Western Washington University

05/12/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 05/12/2026 14:18

Linguistics to host University of Oregon's Allison Taylor-Adams on May 20

Linguistics to host University of Oregon's Allison Taylor-Adams on May 20

May 12, 2026

Allison Taylor-Adams

Title: "Memory and Motivation in Learning a Revitalizing Language," on Wednesday, May 20, at 4 p.m. in BH 415.

Description: In this talk, the University of Oregon's Allison Taylor-Adams will discuss her research on second language (L2) learning motivation with language revitalization practitioners - that is, individuals who learn, teach, and engage in other activities to bring Indigenous or ancestral languages into new use. In particular, she looks at the relationship between collective memory and individual L2 motivation in these practitioners' experience.

Findings from this study show how collective memories are made salient in the language revitalization experience, how individuals grapple with painful memories of what their communities and families endured as a result of colonization, and how these collective memories impact individual L2 motivation. These findings illustrate the importance of attending to collective memory in our understanding of individual language learning in order to dismantle overly individualistic interpretations of L2 motivation models and to critically engage with L2 learning as a site for resilience, resistance, and reclamation.

Bio: Allison Taylor-Adams is an instructor and research associate in the Linguistics Department at the University of Oregon. Her research focuses on second language learning and teaching in language revitalization contexts. In particular, she has focused on L2 motivation, language ideologies, and the dynamics of social networks in language revitalization practice, and she specializes in qualitative research methods. She has collaborated with language revitalization practitioners from communities in the US Pacific Northwest, Australia, China, and Singapore.

WWU is an equal opportunity institution. For disability accommodation, please contact Sara Helms, 360-650-3914.

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