Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 8 Issue s3 - Special Issue: COVID-era sociolinguistics; Editor: Betsy Sneller

March 2022

Issue of Linguistics Vanguard

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Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available March 21, 2022

Research Articles

Open Access March 7, 2022

COVID-era sociolinguistics: introduction to the special issue

Betsy Sneller

Page range: 303-306

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Abstract

In the 18 months that have passed since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic, linguists around the world have had to grapple with the practical and ethical issues that arose from trying to collect data in a safe and remote way while participants are experiencing an acute disaster. The current collection presents insights from a number of sociolinguistic research projects that were either initiated in response to the pandemic or that adjusted their research methods mid-trajectory. A concluding discussion article underscores that the honest reflections and concrete suggestions in this collection will remain relevant beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. They will be of value to any (socio)linguist who is navigating the ethics of fieldwork in uncertain or traumatic contexts, who is recruiting and retaining participants via remote means, or who is figuring out how to rapidly change their data collection methods.

Open Access March 3, 2022

MI Diaries: ethical and practical challenges

Betsy Sneller, Suzanne Evans Wagner, Yongqing Ye

Page range: 307-319

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Abstract

The Michigan Diaries (MI Diaries) project was developed from late March to early April of 2020, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. MI Diaries is a longitudinal sociolinguistic project, collecting “audio diaries” from participants throughout the pandemic and beyond. As a research project designed to obtain personal narratives from a time of deep anxiety and pain, and during a time where face-to-face data collection was not feasible, MI Diaries was confronted from the outset with a substantial set of both ethical and practical considerations. In this paper, we describe some of these challenges, and our false starts and eventual solutions in response. Throughout, we highlight decisions and methods that may be applicable for future researchers conducting remote fieldwork, navigating a speech community during a disaster, or both.

Open Access February 22, 2022

The Lothian Diary Project: sociolinguistic methods during the COVID-19 lockdown

Lauren Hall-Lew, Claire Cowie, Catherine Lai, Nina Markl, Stephen Joseph McNulty, Shan-Jan Sarah Liu, Clare Llewellyn, Beatrice Alex, Zuzana Elliott, Anita Klingler

Page range: 321-330

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Abstract

The Lothian Diary Project is an interdisciplinary effort to collect self-recorded audio or video diaries of people’s experiences of COVID-19 in and around Edinburgh, Scotland. In this paper we describe how the project emerged from a desire to support community members. The diaries have been disseminated through public events, a website, an oral history project, and engagement with policymakers. The data collection method encouraged the participation of people with disabilities, racialized individuals, immigrants, and low-proficiency English/Scots speakers, all of whom are more likely to be negatively affected by COVID-19. This is of interest to sociolinguists, given that these groups have been under-represented in previous studies of linguistic variation in Edinburgh. We detail our programme of partnering with local charities to help ensure that digitally disadvantaged groups and their caregivers are represented. Accompanying survey and demographic data means that this self-recorded speech can be used to complement existing Edinburgh speech corpora. Additional sociolinguistic goals include a narrative analysis and a stylistic analysis, to characterize how different people engage creatively with the act of creating a COVID-19 diary, especially as compared to vlogs and other video diaries.

March 2, 2022

Disruptions due to COVID-19: using mixed methods to identify factors influencing language maintenance and shift

Maya Ravindranath Abtahian, Naomi Nagy, Katharina Pabst, Vidhya Elango

Page range: 331-341

Abstract

Around the world, COVID-19 lockdowns have caused abrupt shifts in the amount of time spent at home versus out of the home for work, school, and recreation. As a result, many individuals have experienced a disruption in the frequency and type of their interactions. Given the importance of intergenerational transmission and intergenerational interaction for promoting language maintenance, and the importance of peer-to-peer interaction for promoting language shift, we ask how these abrupt changes necessitated by social distancing will affect language use and attitudes, specifically short- and long-term language maintenance or shift involving heritage languages. We examine principles of language maintenance and shift in the context of the COVID-19 lockdown for university students, people still involved in critical acts of identity creation. Here we describe a survey designed to learn how the lockdown is affecting young people’s language ecologies and attitudes. Using both quantitative and qualitative interpretive methods, we document the experiences of over 400 students, focusing on changes in their perceptions of their language use and the causes of these changes.

March 7, 2022

Socially distanced but virtually connected: pandemic fieldwork with Black Bostonians

Monica Nesbitt, Akiah Watts

Page range: 343-352

Abstract

The Eastern Massachusetts Life and Language project was in its planning stages when the COVID-19 pandemic began to make headway in the United States in 2020. We contribute to the conversation about conducting linguistic fieldwork during a major social upheaval by providing a description of our shift to virtual methodologies, which include utilizing Instagram for participant recruitment and Zoom for conducting sociolinguistic interviews. Virtual data collection remains underexplored, as there has never been a widespread need for such practices until the recent lockdowns resulting from the pandemic. Likewise, social media appears to be underutilized as a recruitment tool in linguistic fieldwork. Nevertheless, it is effective in producing a heterogeneous participant sample in a short amount of time. We are delighted to engage in discussions about the effects of virtual recruitment and data collection on linguistic fieldwork and the data itself. We offer a description of our pivots to virtual recruitment and interviewing and the racial justice initiatives that become achievable because of these changes. We hope this contribution is beneficial to researchers looking to incorporate virtual methodologies into their research program.

February 25, 2022

Lessons learned: the long view

Katie Carmichael, Lynn Clark, Jennifer Hay

Page range: 353-362

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially altered the fabric of life around the globe, raising crucial questions about the nature of language usage in person and online. But as researchers embark on new studies (or continuations of pre-COVID research), just as essential are considerations of what our responsibilities as researchers are to our participants now. In this article, we share our reflections upon the experience of conducting research in two different post-disaster contexts: after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, and after the Christchurch earthquakes in New Zealand. We describe the issues faced by researchers and participants alike in these locales and we recount the decisions that we made, as many of the same decision processes are being faced by researchers currently navigating data collection due to COVID-19 and its aftermath. These decisions are of course contextually dependent, though our examples draw from two very different situations, comparing and contrasting how various forces, timelines, and regionally specific issues may come into play for researchers in a context of upheaval. In this “long view” essay, we provide a retrospective account of practical tips and ethical considerations for researchers embarking on a similar track.

About this journal

Objective
Linguistics Vanguard is a new channel for high quality articles and innovative approaches in all major fields of linguistics. This multimodal journal is published solely online and provides an accessible platform supporting both traditional and new kinds of publications. Linguistics Vanguard seeks to publish concise and up-to-date reports on the state of the art in linguistics as well as cutting-edge research papers. With its topical breadth of coverage and anticipated quick rate of production, it is one of the leading platforms for scientific exchange in linguistics. Its broad theoretical range, international scope, and diversity of article formats engage students and scholars alike.

Topics
All topics within linguistics are welcome. The journal especially encourages submissions taking advantage of its new multimodal platform designed to integrate interactive content, including audio and video, images, maps, software code, raw data, and any other media that enhances the traditional written word. The novel platform and concise article format allows for rapid turnaround of submissions. Full peer review assures quality and enables authors to receive appropriate credit for their work. The journal publishes general submissions as well as special collections. Ideas for special collections may be submitted to the editors for consideration (linguistics.vanguard@degruyter.com)

Volume 8 Issue s3 - Special Issue: COVID-era sociolinguistics; Editor: Betsy Sneller

Issue of Linguistics Vanguard

Frontmatter

COVID-era sociolinguistics: introduction to the special issue

Abstract

MI Diaries: ethical and practical challenges

Abstract

The Lothian Diary Project: sociolinguistic methods during the COVID-19 lockdown

Abstract

Disruptions due to COVID-19: using mixed methods to identify factors influencing language maintenance and shift

Abstract

Socially distanced but virtually connected: pandemic fieldwork with Black Bostonians

Abstract

Lessons learned: the long view

Abstract