Ethnolexicography of the skateboarding subculture

This study takes an ethnolexicographic approach (Silverstein, 2006) to present a glossary of the skateboarding subculture derived from sociolinguistic interviews conducted with 11 skaters. This study also uses this ethnolexicography to compare sociolinguistic interviews with four skaters, two conducted by a skater and two by a non-skater, and investigates the relationship between skater identity and lexical accommodation (Giles & Ogay, 2007) in the sociolinguistic interview.The sociolinguistic interview has been shown to be a fruitful site for the investigation of participants' aims (Schiffrin, 1994). The effects of the interviewer's in- or out-group status, as well as familiarity with an interviewer have been shown to effect an interviewee's linguistic performance (Cukor- Avila & Bailey, 2001; Rickford & McNair-Knox, 1994). Given what we know about skaters' proclivity for resistance to authority and the centrality of nonconformity and an insider mentality to skaters' authenticity (Beal & Weidman, 2003; Borden, 2019; Dupont, 2014), the sociolinguistic interview, as a form of "institutional interview" (Schiffrin, 1994, p. 162), serves as a particularly intriguing setting in which to examine skaters' linguistic performances of identity.In addition to presenting the first ethnographically-oriented analysis of the language of the skateboarding community, this dissertation demonstrates the inextricable relationship between linguistic knowledge and cultural knowledge, and the centrality of this knowledge to skater authenticity. Furthermore, I demonstrate that skaters' willingness to use language which is meaningful to an out-group audience is influenced less by the group identity of the interviewer, and more upon the degree to which the interviewee's identity as skater is central. Specifically, whether or not the interviewer was a skater or non-skater, the more established skaters made an overt effort "to describe it [skateboarding terms] to a non-skater." On the other hand, the skaters whose authenticity was less established made no effort to accommodate either to a non-skater interviewer or to a potential future non-skater audience who may listen to the interview

Linguistic discrimination on campus: Ratings of and attitudes toward student writing with African-American English

Based on empirical evidence, this study identifies a contradiction between attitudes towards the use of African-American English in student writing vs. how such writing is actually rated by university English instructors. Even when instructors expressed highly positive views of the use of stigmatized varieties of English in student essays, a statistically significant difference (p=0.027) was found between their ratings of essays with and without features of African-American English. These findings indicate that university instructors, even those who are consciously aware that linguistic discrimination is problematic, are not immune to the effects of linguistic discrimination. These results highlight the importance of dialect education and awareness programs for university English instructors as well as the need for further research into the prevalence of standard language ideology and linguistic discrimination at the university level

University academic writing for international students: A usage-based approach

This resource is designed specifically to meet the academic writing needs of international students studying at universities in the United States. The materials in the book can be covered within a 14-week semester, but each chapter or section may also be used independently.Based on a series of needs analysis projects, this resource provides an overview of major rhetorical patterns of writing that are commonly used in university settings in the United States. These commonly required genres include descriptive and evaluative summaries, short essays, comparison and contrast assignments, literature reviews, descriptive reports, and proposals. The resource includes chapters that address the structure and purpose of these more common genres, including an awareness of the ways that the target audience and situation should shape the writing of each

Who teaches writing?

Who Teaches Writing is an open teaching and learning resource being used in English Composition classes at Oklahoma State University. It was authored by contributors from Oklahoma State University and also includes invited chapters from other institutions both inside and outside of Oklahoma. Contributors include faculty from various departments, contingent faculty and staff, and graduate instructors. One purpose of the resource is to provide short, relatively jargon-free chapters geared toward undergraduate students taking First-Year Composition. Support for this project was provided in part by OpenOKState and Oklahoma State University Libraries.OpenOKStateOklahoma State University LibrariesLibraryEnglis