It's week 9 and progress is definitely being made. I have both my advisors locked in and I've started my story-board. Right now the story-board is just my research question and and some major topics i'm thinking of hitting on but its something!
I think for the first two weeks of my research I was spending too much time looking at language acquisition studies and discourse analysis studies and then I tried to mold my topic around that. I'm definitely branching out now after writing and revising my lit review. I feel like I have a much better idea of where my topic is going. I'm definitely going to focus less on language acquisition and more on language barriers, power structures, and communication through multiple modes. Within this I will be addressing the ways in which language use can alienate visitors. Two of these ways are high level language use and jargon in label copy, and the ways certain groups are talked about (i.e. are they being voyeuristic, oversimplifying, patronizing, paternalistic, or primitivist in any way).
After meeting with my secondary advisor and doing my own research, I'm grounding my research in a socio-cultural direction and running with it. I need to do more research on things like code-switching, museum accessibility, and meta-discursive functions. Meta-discursive functions are basically how the language we use is interpreted by other people and then integrated. An important part of meta-discursive functions is lexical indexing, meaning how we want people to interpret us through the way we speak. Focusing on these parts of linguistics will help me make my recommendations about language use changes that can happen in the museum. I'm excited for the next few weeks and the things I'm gonna learn in them!
Hi, Brie! I love the storyboard: There's a lot of important topics on there. The socio-cultural direction will be effective for showing how those linguistic issues effect the public in a cultural space. I don't understand all those linguistic terms, but it sounds very interesting and like you know exactly where you're going. Good luck finding the rest of your sources!
ReplyDeleteHi Brie!
ReplyDeleteThe storyboard is such a neat idea, and I love how you’re using it to center your thoughts. I think focusing on language barriers and power structures is such a great plan. The themes and topics you discuss in your post will bring about some really important discussions. I can’t wait to talk more about your ideas in class!
Hi Brie, I am interested in talking with you in our 1:1 meeting about your topic/lit review. Also, if you're interested in a digital tool for helping to organize your ideas, maybe look at Trello (I use it sometimes, but find myself using paper and post-its too!!) Looking forward to our meeting and to talk about your progress!
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