Outsiders' views of the value of linguistics

[john at research.haifa.ac.il]

It isn't just grammar teaching, it's also foreign language teaching in general.
English speakers tend not even to think of this since in English-speaking
countries there is no serious expectation that foreign language classes will
produce students who can actually practically use the language that they're
supposedly learning. But in countries in which foreign language teaching is
taken seriously, people naturally recognize the connection to linguistics.
When people in Israel ask me what being a linguist entails, my first stock
answer is 'we train people to be English teachers.'
John





Quoting Richard Hudson <dick at ling.ucl.ac.uk>:

> Dear Fritz,
> I agree entirely with Olga. The discussion has a very anglo-phone bias
> away from education - the UK, USA etc all have a tradition in which
> school teachers aren't expected to have learned anything about language
> at university, so academic research on language isn't relevant to
> education. We're very different from many parts of Europe, where grammar
> teaching is an important part of the school curriculum and trainee
> teachers update their understanding at university. I'm sure in a country
> like that, linguistics would be justified in part by its contribution to
> education. I don't know of any bibliographical source for this - if
> anyone does, I'd love to see it. I've written quite a bit about the
> value of linguistics for education (see
> www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/papers.htm) but haven't been able to do
> much on that line except pick up odds and ends from gossip. (I do have
> evidence that school kids know a great deal more grammar in countries
> such as Spain - see
> http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/ec/ba-kal/ba-kal.htm.)
>
> Dick (Hudson)
>
> Richard Hudson www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/home.htm
>
> On 20/10/2010 18:43, Yokoyama, Olga wrote:
> > Fritz,
> >
> >
> > I take it that your article is about the academic community's attitudes
> towards linguistics. Although not part of your topic but still very important
> for the status of linguistics and the budgetary decisions made especially in
> public institutions are attitudes towards linguistics in the lay society. We
> all have experienced the routine questioning along the lines of "Oh, you're a
> linguist? So how many languages do you know?". Misunderstandings out there
> are vast and we linguists need to address them. One way my department did it
> this summer was by addressing the Arizona ruling on teachers with accented
> English in a public conference, which combined international scholars and
> practitioners in one room
> (http://sites.google.com/site/uclalinguisticdiversconf2010/). U. Oregon's
> Olympiad for secondary school students is another step in the right
> direction. Linguists need to start talking to the public at large and make
> sure that the future generations don’t vote for closing linguistics and
> language departments (cf. the latest SUNY Albany case) based on budget
> considerations combined with glaring ignorance about what language studies
> are.
> >
> > Olga
> >
> >
> >
> > Olga T. Yokoyama
> >
> > Professor and Chair
> >
> > Department of Applied Linguistics and TESL
> >
> > University of California, Los Angeles
> >
> > Tel. (310) 825-4631
> >
> > Fax (310) 206-4118
> >
> > http://www.appling.ucla.edu
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: funknet-bounces at mailman.rice.edu
> [mailto:funknet-bounces at mailman.rice.edu] On Behalf Of Frederick J Newmeyer
> > Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2010 10:13 AM
> > To: Funknet
> > Subject: [FUNKNET] Outsiders' views of the value of linguistics
> >
> >
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> >
> >
> > For a survey article that I'm writing, I plan to assemble quotes from
> people outside the field of linguistics on what they see as the value, or
> lack of value, of work done in linguistics. So I would like to cite published
> quotes from psychologists, anthropologists, literary specialists, etc. on
> their views about the value/relevance of linguistics for their particular
> concerns and its value/relevance in general. Can anybody help me out by
> pointing me to relevant quotes?
> >
> >
> >
> > Let me give one example of the sort of thing that I am looking for. The
> late computational linguist Fred Jelinek reportedly wrote: 'Whenever I fire
> a linguist our system performance improves'.
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks. I'll summarize.
> >
> >
> >
> > Best wishes,
> >
> >
> >
> > --fritz
> >
> >
> >
> > fjn at u.washington.edu
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Frederick J. Newmeyer
> >
> > Professor Emeritus, University of Washington
> >
> > Adjunct Professor, University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser
> University
> >
> > [for my postal address, please contact me by e-mail]
> >
> >
>
>




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