Study Abroad and Language Learning

Abstract

AbstractFolk LinguisticsThe AILA Research Network on Folk Linguistics, convened by Antje Wilton (University of Siegen, Germany) and Martin Stegu (Vienna University of Economics and Business), held a very successful thematic session at the Soliolinguistics Symposium 19 in Berlin. We were very pleased to have our session approved – especially as the Sociolinguistics Symposium has grown into a large and internationally renowned platform for sociolinguists around the world. The call for papers invited contributions on our session topic, Folk linguistics and society: People's ideas about language use and social identity, and was met with an overwhelming response of 35 submissions. Eventually, we managed to hear 19 of them in a tight schedule extending over three days of the entire conference. The papers presented research on non‐linguists' perceptions of language in the formation of social identity from various regions of the world and stressed the necessity of taking such views into account in any situation in which decisions about language are made, such as language teaching and language policy and planning. The session finished with a discussion on folk linguistic issues to which we were able to welcome Prof. Dennis Preston, one of the great figures in and founders of folk linguistics and valued member of our network. Both the paper presentations as well as the final discussion attracted a large and interested audience throughout the session. The session showed clearly that folk linguistic research, its interest and its methodologies have firmly established themselves among the approaches in sociolinguistics as well as applied linguistics. Furthermore, it testifies to the successful work of the Research Network over the last seven years.