Language in Latino Lives on California’s Central Coast

Mary Bucholtz
Linguistics
UC Santa Barbara

The project is a collaborative humanistic investigation of the rapidly changing linguistic practices of Latino communities on California’s Central Coast, a crucial issue given the deep cultural meaning and social impact of such practices. Building on an existing community partnership between UCSB and School Kids Investigating Language in Life and Society (SKILLS), a program which fosters college preparation and research experience among first-generation college-bound Latino high school students in public schools and community programs in the Santa Barbara region, teams of graduate students, assisted by undergraduates, collaborated with high school students to conduct original research on language use and change in local Latino communities. In addition to academic venues, the research was shared with the community through a series of innovative multilingual multimedia events at local libraries and schools, including youth research presentations, research slams, and research poster exhibits, all of which are documented online.