Perse teacher launches first-ever National Linguistics Day
Perse languages teacher Rebecca Mitchell has launched a major awareness event to showcase the field of linguistics.
Today (26 November) marks the inaugural National Linguistics Day, established by Dr Mitchell to bring a better understanding of the subject – the study of languages and their structures, including grammar, syntax and phonetics – to a wider audience.
Dr Mitchell, who co-ordinates linguistics competition entries at The Perse and is also an affiliated lecturer at Cambridge University, said: “Although it’s categorised with languages, linguistics is also a science in my view. While most STEM subjects have awareness days, where people might organise events or activities, I looked around and found linguistics didn’t have one.
“Many people don’t really know what linguistics is because you don’t usually get to study it until you go to university, so I felt more people needed to know about it earlier.
“Independently of school, I’ve been giving outreach and public awareness talks on linguistics for some time. People often say ‘this is so interesting’ and I once spoke to a maths teacher who said he wouldn’t have gone into maths if he had known about linguistics, so I knew there was definitely a public interest.”
Having gone about spreading the word of National Linguistics Day through online awareness day calendars, social media, and via teaching, languages and linguistics organisations, Dr Mitchell was thrilled at the response to the event.
More than 300 schools and organisations expressed an interest in getting involved, with the event even going global, and Dr Mitchell having received responses from as far afield as Canada and Hong Kong.
She said: “I wanted it to be inclusive and something that could appeal to anybody. For schools, I’ve created linguistics quizzes and worksheets related to modern foreign languages and geography.
“I’m keen to raise awareness of linguistics because it’s something that’s relevant to everybody – even if you don’t speak any foreign languages – and I just felt it needed to be promoted in the way other academic disciplines are.
“It’s a very broad discipline and has a lot of applications, ranging from computing and psychology to politics and history.”
Having undertaken a PhD in languages in Gabon and published subsequently on language endangerment in Cameroon, Dr Mitchell felt having knowledge of linguistics was also important in creating a better understanding of wider issues socially and politically.
She said: “It can make a difference through sub-disciplines such as language ecology, especially in terms of language endangerment and promoting endangered languages, for example getting minority languages into the education system or mass media, or legislation to give them recognised status, such as with the First Nation languages of North America.”
You can find out more about National Linguistics Day by clicking here.