Leading a Workshop:

An Overview

Deciding to Run a Workshop

PRL workshops are intended for communities who are enthusiastic about developing their language and willing to invest the time and financial resources to make it happen. A workshop can be conducted for a single language group or for several related languages simultaneously.

Photographer Credit: Heather Pubols

Goals

The ultimate goal is a community-owned orthography that adequately represents the language. PRL workshops are intended to produce materials that can immediately benefit the community, such as alphabet charts and booklets, orthography guides, lexicons, and cultural material.

In PRL, community members participate earlier in the analysis process than conventional methods, not only deciding on ways to represent different phonemes after they are discovered, but actually discovering the phonemes for themselves. The discovery and analysis process gives community members the confidence needed for teaching this knowledge to others and for carrying forward language development efforts.

Planning Considerations

PRL research on nominal morphology, the verbal system and clausal level phenomena are pursued in view of drafting a readable orthography. Workshops are not intended to accomplish a detailed study of grammar, discourse or textual analysis.* Communities planning a translation project are encouraged to engage in a more thorough study of these topics through additional workshops.

If the community is encountering a specific issue in relation to an existing orthography, the workshop leader may prefer to run a shortened version of the PRL workshop, tailoring activities to address the specific concern (see Planning/"Content Adaptations"). On the other hand, if the primary research needs are related to discourse, semantics, or grammar - rather than orthography development - a different workshop may be better suited for meeting those needs.

*For example, in-depth research of morphosyntax, semantics of TAM forms, word order variation, topic/focus marking, clause linkage and discourse phenomena are beyond the scope of a typical PRL workshop.

Workshop Outline

PRL workshops are designed to cover the basic sound system and grammar of the language, including initial orthography decisions. While the structure is flexible, a total of 8 weeks is needed to complete all 4 units (approximately 2 weeks per unit):

Unit 1:

Data Collection & Sound System

Unit 2:

Nouns & NPs

Optional: Neologism workshop

Unit 3:

Verbal Morphology & Syntax

Unit 4:

Finalizing Workshop Outputs

Each topic involves group-based, hands-on activities that guide participants through the process of orthography development. Assignments are given after each unit.

Key Principles

Native Speaker Participation

PRL workshops include mother-tongue speakers from the very beginning of the research process. Several speakers, not just one, should participate in the workshop, as native speaker interaction is essential to getting quality results. The contribution of fellow participants often sparks additional ideas.

Experienced Workshop Leader

Workshops should be led by a trained and experienced linguist. She or he should have extensive typological background knowledge, facilitation experience, and an ability to adapt and improvise as necessary.

Equal Partnership

The PRL method emphasizes equal partnership in all aspects of research. Both outside linguist(s) and native speakers bring valuable skills to the collaborative process:

Native speakers contribute a vast and intimate knowledge of their own language, which is essential for quality results.
The outside linguist contributes knowledge of language and orthography development, a highly scientific discipline with elements outside the scope and experience of native speakers.

Both parties should benefit from the results of the research process.

Collaborative Environment

PRL workshops are non-hierarchical. To maximize the strengths of everyone involved, PRL methodology advocates the following:

The linguist should function as a facilitator rather than teacher. His or her goal is to draw out the community’s collective, innate knowledge about the sound system and grammar of their language through appropriate sequencing and methodology.
Native speakers should not rely solely on an outside linguist as the decision-maker. Rather, every issue should be discussed in collaboration with the goal of ultimately coming to a unified conclusion in every domain.

The goal of these collaborative efforts is to develop the best possible writing system for the language under study.

Quick Links:

Why Use PRL?

Workshop Results

Planning

Preparing

Page updated

Report abuse