An Interview with APPLE Lecture Speaker Dr. Walt Wolfram

On March 3, 2023, the Studies in Applied Linguistics and TESOL (SALT) journal interviewed Dr. Walt Wolfram, an invited speaker for the 2023 APPLE Lecture Series hosted by the Applied Linguistics and TESOL Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Walt Wolfram is William C. Friday Distinguished University Professor at North Carolina State University, where he also directs the Language and Life Project. He has pioneered research on social and ethnic dialects since the 1960s and published 23 books and more than 300 articles. Over the last two decades, he and his students have conducted more than 3,500 sociolinguistic interviews with residents of North Carolina and beyond. In addition to his research interests, Professor Wolfram is particularly interested in the application of sociolinguistic information to the public, including the production of television documentaries, the construction of museum exhibits, and the development of innovative formal and informal materials related to language diversity for different institutions. He has received numerous awards, including the North Carolina Award (the highest award given to a citizen of North Carolina), Caldwell Humanities Laureate from the NC Humanities Council, the Holladay Medal at NC State, the Board of Governor’s Holshouser Award for Excellence in Public Service, and the Linguistics, Language and the Public Award from the Linguistic Society of America. He has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and served as President of the Linguistic Society of America, the American Dialect Society, and the Southeastern Conference on Linguistics. We thank Dr. Wolfram for his participation in this interview