Towards Diversifying Early Language Development Research: First Truly Global International Summer/ Winter School on Language Acquisition (/L+/) 2021

Abstract

A survey of diversity in leading language acquisition journals revealed that only 2% of the 7,000+ languages of the world are represented. With a long-term aim of empowering researchers everywhere to contribute to this literature, we organized the First Truly Global /L+/ International Summer/Winter School on Language Acquisition (/L+/). /L+/ was a free 5-day virtual school that facilitated the interchange of expertise among early career researchers about all levels of language development in monolingual and multilingual contexts. Our paper provides an overview of organizing /L+/, the measures we took to ensure inclusivity, and qualitative and quantitative analyses of attendees' experiences. We asked for volunteers through the LangVIEW consortium resulting in a diverse organization team from under-represented areas: Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Central and South America. To promote inclusivity, we (1) employed asynchronous and synchronous elements across three time zones; (2) provided closed captions for lectures and international sign interpretation for live sessions; (3) issued a code of conduct. For each time zone, an algorithm selected 120 participants (80% from traditionally under-represented regions) and 61 countries were represented. A post-school questionnaire revealed that 99% of attendees enjoyed taking part in /L+/. However, qualitative comments suggested that there were issues in duration, contents and scheduling. Although much remains to be done to promote inclusivity in linguistic research, we hope our school will contribute to empowering researchers to investigate and publish on language acquisition in their home languages.

Diversity and representation in infant research: Barriers and bridges toward a globalized science of infant development

“…To avoid these inequities from taking hold, we suggest that international research groups continuously examine the power structures within their teams. Elevating both well‐represented and under‐represented communities to leadership roles (e.g., equal co‐PIs; diverse governing boards) is one way to equalize perspectives and experiences (see Aravena‐Bravo et al., 2023, for a positive example of intentional practices to promote diversity and equity in international collaborations).…”