Dave Sayers
I am a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Language and Communication Studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland; and chair of EU COST Action CA19102 'Language In The Human Machine Era' (https://lithme.eu/). My research interests include language policy and language planning (particularly Welsh and Cornish), variationist sociolinguistcs (including varieties of British English), and the impact of new and emerging technologies on language use. Since 2021 I have held a position of Docent in language policy at the University of Jyväskylä’s Centre for Applied Language Studies.
I've previously lectured at the University of Turku, Finland; Åbo Akademi University, Finland; and Sheffield Hallam University, UK. I've also worked as Research Manager for Caer Las Cymru, a charity in south Wales. I've held Honorary Research Fellowships at Swansea University (2009-2015) and Cardiff University (2015-2018). Prior to the above posts, I gained my PhD in 2009 from the University of Essex (funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council: award no. PTA-030-2005-00968).
Elsewhere I sit on the UK Economic and Social Research Council's Peer Review College, and the International Panel of Experts at the Kazakh National Centre of Science and Technology Evaluation. I'm the founder and lead moderator of the Sociolinguistic Events Calendar (www.baal.org.uk/resources/slxevents) and TeachLing (https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/teachling). I'm also a member of the Language, Culture and Identity Research Network of the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD). My ORCID number is 0000-0003-1124-7132.
If anything on this page interests you, please do email me via 'dave.sayers' followed by '@cantab.net'. I'm always happy to bat ideas around.
I've previously lectured at the University of Turku, Finland; Åbo Akademi University, Finland; and Sheffield Hallam University, UK. I've also worked as Research Manager for Caer Las Cymru, a charity in south Wales. I've held Honorary Research Fellowships at Swansea University (2009-2015) and Cardiff University (2015-2018). Prior to the above posts, I gained my PhD in 2009 from the University of Essex (funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council: award no. PTA-030-2005-00968).
Elsewhere I sit on the UK Economic and Social Research Council's Peer Review College, and the International Panel of Experts at the Kazakh National Centre of Science and Technology Evaluation. I'm the founder and lead moderator of the Sociolinguistic Events Calendar (www.baal.org.uk/resources/slxevents) and TeachLing (https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/teachling). I'm also a member of the Language, Culture and Identity Research Network of the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD). My ORCID number is 0000-0003-1124-7132.
If anything on this page interests you, please do email me via 'dave.sayers' followed by '@cantab.net'. I'm always happy to bat ideas around.
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Talks by Dave Sayers
On the one hand there are policies that aim exclusively to boost human capital by seeking out linguistic interventions that give people greater autonomy over their own lives, raising individuals’ life chances and ‘capabilities’. Ultimately this form of language policy is not strictly interested in language as such, only insofar as it delivers other human freedoms.
On the other hand there are policies that position language as an independently valuable entity, in need of protection and worthy of prioritisation whether or not this increases human capital. Ultimately the balance here is reversed: the focus is on language itself, not human freedoms.
Between these two extremes lies the complicated and diverse reality of much, if not most contemporary language policy: with a fascinating breadth of ideologies attached to both language and human capital.
But these extremes, and the spectrum of realities in between, are seldom clearly discussed. Indeed, minority language policy is often assumed to be inherently and unarguably emancipatory and freedom-enhancing. I argue that this assumption weakens our capacity to understand language policy and its link to human capital. I explore a range of case studies illustrating points between those two extremes, and I build towards a typology of ideologies to clearly identify the relative weighting of these end goals. The purpose is to give a simple gauge to identify these diverging goals within any given language policy, to add structure and coherence to our field of research.
'Language In The Human-Machine Era' is a COST Action (https://cost.eu/) running 2020-2024, an open and growing network designed with two main goals: to prepare linguistics for what is to come, and to encourage dialogue between linguists and tech developers, to increase accessibility and equality of new technologies. In this talk I will introduce LITHME and its various funded activities, and encourage you to join!
Perlin, K. 2016. Future Reality: How Emerging Technologies Will Change Language Itself. IEEE Computer Graphics And Applications 36(3): 84–89.
Drinkwater & Blackaby describe a “net brain drain from Wales”, an “outflow of well qualified Welsh residents” after education (2004:19; see also Bristow et al. 2011); and that “Wales loses a disproportionate share of its younger and more educated people, even after controlling for other personal characteristics” (Drinkwater & Blackaby 2004: 21). H. Jones (2007) points out the exception to this rule, finding that “Welsh-speakers are less likely to out-migrate, especially as adults, than those who cannot speak Welsh”. We aim to explore the reasons for this difference, comparing Welsh first-language speakers, second-language speakers, and non-speakers.
From the statistics above, it is unclear whether the difference in mobility represents a free choice (Welsh speakers are keener to stay in Wales) or a limitation (they are somehow less able to move); and vice versa for Welsh non-speakers. Either of these conclusions could be inferred from existing macro-level data sets. Statistically, Welsh-speakers have “higher employability and higher earnings than non-Welsh speakers”, partly linked to Welsh being “in demand within the labour market” (Blackaby et al. 2006: 84). There are also survey data among final stage secondary school students showing that “competence in Welsh … is significantly associated with level of affiliation [to Wales]” (Coupland et al. 2005: 15). But on the other hand, the most recent PISA educational attainment results put graduates of Welsh-medium schools lowest within Wales; indeed, Wales overall ranks lowest in the UK (Jerrim & Shure 2016: 120). Here Welsh speakers appear less competitive than their English-medium educated peers in Wales, and all their peers in the UK more broadly. That in turn suggests a constraint on mobility, not a free choice.
In our talk we offer some much-needed ethnographic insights into these population trends. We present the results of a preliminary study among young people in Wales who have recently left full-time education (19-25), comparing those educated through English and Welsh. We explore their feelings about employment opportunities; their personal motivations to move to different areas (inside and outside Wales); and the perceived role of education in shaping these views. We also outline our early discussions with Careers Wales about how our data could be put to use in addressing these inequalities.
This research is at an early stage; we hope for constructive feedback from colleagues as we progress the study.
References
Blackaby, D., P. Latreille, P. Murphy, N. O’Leary, P. Sloane. 2006. The Welsh Language and Labour Market Inactivity. Report for the Economic Research Unit. Cardiff: Welsh Assembly Government.
Bristow G., M. Pill, R. Davies and S. Drinkwater. 2011. Stay, Leave or Return? Patterns of Graduate Welsh Mobility. People, Place and Policy Online 5(3): 135–148.
Coupland, N., H. Bishop, A. Williams, B. Evans & P. Garrett (2005). Affiliation, Engagement, Language Use and Vitality: Secondary School Students’ Subjective Orientations to Welsh and Welshness. International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism 8(1): 1-24.
Coupland, N., H. Bishop, B. Evans & P. Garrett. 2006. Imagining Wales and the Welsh Language: Ethnolinguistic Subjectivities and Demographic Flow. Journal of Language & Social Psychology 25(4): 351–376.
Drinkwater, S. and D. Blackaby. 2004. Migration and labour market differences: The case of Wales. Discussion Paper in Economics No. 1275, Department of Economics, University of Surrey.
Jerrim, John & Nikki Shure. 2016. Achievement of 15-Year-Olds in Wales: PISA 2015 National Report. London: UCL Institute of Education. http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/27969/1/161206-pisa-2015-en.pdf
Jones, H. 2007. Speaking Welsh and migration from Wales to England. Poster presented to British Society for Population Studies annual conference 2007.
This colloquium builds on this growing interest and brings together papers which focus on the application of language research in the pursuit of improved quality of life. In doing so, these papers showcase sociolinguistic research which has: 1) identified problems of human wellbeing; 2) developed research methods to offer solutions and ways to translate its findings; 3) achieved positive real world outcomes as a result.
This process is not always linear, as the relationship between social problems, research into them and outcomes that ameliorate them are complex and multifaceted. Central to many papers in this colloquium is how external stakeholders and partners have been jointly involved in the co-creation of outcomes and outputs directly relevant to their own context. Contributors offer practical lessons about the process of engagement, reflecting on what worked and why. Since the papers discuss the hands-on details of applying one’s research findings to engage with stakeholders in pursuit of tangible and replicable outcomes, this colloquium presents work which falls under a rather different genre to traditional research presentations where data, theory and method are the central concern.
Drinkwater & Blackaby describe a “net brain drain from Wales”, an “outflow of well qualified Welsh residents” after education (2004:19; see also Bristow et al. 2011); and that “Wales loses a disproportionate share of its younger and more educated people, even after controlling for other personal characteristics” (Drinkwater & Blackaby 2004: 21). H. Jones (2007) points out the exception to this rule, finding that “Welsh-speakers are less likely to out-migrate, especially as adults, than those who cannot speak Welsh”. We aim to explore the reasons for this difference, comparing Welsh first-language speakers, second-language speakers, and non-speakers.
From the statistics above, it is unclear whether the difference in mobility represents a free choice (Welsh speakers are keener to stay in Wales) or a limitation (they are somehow less able to move); and vice versa for Welsh non-speakers. Either of these conclusions could be inferred from existing macro-level data sets. Statistically, Welsh-speakers have “higher employability and higher earnings than non-Welsh speakers”, partly linked to Welsh being “in demand within the labour market” (Blackaby et al. 2006: 84). There are also survey data among final stage secondary school students showing that “competence in Welsh … is significantly associated with level of affiliation [to Wales]” (Coupland et al. 2005: 15). But on the other hand, the most recent PISA educational attainment results put graduates of Welsh-medium schools lowest within Wales; indeed, Wales overall ranks lowest in the UK (Jerrim & Shure 2016: 120). Here Welsh speakers appear less competitive than their English-medium educated peers in Wales, and all their peers in the UK more broadly. That in turn suggests a constraint on mobility, not a free choice.
In our talk we offer some much-needed ethnographic insights into these population trends. We present the results of a preliminary study among young people in Wales who have recently left full-time education (19-25), comparing those educated through English and Welsh. We explore their feelings about employment opportunities; their personal motivations to move to different areas (inside and outside Wales); and the perceived role of education in shaping these views. We also outline our early discussions with Careers Wales about how our data could be put to use in addressing these inequalities.
This research is at an early stage and we hope for constructive feedback from colleagues as we progress the study.
Drinkwater & Blackaby describe a “net brain drain from Wales”, an “outflow of well qualified Welsh residents” (2004:19) after education (see also Bristow et al. 2011); and that “Wales loses a disproportionate share of its younger and more educated people, even after controlling for other personal characteristics” (Drinkwater & Blackaby 2004: 21). H. Jones (2007) points out the exception to this rule, finding that “Welsh-speakers are less likely to out-migrate, especially as adults, than those who cannot speak Welsh”. We aim to explore the reasons for this difference, comparing Welsh first-language speakers, second-language speakers, and non-speakers.
From the statistics above, it is unclear whether the difference in mobility represents a free choice or a limitation, i.e. whether Welsh speakers are keener to stay in Wales, or somehow less able to move; and vice versa for Welsh non-speakers. In fact, in other existing data sets, both of these can be inferred. For example, suggesting a free choice, Welsh-speakers in Wales have “higher employability and higher earnings than non-Welsh speakers”, partly linked to Welsh being “in demand within the labour market” (Blackaby et al. 2006: 84). There are also survey data among final stage secondary school students showing that “competence in Welsh … is significantly associated with level of affiliation [to Wales]” (Coupland et al. (2005:15).
But on the other hand, the most recent PISA educational attainment results put graduates of Welsh-medium schools lowest within Wales - indeed Wales overall ranks lowest in the UK (Jerrim & Shure 2016: 120). These data suggest that Welsh speakers are less competitive than their English-medium educated peers in Wales, and all their peers in the UK more broadly. That in turn suggests a constraint on mobility, not a free choice.
After reviewing these data we move on to our own primary data, a preliminary study among young people in Wales who have recently left full-time education (19-25), comparing those educated through English and Welsh. We explore their feelings about employment opportunities; their personal motivations to move to different areas (including outside Wales); and the perceived role of education in shaping these views.
This research is at an early stage and we hope for constructive feedback from colleagues as we progress the study.