Language Around Metropolitan Portland (LAMP)

LAMP is a collaboration among faculty, students, and staff with two synergistic aims:

The first is to uncover details, visual and aural, of language use in the greater Portland metro area. Long-term goals for this include a publicly accessible web archive of data with associated maps and an interactive museum-style exhibit.

The second aim is to build a sustainable model for undergraduate research and mentorship. Undergraduates in Applied Linguistics have been conducting exploratory projects as part of their courses sometimes building on previous student work. Students are also collaborating with faculty on ongoing research projects.

To get involved with LAMP, contact faculty members Jenny Mittelstaedt, John Hellermann, Janet Cowal, or Steve Thorne at lampPDX@pdx.edu.

LAMP Zoom meeting — Screen caption of a recent Zoom meeting of the group (March 2021).

LAMP Projects

WHERE'S THE VACCINE FOR RACISM? EXPRESSIONS OF HOPE IN COVID-19 AND BLACK LIVES MATTER SEMIOTIC EPHEMERA

In a paper presented for the 2021 International Pragmatics Associate meeting, we discussed the public displays of hope that emerged from two events 1) the COVID-19 pandemic and 2) the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis, USA. Both events catalyzed public displays of expressions of hope in a range of forms that included the production of handmade graphical messages and signage. Building on frameworks and research approaches associated with linguistic landscapes (Landry & Bourhis, 1997; Cenoz & Gorter, 2006, Smakman & Henrich, 2018), discourse in place (Scollon & Scollon, 2003), and dialectical utopianism (Harvey, 2000), our project focused on locally placed linguistic expressions within the city of Portland, Oregon that emerged in response to these globally significant events. For a full version of the conference paper, please contact one of the LAMP members.

LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY AND DISCRIMINATION AWARENESS PROJECT: RAISING AWARENESS AND ADDRESSING SYSTEMIC LANGUAGE BIAS AT PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY

This project (funded by a Portland State Reimagine grant) aims to raise awareness of language bias within the PSU community and begin to develop institutional capacity to address language bias and discrimination campus-wide. The multi-component project (1) documents and raises awareness of the diversity of languages, varieties of English, and accents on campus, (2) records the experiences that students, faculty, and staff have with language use and language bias, and (3) develops models of educational materials can be used for faculty/staff development, in student orientations or inquiry classes, and by the Office of Global Diversity and Inclusion (OGDI) as part of their continuing education. The documentation is being done by survey and through public- facing awareness events (‘linguistics road show’ booths, panel discussions) and will provide information for building an empirically informed description of the community’s linguistic diversity. This description of the diversity of the PSU speech community will (1) provide a foundation for recommendations for how linguistic diversity can be supported and linguistic bias reduced and (2) inform educational and/or policy interventions for addressing the connections between language, varieties of language (registers, dialects, accents), race, and ethnicity in order to prevent discrimination based on language or language variety.

Student Projects

Language in Little Free Libraries

Students visited and mapped Little Free Libraries around the Portland metropolitan area, and they noted any languages other than English. They also distributed web surveys about language diversity for both hosts and users of Little Free Libraries. (MAP - www.portlandmaps.com)

Multilingualism in Mill Park

Students focused on language diversity in the Mill Park neighborhood. The students narrowed down the number of languages that were widely spoken in the Mill Park area and gave a closer look.

Chinese Use in SE Portland Neighborhood

In this project, the students looked at a large area where Chinese is well represented. Lents and Powellhurst neighborhoods were the main research areas, as well as the Jade District. The project includes some of Portland’s Chinese immigration history and the businesses’ approach to Chinese use in their properties.

Spanish along SW Allen Blvd

The student chose to focus on usage of Spanish in some businesses in Allen Boulevard in Beaverton’s Vose neighborhood. The project identified both the employees’ and shoppers’ language preferences between English and Spanish and examined changes in (mostly Spanish language) postings to a bulletin board over time.

Vietnamese in Portland areas

This single-student project looked for Vietnamese signs on the streets, businesses, and advertisements around the SE 82nd & Madison area in Portland.

Signs of Hope

This project mostly focused on the major themes in neighborhood signs more than the language diversity. The themes were varied. Gratitude, Humor, Religion, and Positivity were some major themes that the group members found in various Portland neighborhoods.

Portland State University is located in the heart of downtown Portland, Oregon in Multnomah County. We honor the Indigenous people whose traditional and ancestral homelands we stand on, the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Tumwater, Watlala bands of the Chinook, the Tualatin Kalapuya and many other indigenous nations of the Columbia River. It is important to acknowledge the ancestors of this place and to recognize that we are here because of the sacrifices forced upon them. In remembering these communities, we honor their legacy, their lives, and their descendants.