Facilitators should review any existing write-ups on the phonology and grammar of the language under study and/or related languages. This background study is helpful for making hypotheses about what may or may not be discovered during the participatory research process and what domains will need to be researched in detail with native speakers.   

Linguistic features that the researcher will want to take note of include:

• The Vowel System (Unit 1) -  Vowel inventory, vowel length, nasalization, instances of vowel harmony, etc. 

• The Consonant System (Unit 1) -  Consonant inventory, including unusual consonant sounds or contrasts 

• Tone System, if present (Unit 1) - The basic tone system as well as instances of downstep, high spreading, high shifting, Meeussen’s Rule, etc. among languages in the area 

• Morphology (Units 2&3) - Both nominal and verbal morphology, including any derivational categories, inflection, noun classes, etc. 

If orthographic conventions for the language already exist, facilitators should study conventions for vowels, consonants, tone, morphophonological processes, and word boundaries. He or she will also want to research orthography conventions for typologically similar languages. This can be accomplished by consulting primers or publications written in the languages in question.  By studying these conventions, the linguist can gain a sense of possible underrepresentation, overrepresentation, and/or inconsistencies, both past and present.* 

Facilitators will also want to review  other orthographies in use in the language area, especially the LWC and any other languages used for education. This will provide a foundation for understanding how native speakers are mapping the sounds of their language onto known orthographies. 

*The participatory nature of the workshop will also help highlight relevant issues in reading fluency when it comes to an existing orthography. 

• To Guide: The goal is not to teach, but to draw out the participants’ collective knowledge about what they innately know about their language’s structure. Facilitators should focus on raising participants' awareness of the key features of their language. This is essential to arriving at the best possible results.

• To Empower: Throughout the workshop, participants should be trained to do more and of the work semi-independently, each person being developed according to his or her potential. Intentionally invest in community members, so that they can continue developing their mother-tongue themselves, taking note of those with the potential and interest for further linguistics study. 

• To Mentor: Maximize the opportunity to mentor younger facilitators in a way that expands their capacity as linguists. Help them sharpen their skills in collecting data, relating to language communities, and analyzing "messy" research results. Also consider assigning a younger linguist to write up a langauge sketch, not only to document the language, but to also foster the linguist’s own professional development. 

Key responsibilities of a workshop leader include:

• Directing the sequence of activities

• Helping participants see their language according to its own structure (with its full range of vowels, tones, etc) instead of through the grid of the writing system they learned in school 

• Steering the thoughts of the group as needed 

The leader should evaluate what is best explored in the moment and what would fit better into a later stage of the discovery process. 

• Identifying the nature of group discoveries

While native speaker intuition is essential to determining important contrasts in the language, the linguist plays a necessary role in identifying the nature of those contrasts (for example, whether a contrast is due to vowel quality or another feature of the language). Experience will help the linguist make reasonable hypotheses that can be tested through additional workshop activities.* 

• Offering orthography options in a way that empowers community members to make the final decision.

*If desired, tools such as acoustic analysis software can be used later to confirm the interpretation of results. 

• Ask questions, as appropriate. This provides space for participants to express their observations and questions. The facilitator can then respond to this feedback or filter out something which may be helpful to discuss at a later stage. 

• Share observations. Many people are not used to observing structural patterns spontaneously. One role of an outside linguist is to help draw attention to observable patterns in the language. Over time, participants will grow in their ability to observe these patterns on their own. 

• Keep explanations simple. Avoid using highly technical terminology, especially in the beginning. What is most important is for participants to be able discover the patterns in their language in a way they can understand. Official linguistic terms can be added to the descriptions of the language later, after participants have grabbed hold of various concepts. 

• Refrain from teaching the results of prior analysis or theoretical topics, such as phonetics and phonology. The intent of the workshop is to engage in analysis and discovery together, not to teach linguistic theory for participants to apply on their own at some later point in time. In-workshop explanations are only used to the degree necessary for participants to carry out activities that will help them discover the sounds and grammar of their language for themselves. Keep in mind that participants are more likely to remember what they have learned through self-discovery. 

• Promote active participation. As native speakers participate in the research process, they contribute to the analysis and become partners in the work. Encourage participants to share what they are learning with other members of the community. 

• Maintain an atmosphere of dialogue. Participants should be encouraged to give feedback on the linguist’s ideas and observations, contributing further examples that may confirm a hypothesis, disprove it, or yield additional data on the topic being studied. This fosters ownership and a higher quality analysis.