Research

The Sociolinguistics Lab at the University of Mississippi—known as the SoCIOLing Lab—is a dynamic research center focused on understanding how language interacts with society, identity, and cognition across diverse communities. Under the direction of Dr. Stephen Fafulas, the lab explores a range of research areas that blend quantitative sociolinguistics, second language acquisition, and community-based fieldwork.

Here are the lab’s core research areas:

🌍 Amazonian Spanish & Language Contact: The lab investigates emerging varieties of Spanish in the Amazon Basin, shaped by contact with indigenous languages such as Bora, Yagua, and Ocaina. This work reveals how multilingual environments influence grammar, pronunciation, and language evolution.

🇺🇸 U.S. Spanish & Bilingual Education: Researchers examine Spanish use in the U.S. South, focusing on language maintenance, shift, and identity among Latinx communities. This includes studying how educational settings and social factors affect bilingualism and language attitudes.

🗣️ Second Language Acquisition & Sociolinguistics: The lab explores how learners acquire morpho-syntactic and phonetic features in second languages, and how social variables—like identity, community norms, and exposure—shape this process.

🤝 Community Engagement & Outreach: A hallmark of the lab is its commitment to community-based research. Projects are designed in collaboration with local and international partners, ensuring that linguistic research supports and empowers the communities it studies.

Through these areas, the SoCIOLing Lab contributes to both academic scholarship and real-world understanding of how language reflects and shapes human experience. You can explore more on the research newsletters page.