The Wisconsin Englishes Project and Wɪsco

For purposes of professional advancement in college and university departments, academics are required to engage in research, teaching, and service. Researchers often find it easier to segregate their research from teaching and those of us at certain kinds of institutions may neglect service because of its perceived diminished value compared in particular to research. At other institutions, research can be overlooked in favor of teaching and service. This podcast describes two ongoing projects that integrate research, teaching, and service: the Wisconsin Englishes Project, a student-driven investigation of variation and change in regional language patterns, and Wisconsin Speech Chain Online, or WɪSCO, an online program that helps beginning students master sociophonetic methods and analysis. Along the way, we encourage academics to engage all levels of students to move from novitiate to expert in researching language variation and change. We lay out how we have approached mentoring students from research discovery to outreach and how we have built a network of units on campus for support, such as informational technology.