This Science and Technology Studies Dissertation Improvement Grant investigates how alternate language interfaces to English affect struggles for linguistic diversity, racial equality, and cultural continuity via language in the U. S. Specifically, the study examines how technologies providing a Spanish language option help to construct standards for what constitutes appropriate "Spanish" and a "typical Spanish speaker," and it explores how "built-in" ideological constructions in these technologies play out in the contested domains of language choice and ethno-racial identification. With respect to the U.S. Latino population and its relationship to what we will refer to as "Spanish language interface technology," or "Spanish LIT," this study will help to clarify what assumptions regarding language and users are embedded in its design, what weight developers of LIT give to linguistic diversity and racial diversity as design criteria, how accessible Spanish LIT is to Latinos, how frequently this technology is used by this group, how Latinos themselves view this technology, and how Latinos use Spanish LIT in ways that differ from what was originally envisioned by its manufacturers. These objectives are approached through a New England regional study that traces the flow of LIT between sites of "production" and "reception." To better understand the production of LIT, interviews will be conducted with technical writers and other key "internal translators" of corporate culture at major LIT companies. These set the stage for the possibility of a more in-depth corporate ethnography of a particular target company whose LIT products will be slated to be integrated into the "reception" sites of the study. A major site of reception will be situated as a research site in a predominantly Latino city in Western Massachusetts: Holyoke, MA. Here the study will examine how urban Latino users of the targeted LIT tend to accept, modify, resist, and transform the technoscientific ideological inscriptions embodied in the design of the targeted technologies. Leveraging experience from a preliminary study, this urban site will be explored through the development and implementation of a video-taped community workshop on Latino linguistic diversity and technology issues led by the co-PI. A supporting study investigates Latino residents in a nearby, small, middle class, university-based community, Amherst MA; this group has been found often to be uniquely challenged to negotiate the ideological segregation distancing the other two sites. After initial interviews, this part of the research will develop a curriculum for a participatory action-inspired workshop on linguistic diversity and technology issues addressing the specific needs of families in this suburban community. Beneficial links will be fostered between all three sites via exchanges of expertise and material resources, taking advantage of the unique resources each site offers. To assess the way a typical "Spanish speaker" identity is constructed, the surrogate speakers represented in the software interface of some LIT products will be examined for the presence of visual tropes and linguistic standards. For example, the privileged Spanish speaker often appears as stereotypically Andalusian. A discourse-centered data analysis will be used throughout to gauge micro- and macro-linguistic features and attitudes toward language. Linguistic diversity will be assessed via the occurrence of standard and non-standard dialects of Spanish and English for real and "virtual" speakers. To understand the effects of race, the study will also examine the presence of "mock" speech and other instances of covert racializing discourses. Attention to accent or perception thereof will be a constant. This project will strengthen the relatively scarce literature in STS on race, racism, and language ideology. The project will augment the work of scholars working in the areas of language revitalization and Latino Studies by offering a close examination of how technologies and culture are co-constructed. The study will also contribute to a methodology for grounding multi-sited research theoretically and in practical terms via an identity-based and region-bound approach. This investigation furthermore will contribute to the theoretical concept of "culturally situated design" (Eglash, 2001) specifically with respect to the placing of linguistic and ethnoracial diversity as design criteria. The study advances a synergistic teaching model in which each research site can receive important feedback based on investigations in the other two. Concrete results will be provided in the form of company reports, two curriculum models, and a community web site, all reflecting lessons learned in the study. The study directly involves the participation of underrepresented Latinos of different income and educational levels. The study fosters exchanges of people and ideas where computer professionals, students, parents, and community volunteers cross geographic, ethno-racial, and linguistic borders by contributing to classes, presentations, and other activities at the different sites. The results of the study can also help to inform debates about the impact of LIT on national educational standards, international multilingual technological standards, and global markets for language interface technologies. In addition, the study can substantially contribute to ongoing and passionate debates surrounding bilingual education, Black English, English-Only legislation, and language revitalization.
