Call for Chapter Proposals for the Edited Book

The Role of Linguistic Profiling within Career Development: Cultural and Technological Implications

This edited book seeks to clarify and explain linguistic profiling in the context of career development. Chapters will cover multidisciplinary perspectives to examine, develop, and implement linguistic profiling initiatives to show employees that they are valued. The editors are Claretha Hughes, Yuanlu Niu, Karen Davis, and Karolina Hansen.

Career development research on how the systemic barrier of linguistic profiling enables or hinders the role of the organization or individual career development is much needed (Hughes and Mamiseishvili, 2018). Baugh (2000, p. 363) defines linguistic profiling as “identify[ing] an individual … as belonging to a linguistic subgroup within a given speech community, including a racial subgroup.”

Multidisciplinary perspectives can be advanced in the field by examining, developing, and implementing linguistic profiling initiatives without the stigmas associated with diversity. Showing employees that they are valued through efforts to diminish linguistic profiling of employees is needed.

Chapter submissions will seek to address the following questions, but are not limited to:

What is the influence of linguistic profiling on culture, global economics, and technology innovation within career development?

How do people modify their accents to achieve career success?

How do workplace accents affect career development?

How can accents harm/benefit?

How can the dialect harm/benefit?

How can linguistics help, harm, or benefit career progress?

What is the influence of linguistic profiling on employability?

How does linguistic profiling influence adaptation to and thriving within the work environment?

How and why do people change their accents for career progression?

What are the economic implications of career-related outcomes after being linguistically profiled?

How can linguistic profiling be a benefit to career development processes and outcomes?

How can linguistic profiling be harmful to career development processes and outcomes?

How do people develop their careers while being linguistically profiled?

How is linguistic profiling examined from a micro or macro perspective?

In what way(s) does linguistic profiling occur during times when inequities increase?

How do we understand the growth and development of linguistically profiled individuals?

To what extent do individuals who are linguistically profiled hide or seek personal fixes of their differences?

To what extent are individuals who are linguistically profiled isolated within the workplace?

How do individuals hide perceived linguistic profiling differences?

How can linguistic profiling be used as a career-diminishing weapon?

How can linguistic profiling serve as a factor to change and modify people’s behavior?

How can linguistic profiling influence code-switching?

How can linguistic profiling influence self-presentation?

How are accents perceived by employers/peers?

We invite you to submit a chapter proposal. Each chapter proposal should be no more than 1,000 words explaining how your chapter relates directly to the title of the book. The chapter proposal must be received on or before October 30, 2024. Should your chapter proposal be accepted, full chapters are due on January 30, 2025. Each chapter will undergo two blind reviews. Chapter length requirements will be provided should your proposal be accepted. It will not be more than 10,000 words.

Please email all chapter proposals to lingchap@uark.edu.

Dear colleagues,

For a meta-analytical assessment, we seek unpublished data reporting on the impact of linguistic cues, expressed as verbs vs nouns, on behavior. 

We are gathering data that meet the following criteria:

1. The study/sample includes experimental manipulation which 

• include some linguistic cues for behavior (including, but not limited to providing cues in instruction or other study materials)

• manipulate word class of the cues, i.e. verb vs noun (for instance vote vs voter, drawing vs drawer, helping vs helper, let’s do science vs. let’s be scientists)

2. The study includes any measure of:

• behavior (for instance voting, helping, playing)

• behavioral intentions

• attitudes towards behavior.

If you have unpublished or nearly published data (including thesis data) that might meet these criteria, please complete the following survey: https://psychodpt.fra1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3wsC1PGk13TVby5, preferably by November 30th, 2023.  

If your data is already published - we have likely found it through our systematic search - however please reach out to us to double check that your research has been included. We are hoping to include all relevant research and every single study counts! Please pass this request to any colleagues who are examining the impact of the word form on behavior, especially those who are outside the field of Social or Political Psychology. 

If you have relevant research please do not hesitate to give us a heads up and we will make sure to send you a reminder 10 days before the deadline.  If you are unsure if your data fit our criteria or if you have any other questions, please write to mwitkowska1@swps.edu.pl  

With kind regards,

Marta Witkowska, SWPS University, Warsaw, Poland

Magdalena Formanowicz, SWPS University, Warsaw, Poland

Joanna Dołżycka, Ulm University, Germany

Caterina Suitner, University of Padova, Padova, Italy

The Psychology of Media and Technology Division of the Hellenic  Psychological Society invites manuscripts for a special issue addressing  “Individuals, Relationships and Community in the Digital Era”. Digital  technology has reached almost every tier of social relationships. The  consequences of digital media were so enormous that they characterized the  contemporary era as digital. Taking into consideration the above frame,  psychology research can contribute so that these consequences could be  more comprehensible. 

For this special issue, guest editors Prof. Panagiotis Kordoutis, Dr Petros  Roussos and Dr Anthi Argyroudi are seeking research reports and theoretical  manuscripts that refer to the psychological consequences of digital  technology in individuals, interpersonal relationships, and the community. 

Empirical studies will be prioritized. The accepted language is English. 

Those interested are kindly requested to submit a 250-word abstract of their  study in English until September 29th 2023, by  

emailing: digitaleraelpse24@gmail.com with the indication “Special Issue  Digital Era – Surname_First_Author”. 

Authors will be informed about the acceptance or not of their proposal until  the end of December 2023. The final date for submitting the full manuscripts  will be May 31st, 2024. 

For the submission of their full manuscript, the authors must follow the  instructions that appear in the following link: 

https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/psychology/about/submissions #onlineSubmissions and use the template for the configuration and the  submission of their manuscripts. During submission, it should be clearly  mentioned that the paper submitted is for the Special Section. 

The Guest Editors of the Special Issue,

Panagiotis Kordoutis, Petros Roussos and Anthi Argyroudi 

3rd INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON INTERGROUP COMMUNICATION (ISIG3)

University of Warsaw, Poland : 23 (2pm) -26 (noon) JUNE 2025

Convened by Karolina Hansen (University of Warsaw, Poland), Howie Giles (UC Santa Barbara, USA & The University of Queensland, Australia) and Antonis Gardikiotis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece)

SYMPOSIUM WEBSITE: https://isic3.psych.uw.edu.pl/ w/ regular updates

International Organizing Committee: Michael Hogg (USA), Sucharita Belavadi (India), Miles Hewstone (UK), Anastassia Zabrodskaja (Estonia), Richard Clément (Canada), Liz Jones (Malaysia), Bernadette Watson (Australia); Hiroshi Ota (Japan), and Monica Rubini (Italy).

Local Committee (University of Warsaw): Karolina Hansen, Maria Mirucka, Michał Wypych, and Kamila Zochniak

Aims of this Symposium are:

•  To provide next forum for presenting and discussing current, cutting-edge research on intergroup communication. All sessions will be plenary.

•  To bring international seasoned scholars and graduates together with a view to crafting collaborative international projects on intergroup communication across a range of topics

• To continue the interest in research and teaching of intergroup communication in an international context

The study of intergroup communication concerns the interplay between communication and social relations in a variety of contexts: organizations, families, health, media, intercultural, new technology, etc. Papers on all topics of intergroup communication are invited: family; social networks; news media; disability; stigma; multilingualism; border communication; group vitalities; intergroup contact; multilingual settings; language and identity; particular intergroup settings (e.g., Ukraine, Covid-19 pandemic crisis), etc. The journal, Psychology of Language & Communication, will have a Special Issue devoted to ISIG3, with letters of intent to submit no later than June 1 2025 (actual submission deadline August 1 2025).

Keynote speakers include: Dominic Abrams (UK), Camiel J. Beukeboom (Netherlands), Michał Bilewicz (Poland); Nik Palomares (USA - Editor-Elect from 2024 of JLSP), Yan Bing Zhang & Jake Harwood (USA – Epilogue Discussants)

Please let us know if you intend to participate (for planning reasons) ASAP - and convey ideas for titled panels, papers, creative and social activities 

Important dates:

• January 1st – January 31st, 2025 - abstract submissions (feedback on acceptance within 2 weeks)

• February 28th, 2025 – all feedback on submission acceptance completed

• March 1st – March 31st, 2025 - early registration

• April 1st – May 15th, 2025 - full registration, including intent to submit a paper for Psychology of

• Language and Communication (PLC) special issue

• June 23 - 26, 2025 SYMPOSIUM

• July 31st, 2025 - papers for PLC special issue

Check WEBSITE being updated for accommodation options, fees, activities, restaurant/pub reviews, etc.

A message from Maggie Pitts, IALSP Past President:

Dear IALSP Friends and Colleagues,

I am writing to let you know about another opportunity from the Positive Communication Network to meet and network with professors and practitioners of positive language and communication from all over the world!

Do you lead teams or inspire colleagues? Do you want to learn more about positive communication strategies to enhance your workplace? If so, join me and the Positive Communication Network as we launch our first Positive Communication Book Party to celebrate Julien Mirivel and Alex Lyon's new book, "Positive Communication for Leaders." Our free event includes a 25 minute skills training session centered on core communication skills for leaders to inspire positive change in organizations. Attendees will also have opportunities to engage with the authors and founders of the Positive Communication Network. The event is virtual, free, and fun! Join us Friday July 28th, 2023 at 1pm USA Eastern Standard Time. Register for this free event here: https://lnkd.in/g4mSK4_s

See you there!

The journal Psychology of Language and Communication has recently published a Special Issue on social psychological processes and intergroup communication:

Gardikiotis, A., Giles, H., & Tsigilis, N. (eds). (2003). Social psychological processes and intergroup communication. Psychology of Language & Communication, 27(1), 46-207.

For more information about the special issue and to access the articles included, please see the journal website here.

The Positive Communication Network will be hosting an online conference on Friday, March 17th, 11AM to 3PM (CT). The goal of the conference is to foster a community dedicated to positive communication research, teaching, and practice.

For the full schedule and registration information, please see this flyer.

Dear IALSP Members:

I am writing to share that Howie Giles is retiring from the Editorship of the Journal of Language and Social Psychology at the end of 2023, after which he will take on a much downsized Associate Editor role. The journal's publisher, SAGE, is – with our input – searching for a new Editor for a term of 3 or 5 years. Importantly, we are seeking a scholar who is well-versed in, and actively researches, the social psychology of language. It is also important that the new Editor value and support both quantitative and qualitative research.

If you are interested in serving in this role, please submit a copy of your curriculum vitae and a letter of intent (no more than 200 words) to me at gasiorek@hawaii.edu by no later than December 1, 2022. You are also welcome to nominate/suggest other candidates for consideration to me (and I will follow up with them seeking materials).

The IALSP Executive will review nominations at its December meeting, and then pass these on the current Editor (Howie), who will in turn pass these on to SAGE. SAGE will interview finalist candidates and make the ultimate decision about the Editorship. The intent is for the new Editor to shadow Howie in his decision-making for the latter half of 2023 before taking the helm at the start of 2024.

Please let me know if you have questions about anything here, and I will do my best to answer them. I look forward to receiving any suggestions or nominations you have.

Best,

Jessica Gasiorek

President, IALSP

gasiorek@hawaii.edu

Hong Kong PolyU will be hosting a Health Symposium entitled, "Do you Understand What I Am Saying?" on Friday, December 9, 2022 (Hong Kong Time). Please see this flyer for additional information. All are welcome!

The journal Language Sciences has an open Call for Papers for an upcoming Special Issue entitled, “Communication Accommodation Theory at 50 years: Recent Tends and Prospects”, guest edited by Howard Giles and America L. Edwards (University of California, Santa Barbara).

For additional details, please see the Call for Papers. [PDF]

Deadline for first drafs is December 31, 2022, and final drafts May 1, 2023.

Tony Young, IALSP member and Former IALSP President

The authorship team of Sara Ganassin, Steffi Schneider, Alina Schartner, Steve Walsh and myself are delighted to announce the publication of Intercultural Challenges for the Reintegration of Displaced Professionals, our new book out now through Routledge as part of Zhu Hua and Clare Kramsch’s Studies in Language and Intercultural Communication series.    

The book explores the findings of our recent trans-European project investigating how refugee former professionals can be helped back into employment. At the launch we’ll critically reflect on the challenges faced by refugee aspirant professionals in securing employment.  We’ll also explore ideas of how professional intercultural competence development and attendant language learning practices can help facilitate the professional (re)integration of these communities.  

For more information (and a discount on book orders) please see this flyer (PDF).  

Bernadette Watson, Chair of ICLASP17 Organizing Committee and Former IASLP President

As the Chair of the Host Organising Committee for ICLASP 17: 2022, I wanted to provide a brief update.  

We are now into the final leg of organising this conference.  There was a slight delay with reviewing the abstracts but that has been resolved.  All those who submitted  paper have now been advised of the outcome of their paper.  (If you have not received information about your paper, please contact us). The standard was particularly high this time around and we are excited to have such an excellent set of papers.  Our next step is to finalize the program and get a draft out to you all around mid-May.

We are planning to have the Award Ceremony and the Biennial General Meeting on the Sunday, 26 June, which will be on the Sunday (Hong Kong Time) following the conference.   

Warmest wishes

Bernadette and the PolyU Organizing Committee 

The journal International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation has an open call for papers for an upcoming Topical Issue entitled, “Building an Equitable Global Psychology: Giving Voice to the Indigenous Psychology in Southeast Asia”. 

For additional details, please see the full CFP. [PDF]

Deadline for initial proposal submission is May 31st, 2022.

This year, the journal Psychology of Language and Communication (Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw) is celebrating 25 years of activity! PLC was intended to be a forum for academic exchange for scholars in the fields of psychology and language sciences. Operating in the Diamond Open Access model from the start, in 2022, we remain committed to our vision and we continue to expand, evolve, and learn.

PLC's thematic scope includes studies on communication processes in adults and children, cognitive and social bases of language and communication, language development and disorders, as well as online communication, computerized language analyses, and corpus studies. PLC also accepts theoretical articles and literature reviews.

Submit to PLC at: https://sciendo.com/journal/plc 

Follow PLC on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PsychologyofLa1 

At Newcastle University, Alina Schartner (Lecturer in Applied Linguistics) and PhD candidate Yao Wang have published a research briefing reporting on key findings from a study on the experiences of international students in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic.  

A survey of 343 international students undertaking degree programmes at UK universities in 2020-21 investigated the impact of the pandemic on academic, psychological, and sociocultural adjustment, as well as the role of host university support in this process.  

Findings revealed that the pandemic had a profound impact on international students’ wellbeing and mental health, as well as their academic and social life.  

The project was funded by the NU Institute for Social Science.  

The research briefing can be accessed here [PDF]. 

An infographic with key findings is available here [JPG].

For further information about the project and forthcoming papers please contact: alina.schartner@ncl.ac.uk

The following book may be of interest to IALSP members:

O’Donnell, L., Donovan, P., & Lewis, B. (Eds.). (2021). The Charter. Bill 101 and English-Speaking Quebec. Presses de l’Université Laval.

Published in 2021 by Presses de l’Université Laval, Québec city, with the support of the Quebec English-Speaking Research Network (QUESCREN) and the Canadian Institute for research on Linguistic Minorities (CIRLM), Université de Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. Content : 23 Chapters, 511 pages.

BACK COVER SUMMARY:

The Charter of the French Language , also called Bill 101, profoundly changed Quebec. The 1977 law made state institutions, certain workplaces, and commercial signs predominantly French.

Since the law’s adoption, Quebec’s English-speaking minority has experienced population loss, economic decline, school closures, but also a growing organizational vitality and increased participation in Francophone Quebec. This book features chapters in English and French by researchers and engaged citizens. They explore the Charter in relation to English-speaking Quebec and within a broad historical, linguistic, political, legal, and socio-economic context. A complex view of the Quebec language law and its communities emerges.

IALSP members may also be interested in previous books published on The Charter of the French Language in Quebec by IALSP member Richard Y. Bourhis:

Bourhis, R.Y. (Ed.). (2012). Decline and Prospects of the English-speaking Communities of Quebec. Canadian Heritage.

Bourhis, R.Y. (Ed.). (1984). Conflict and language planning in Quebec. Multilingual Matters.

(by Marko Dragojevic, IALSP Publications Officer, December 2021)

For nearly a century, scholars from a wide array of disciplines have been examining language attitudes, or people’s evaluative reactions toward different language varieties (e.g., accents, dialects; Giles & Watson, 2013). One key finding that has emerged from this literature is that most (though certainly not all) foreign-accented speakers are evaluatively downgraded on both competence- and warmth-related traits, relative to native, standard-accented speakers (Dragojevic & Goatley-Soan, in press). This finding has been documented not only in the United States, but in other countries as well. Such negative language attitudes are consequential: Foreign-accented speakers often face prejudice and discrimination across a wide range of settings, including employment and education.

Two distinct, but related, processes have been theorized to underlie language attitudes (Dragojevic et al., 2021). The first process involves stereotyping. People use speakers’ language (e.g., accent) to infer which social group(s) speakers belong to and attribute to them stereotypic traits associated with those inferred social identities. By this account, foreign-accented speakers are rated less favorably than native, standard-accented speakers because the former are associated with more negative stereotypes. The second process involves listeners’ processing fluency, or the subjective ease with which listeners process a person’s speech. Past research has shown that the more difficulty listeners experience processing a person’s speech, the more negatively they evaluate that person. By this account, foreign-accented speakers are rated less favorably than native, standard-accented speakers because the former’s speech is more difficult to process. These two processes are not mutually exclusive and both likely operate in tandem to contribute to more negative attitudes toward foreign-accented speakers.

Given the above, it is interesting to consider how the COVID-19 pandemic and related events may have influenced (and continue to influence) listeners’ attitudes toward foreign-accented speakers. Both the stereotyping and processing fluency explanations would predict more negative attitudes toward most foreign-accented speakers as a result of the pandemic. First, the COVID-19 pandemic has likely exacerbated negative stereotypes toward foreigners, in general, as well as certain foreign groups, specifically. The increased negativity of these stereotypes, in turn, is likely to promote more negative attitudes toward foreign-accented speakers. Second, international travel restrictions spurred by fears of COVID-19 have resulted in reduced movement of people globally, likely resulting in reduced exposure to foreign-accented speech in many countries. Past studies have shown that repeated exposure to a particular foreign accent facilitates the processing of speech produced in that accent. Reduced exposure to foreign-accented speech, then, is likely to hinder listeners’ ability to process that speech once it is encountered. Consequently, as an indirect consequence of the pandemic, listeners may experience more difficulty processing foreign-accented speech (at least initially), which is likely to further exacerbate negative attitudes toward foreign-accented speakers once they are encountered. My research team and I are currently exploring these and related questions.

Dragojevic, M., Fasoli, F., Cramer, J., & Rakić, T. (2021). Toward a century of language attitudes research: Looking back and moving forward. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 40(1), 60-79. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X20966714

Dragojevic, M., & Goatley-Soan, S. (in press). Americans’ attitudes toward foreign accents: Evaluative hierarchies and underlying processes. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2020.1735402

Giles, H., & Watson, B. (Eds). (2013). The social meanings of language, dialect, and accent: International perspectives on speech styles. Peter Lang.

(by Howie Giles, IALSP Member, November 2021)

I have an established book series with Peter Lang (PL) Publishers called “Language as Social Action” (see https://www.peterlang.com/series/6741), the next one of which (#24) is due out next month on online dating.  The newly appointed Peter Lang Editor, Niall Kennedy, has gotten in touch, and we have discussed future prospects.  Hence, I am connecting with IALSP members, such as yourself, to see if you might have a book up your sleeve ready to write ideally (or edit) for us?  

If you are interested in pursuing such a venture in the near future, do connect with me at: HowieGiles@cox.net.

(by Michael Hecht, IALSP Member, October 2021)

I learned recently that our friend and colleague, Chuck Tardy, passed away. I recall fondly our ICLASP discussions, with his quick smile, subtle intellect, and interest in so much of the world around him. Chuck will be missed. Below is the Obit his family asked to be shared.

---

Obituary for Charles H. Tardy

September 20, 1953, to September 24, 2021

Charles Holman Tardy, 68, passed away from Multiple Systems Atrophy, an atypical form of Parkinson’s, on September 24. He was predeceased by his parents, Tom Jr. and Lela Tardy; his stepmother, Bertha Tardy, and by his nephew, Chip Dardaman. He is survived by his wife, Christina Tardy; daughter Katherine (Darren) Webster; son Charles Alexander Tardy; and two grandchildren, Sienna and Wraith Webster. He is also survived by his sister, Annette (Chris) Dardaman; his brother, Thomas (Rebecca) Tardy III; stepsister, Roxanne (Frank) Ballard; brother-in-law, Russell (Linda) Jones; and exchange student Dmitry (Kseniya) Starodubets. He also leaves behind four nephews and one niece. 

Chuck grew up in Winona, Mississippi, and was a graduate of Mississippi State University, where he was a member of the debate team. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in Speech Communication. After graduation from Iowa, he became a member of the Speech Communication Department at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he spent his 37 years of academic life, starting as an assistant professor, and ending as professor emeritus of Communication Studies. He also served as department chair for his last 13 years of academia and as vice-president and president of the Southern States Communication Association. He was also very proud of his department’s rec soccer team, the Aristotelians. 

Chuck was an avid fan of Arsenal Football, Saints football, and USM teams. He also loved all types of music, ranging from rock to jazz to world to classical. He volunteered as a youth soccer coach, which began his love of soccer, and led him to play three times a week before he was stopped by MSA. He loved traveling to other countries and within the United States. He served on the vestry of Trinity Episcopal Church and participated in the yearly crawfish boil and the men’s group.

A memorial service will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church, 509 West Pine, Hattiesburg on October 9, at 2:30 pm, with interment in Trinity’s columbarium. Visitation will also be at Trinity, from 1:00 to 2:30 pm. Please wear a mask indoors at Trinity. 

The family requests, in lieu of flowers, memorials be made to the Charles H. Tardy Communication Studies Graduate Scholarship Endowment at the University of Southern Mississippi. Checks can be made out to the USM Foundation and mailed to 118 College Drive #5210, Hattiesburg, MS 39406. Please note that the gift is made in memory of Charles H. Tardy in the memo line of your check. Memorials can also be made online at:

usmfoundation.com/tardy 

(by Ann Rogerson, IALSP Regional Representative, September 2021)

Prior to the COVID-19, social interactions and circumstances such travel and education exposed many of us to a variety of voices and accents not normally used to in our home environment. Higher education institutions are just one place where individuals have opportunities to interact with students and teachers from different countries and regions. Communications experiences in classes and lectures can use social connections to learn, interpret and understand different uses of tones, phrasing, expression and vocabulary. A quick chat with a fellow student in class, or friends after class can assist us in understanding things that may initially sound incomprehensible due to an accented form of English that over time becomes more familiar. However, with the shift to remote and online learning due to COVID-19 many of these opportunities to clarify accented terminology and content have been missing in synchronous or asynchronous classes. Captioning can provide direct translation of speech (sometimes with errors) yet lack the personal and immediate interpretation that is possible when we are in the same room on campus. This can lead to misunderstanding and frustration and contribute to an increase in issues associated with understanding accented English in teaching contexts.

In my role as an Associate Dean of Education, I am brought into conversations when individuals have difficulty in understanding an accented version of English – students not fully understanding teachers and teachers not fully understanding students. My doctoral thesis discussed this issue in workplace contexts using communication accommodation theory (CAT) as the lens. It was apparent that accented English can often be as difficult to understand as another language, dependent upon the accents that you have been exposed to or are familiar with. It is difficult to determine whether the perceived increase in issues understanding accented English are due to the loss of social interactions and face-to-face conversation in person and on campus. It could also be influenced by our selections on streaming platforms such as Netflix where accent exposure is governed by what we view. The long-term effects of remote learning necessitated by the global pandemic will not be clear for many years to come but does present some new intergroup situations to explore with communication accommodation theory.

(by Liz Jones, IALSP President, August 2021)

When thinking about the topic of my blog post, part of me was screaming “NO!!!!!! Don’t talk about covid, anything but covid” but another part said “This is a topic you’ve been thinking about a lot for the past 18 months”.  I’m also aware that while many people have been unable to travel during the pandemic, I have experienced the pandemic while living in 2 quite different countries, Australia and Malaysia.  And as an intergroup communication scholar I have been fascinated how the intergroup dynamics have played out in these 2 countries.  But today I will focus only on Australia, because here I can speak as an insider, a participant observer, about a country where I have lived for many years and where I am a dual Australian-NZ citizen.  

Much of my intergroup communication research has been informed by communication accommodation theory (CAT).  This has been a useful lens to understand what has happened in Australia over the last 18 months, as CAT considers the role of the sociohistorical context and the initial orientation of individuals in shaping their behaviour and perceptions and attributions within interactions, and their evaluations of interactions.

Australia, unsurprisingly, began with the intergroup issue consistent with the history of intergroup relations in our country- there were quickly reports of people calling COVID the Chinese virus, and stories of stigmatisation of or discrimination against Asian people from many different countries, not just China (many Australians have never been good at differentiating between people from the many different Asian countries who live in Australia).  Consistent with other countries, there was also some stigmatisation of health professionals.  

But 18 months later what has become the key intergroup conflict is between states.  Australia has 6 states and 2 territories.  In pre-covid times the intergroup relations between these states and territories were normally harmonious.  There were the normal Australian-style derogatory names for people from other states- people in NSW might call those in the southern state of Victoria ‘Mexicans’, and those to the north in Queensland ‘bogans’*, and the Queenslanders in return called those from NSW ‘cockroaches’.  But, apart from the intense rivalry of the annual rugby league State of Origin games between NSW and Queensland, relations were general harmonious, with more intergroup rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney than between states.  

However, each state, of course, has its own government, and laws and states are responsible for much of the delivery of health services in Australia. Thus, states have had a key role in managing the response to the pandemic, during a period of high uncertainty and threat, which we know heightens intergroup relations.  And what has unfolded over the ensuing 18 months has been a state-based response to the pandemic, including for the 1st time frequent border closures or restrictions on people moving between states, creating a very particular sociohistorical context.  

What has that meant for intergroup relations? Clear evidence of people’s identification with their state increasing, with the word “we” referring to a state not a country, and more frequent derogation of people from other states (particularly between the leaders of the different states). There has been talk of ‘a wall’ and ‘a ring of steel’ (although most famous is the Prime Minister stating vaccination is ‘not a race”).  The success of this strategy? Polls have shown very strong support for state governments (until the recent widespread outbreak of covid in NSW) and state elections have seen the governments returned with wider margins, particularly for the state that had the strongest rhetoric and border closures.  And it has been a wonderful time for comedians and cartoonists- for those looking for some Australian covid humour see Jimmy Rees’ “Meanwhile in Australia” series on Facebook, or The Shovel or Betoota Advocate.  Many friends state this is how they now get their news.

Of course, derogation of particular ethnic groups has not disappeared and instead continues to also be a key intergroup context. Thus, people’s ethnicity is blamed for the spread of covid-19 in particular geographic areas, rather than an acknowledgement of structural factors such as the types of employment (insecure and essential services, requiring people to go out to work), the overcrowded housing in large apartment blocks associated with lower incomes, and the lack of public health information and processes that is adapted for those who are culturally and linguistically diverse. Most recently, a funeral attended by 150 (reported to be 500) mostly indigenous people in western NSW was labelled “illegal” and the attendees “selfish” and likened to an illegal gathering of 50 people in the affluent east of Sydney during a lockdown, despite the funeral adhering to all covid restrictions.

Thus, while the pandemic has been a time of much stress, uncertainty, and exhaustion for us all, it has also provided an opportunity to see how our theories of intergroup communication provide a lens for understanding the complex and quickly changing intergroup dynamics that occur in the context of a global pandemic.

* Bogan (/ ˈboʊɡən / BOHG-ən) is Australian and New Zealand slang for a person whose speech, clothing, attitude and behaviour are considered unrefined or unsophisticated. Depending on the context, the term can be pejorative or self-deprecating.

(by Maggie Pitts, IALSP Immediate Past President, July 2021)

When I began exploring the language and communication features of savoring in 2014, I was hoping to make a contribution to the positive communication movement. It struck me that people recognize, value, and endeavor to cultivate meaningful moments of connectivity through everyday types of talk. And then, they delight in those moments. As a positive psychology construct, savoring refers to one’s capacity “to attend to, appreciate, and enhance the positive experiences in their lives” (Bryant & Veroff, 2007, p. 2). But, as a language and communication construct, I felt that savoring offered something even deeper than attending to positive experiences. Indeed, my international and interdisciplinary involvement with IALSP has shown me that across languages and cultures people savor differently and savor a greater breadth of human experiences than just the joyful, often hedonic, pleasures. Humans can, and do, savor deep and meaningful moments that encompass emotions and experiences greater than pleasure. We savor the bittersweet. We savor grief. We do so to keep meaningful moments and people close to our hearts – all of them. This has never been more evident than now, as we continue to live with uncertainties, trauma, and profound human loss due to COVID. While we are striving to make sense of loss and grief, there are many who have also experienced a newfound gratitude and appreciation for the small moments that matter greatly. Living within the pandemic reminds us that we can, and should, look for joyful moments to savor, but also embrace and deepen our experience with the more difficult, but also meaningful moments that mark our lives. For, when we savor, we are wholly present in a moment, bearing full witness to our human experiences. Savoring also connects us to humanity to the extent that we have and experience these moments together and also talk about them and reminisce. We need that connection now. 

Bryant, F. B., & Veroff, J. (2007). Savoring: A new model of positive experience. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Jiao, J., Kim, S., & Pitts, M. J. (online first, 2021). Promoting subjective well-being through communication savoring. Communication Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2021.1901758

Pitts, M. J. (2019). The language and social psychology of savoring: Advancing the communication savoring model. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 38, 237-259. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X18821404

Pitts, M. J., Kim, S., Meyerhoffer, H., & Jiao, J. (2019). Savoring as positive communication (Chapter 11). In J. A. M. Velázquez & C. Pulido (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of positive communication: Contributions of an emerging community of research on communication for happiness and social change (pp. 98-107). New York, NY: Routledge. 

(by Katie Collins, IALSP North America Regional Representative, June 2021)

People often unintentionally choose words that reveal their implicit beliefs. These subtle and systematic asymmetries in language use, or linguistic biases, reveal our expectancies for the behaviour of different groups. The same behaviour, for example, will be described in inadvertently different ways depending on who performs it – thus our ideas about age, ethnicity, or any other aspect of a person that can form the basis of a stereotype, are reflected in the language we use to describe behaviour. Linguistic bias is widespread and found in contexts ranging from simple conversations to courtrooms, suggesting that it may be responsible for how stereotypes become shared. 

Given this, linguistic bias is directly applicable to current socio-cultural issues. We are now in a time where social media reporting, comment section debates, and accusations of "fake news" are commonplace. This means there is a wealth of freely available data from online sources (e.g. social media, forums, comment sections), which could be used to examine the use of linguistic bias in real world online communication. At the same time, people are concerned about the credibility and trustworthiness of their media; they are looking for ways to quantify bias (e.g. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com) - a purpose that aligns with the intent of the linguistic bias paradigm. Linguistic bias research is thus uniquely positioned to have a potentially large and meaningful impact but is failing to do so.

Unfortunately, research in this area is currently stifled by the time-consuming and resource-intensive process required to detect linguistic bias. To manually code for linguistic bias, it is necessary to first train independent coders to identify word types from the LCM (i.e. training manual by Coenen et al., 2006). Once trained, coders will do a detailed, word-by-word, reading of the text, which is a tedious and lengthy process. Once complete, any differences must be resolved through discussion or review by a third independent rater. Thus, this is not a reactive approach; bias detection cannot usually take place until well after the current event is no longer news. The reliance on manual coding means that the length and number of texts that can be coded is limited by resources and time, so researchers typically analyze a small number of texts that are relatively short in length. Further, texts are analyzed for a single bias instead of a more complex combination of biases as likely occurs in reality. This is not to say that all research in this area is limited in this way, only that to do otherwise requires a considerable investment of resources. 

This is why I am working with Dr. Ryan Boyd, an expert in natural language processing, to develop an automated approach to lingistic bias coding. We have already developed a few versions of an automated method and are currently comparing them with the manual codes of the same texts. We ultimately plan to package our automated approach in open source, easy-to-use software and distribute it online. I believe a freely available automated method would fundamentally change the nature of research in this area by dramatically decreasing the burden with which it is conducted. By doing so, it would also improve the quality and realism of the texts analyzed - researchers could analyze language as it occurs naturally within large corpuses (news articles, books, interview transcripts) with significantly fewer resources than it takes to manually code a single paragraph. 

I'm really excited about this project! I believe that natural language processing and the use of so-called 'big data' are imminent methodological innovations that are full of promise. I'm also grateful to the International Association of Language and Social Psychology, as this collaboration arose out of my involvement at ICLASP 2018 in Edmonton - it all started as an informal chat between sessions and ended up as an international collaboration funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

(by Rachyl Pines, IALSP Secretary, May 2021)

In a summer workshop at Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2019, cohosted by the Asian Association of Social Psychology (AASP) and the International Association of Language and Social Psychology (IALSP), I had the opportunity to brainstorm with researchers from around the globe about the role of communication in health. One thing that stood out to all of us were the differences across countries of how people pursue receiving healthcare and what may be important to them in their care. From this workshop, a team of colleagues and I launched a multinational, multilingual, mixed-methods survey study investigating the role of culture in shaping patient values for their care, and how they desire for their provider to enact those values. This team includes Nicola Sheeran, PhD (Australia), Liz Jones, PhD (IALSP President, Malaysia), Blair Jin, PhD (Macau), Aron Pamoso, BSc (Philippines), and Maria Benedetti, RN (USA). This collaboration has been very successful as each member of the research team adds valuable expertise about the healthcare system in their country. 

We have had over 2,200 survey responses from participants in five different countries: USA, Australia, Hong Kong, Philippines, and Nepal. Qualitative findings indicate key differences by country in what patients value in their care. Australian participants valued control in their care very highly, and also wanted their provider to have engaged interactions and recognize and meet their emotional needs. American participants valued control in their care and being well-informed of all of their options. They also wanted their doctor to share power in decision making, and have active and engaged interactions. Participants in the Philippines also highly valued control in their care. However, they very commonly reported wanting the doctor to direct the interaction, and having active and engaged interactions. This suggests that although these participants want the doctor to direct them, they want to have the final opportunity to consent to the treatment. Lastly, participants in Hong Kong highly valued being well-informed about the efficacy of treatment recommendations. 

The desired behaviors uncovered in the qualitative data can all be recommendations for providers as they interact with patients such as being honest about the diagnosis and their level of expertise, and recognizing and meeting emotional needs of patients to name a few. Ultimately these results help researchers and practitioners to expand notions of patient centered care beyond Westernized notions of patient centeredness. Results of this study may help inform the creation of cultural competency programs for providers, or assist with creating a measure of shared decision-making or patient centeredness that can be used as a tool for providers as they establish new relationships with patients. Individually, as the research team members each learns from these results, we are making improvements to our own daily work in patient education and patient care.

Psychology of Language and Communication is an international, peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing in the free Open Access standard since 1997. Both submitting manuscripts and accessing full-text articles is free of charge. It publishes articles on different aspects of psychological studies on language and communication processes in both children and adults. The topics include: language production and comprehension, the brain, cognitive and social bases of speech, nature of various discourse types, language development, disorders of linguistic and communicative competences, corpus studies, social media communication, psychological text analysis, human-AI communication, and social perception of spoken and written language.

Visit https://sciendo.com/journal/plc and submit your manuscript today!

Editor-in-Chief

Karolina Hansen, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

Editorial Board

Marta Białecka-Pikul, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland

Megan Birney, University of Chester at University Centre Shrewsbury, United Kingdom

Agnieszka Dębska, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland

Ewa Haman, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

Kayla Jordan, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, United States

Agnieszka Kałdonek-Crnjakocić, University of Warsaw, Poland

Piotr Kałowski, University of Warsaw, Poland

Nigel Mantou Lou, University of Victoria, Canada

Agnieszka Piskorska, University of Warsaw, Poland

Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi, University of Warsaw, Poland

Marta Szreder, United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates

Małgorzata Szupica-Pyrzanowska, University of Warsaw, Poland

Former IALSP President Howie Giles will present a (virtual) public lecture hosted by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on April 30, 2021, 10:00 - 11:30 AM HKT (which, we note, corresponds to later in the day on April 29 for the United States). The talk is entitled: "Don’t talk yourself into an early grave! Intergroup and personal challenges of ageing successfully", and is part of the university's Distinguished Lectures in Humanities.

For more information, and to register to receive the Zoom link for the talk, please see: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/en/fh/news-and-events/event/2021/4/distinguished-lectures-in-humanities_30apr/

The Journal of Baltic Studies (see http://bit.ly/Journal_Baltic_Studies) has an open call for papers for an upcoming Special Issue entitled, “(Beyond) National Identity in the Baltic Countries: Varieties, Correlates, and Takeaways”. 

For additional details, please see the full CFP. [PDF]

Deadline for initial abstract submission is June 1, 2021.