

#language #identity #diversity #variation #sociolinguistics #decolonizing

It's been sooo nice to be in an academic space where it's just a given that decolonisation and trans-inclusivity are our priorities. I hope this isn't just something unique to language teachers! #AULC2023

My #AULC2023 keynote this morning is called "Social indexicality and its potential influence on language learning"

I'm going to introduce the concepts of indexical order, indexical field, and qualia, and then navel-gaze about how these things have influence my own choices around language learning.

The final take-away is the importance of inclusive spaces that reduce the distance between a language's indexicalities and a learner's sense of self, e.g., https://www.facebook.com/groups/1415884331938564

#sociolinguistics

@dialect I would love to read this paper if it’s available anywhere, but I presume I have to wait until the conference proceedings are out?

#AULC2023

Her colleague, Melanie Bhend, presented in the same #AULC2023 talk her use of gender-neutral language as a pedagogical tool in French langauge learning. Her students identify cases of gender-neutral writing in media text, and have assignments where they rewrite texts to make them gender-neutral. Absolutely brilliant.

#language #pedagogy #nonbinary #gender #genderneutral

Marilena Minoia's #AULC2023 talk presents her motivations for using the schwa for the Italian gender-neutral suffix.

She explains how schwa is ideal because it is phonetically in the middle of the vowel space and in the middle of the feminine and masculine endings.

#Italian #gender #genderneutral #nonbinary

Mario Saborido Beltrán's #AULC2023 on "Students' Language Beliefs and Attitudes at The University of Edinburgh: The Case of the Dialectal
Varieties of European Spanish" blew people's minds.

He found that 3rd year undergrads give more prestige to Madrid Spanish features than other varieties' features, and the audience was absolutely appalled.

It made me realize we have so much more work to do communicating the results of language attitude studies.

#linguistics #sociolinguistics

The #AULC2023 conference opened with a brilliant plenary/keynote in British Sign Language #BSL by the UK's only university BSL Officer, Alison Hendry. "British Sign Language at the University of Edinburgh and beyond"

Day 1 of 2 of #AULC2023:

The "24th annual conference of the Association of University Language Communities in the UK and Ireland"

on the theme

"Languages for All in Higher Education: Inclusion, Diversity, and Sustainability"

https://aulc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/AULC-2023-conference-full-programme.pdf

Do people live-toot conferences?

This is the first time I've been tempted; there's an active conversation of #AULC2023 on the bird site and I wish it was over here, instead!

Those #AULC2023 attendees in the #decolonizing sessions might be interested in this resource: https://www.teaching-matters-blog.ed.ac.uk/decolonising-the-curriculum-sharing-ideas-the-podcast-series-2/