Ongoing Language Development

It is hoped that language development will continue long after a PRL workshop comes to a close. Post workshop activities may include tasks such as revising the orthography based on community feedback, completing unfinished materials, writing up workshop findings for community use, developing literacy classes, creating new written material, and holding additional workshops for further research and training. 

Photographer Credit: Zeke du Plessis

Revise the orthography 

It is essential to re-evaluate the proposed orthography after it has been community-tested and put to practical use in the months following the workshop. A key part of this refinement process is discussing the new writing system with others in the community. In particular, translation teams and other writers may have suggestions for changes and additions based on their experience using the proposed orthography. Beyond the practical value of improving the writing system, inviting feedback from community leaders and others will help garner community-wide acceptance. Some workshop teams even find that certain orthography questions would be better resolved if deferred until after the workshop in order to gain feedback from the community first. It is important that input from the workshop participants continue to be included in any revisions following the workshop. Some workshop teams elect to continue meeting beyond the workshop, under the facilitation of a fellow participant, in order to make ongoing corrections and revisions.* 

*Certain decisions, such as how to write TAM forms, can be especially difficult and the work team may desire further mentorship from an outside linguist on complicated issues. In general, stronger participants should be encouraged to coach others as language team members continue to grow in their linguistic skills.

Further Editing of Materials (As needed)

Due to time constraints and other factors, PRL workshop teams are not always able to complete desired written materials before the end of the workshop. When this is the case, facilitating linguist(s) and participants are encouraged to finish these projects after the workshop is over. This may include adding entries to the lexicon, double-checking story booklets for spelling mistakes, and updating the orthography guide. The team may want to set up regular meetings beyond the workshop to finalize projects, craft new written material, and discuss ways of helping others in the community learn the new orthography. 

As materials are finalized and printed, local festivals can be an ideal time for promoting the new writing system. Some groups have chosen to host stalls at local celebrations where lexicons and story booklets can be displayed and sold. 

Write Up Workshop Findings for the Community 

Participating linguists are encouraged to write up workshop discoveries in a way that the language community can understand. Ideally, this project will be done in collaboration with workshop participants, with a future goal that the participants themselves will one day be able to take over the task of writing up the features of their language for community use. 

Begin Literacy Training

After the orthography is finalized, it is recommended that the community move on to literacy development, ideally under the facilitation of a literacy specialist. This includes developing literacy materials, training teachers and holding classes in the community. New literacy workers (and translators) may benefit from an orthography workshop where activities are designed to explain the orthography decisions that have already been made. 

Photographer Credit: Mark Ewell

Create New Material

Community members are encouraged to continue using the new orthography to produce more written materials, be it histories, folk tales, proverbs, stories or songs. 

Other Workshops 

The community may want to engage in other workshops to further their understanding of their language and language development. Communities involved in (or planning to be involved in) a translation project are encouraged to participate in workshops on textual analysis.* Other workshops that are often beneficial for ongoing language development include discourse analysis, writers training, and dictionary development. Much of the language work involved in running these workshops can be delegated to community members, who will be continually building expertise in reading and writing in their native tongue. 

*It is recommended to structure textual analysis research as 2 workshops, one 3-week workshop for analyzing narrative texts and a second 3-week workshop for non-narrative texts. These workshops also help draw out a fuller understanding of the language’s grammatical structures.

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