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Deciding to Run a Workshop
Deciding to Run a Workshop
The RGC approach is ideal for language communities where there are people who are motivated to develop their language, who know their language well, and who can speak, read and write in the language of instruction for the workshop. The approach can be used with language groups who have no alphabet as well as with groups that have an alphabet and any number of literacy and translation materials. It is helpful, but not entirely necessary, if there are churches in the home area that are requesting mother-tongue Scriptures.
While some language workshops are run for more than one language group at the same time, RGC is most successful when done for one language group at a time. RGC workshops do not include lectures but use the entire workshop time investigating the language’s grammar as a single work group under the guidance of a linguist facilitator.
RGC Essentials
RGC Essentials
One of the most important steps in planning an RGC workshop is deciding if the RGC workshop is right for the situation. The following are some of the most important requirements:
An experienced linguist with an availability of at least 6 months of full-time work over a period of 1-2 years
Motivated mother-tongue speakers willing to take initiative to complete the necessary pre-workshop assignments
A linguist assistant assigned to the project team who is available to (1) attend the workshops, (2) assist with the construction of grammar books and (3) assist the team in the application of the grammar books for consistent writing for at least 2 years afterwards
Funds for both phases of research (a total of 2 or 3 workshops)
Pre-Workshop Assignments
Pre-Workshop Assignments
When a community expresses interest in language development, the initial steps may include langauge assessment and language planning. After this process, there could be a letter to those interested in orthography development, explaining the following:
The opportunity for a 2-week workshop with 6 speakers, who through workshop activities, will do grammar work that should result in a beginning dictionary, grammar book and alphabet book.
The need for 10 interlinearized stories, a wordlist of at least 1,000 words and brief instructions on how to collect these, in addition to the signing of intellectual property rights agreements.
The first workshop should be scheduled only after receiving the requested wordlist and interlinearized texts from the community. Besides being helpful for language development and for comparison with related languages, these preliminary assignments give an opportunity to the language community to prove their motivation for the work. Willingness to invest in pre-workshop assignments is a positive indicator of the community's commitment to langauge development and the likelihood of long-term sustainability.
More information on the wordlist and narrative texts needed is provided below.
Overview: Collecting Data
Overview: Collecting Data
One of the greatest challenges for effective linguistic analysis is collecting the initial language data. Without substantial data, there is little that can be done in an RGC workshop. The language community should be asked to provide 10 texts and a wordlist of 1,000 words before the first workshop.
Materials & Personnel Needed
The African Word List based on semantic domains (Snider & Robert, 2006) or another comparable list that is appropriate to the context
Mother-tongue speakers with a large vocabulary, including good story-tellers
Mother-tongue speakers who are literate in at least 1 language and able to transcribe both words & stories
Paper & pencils
Instructions
Ask the community to make a list of at least 1,000 words in the langauge.
Words can be collected by following a semantic domain list such as the African Word List created by Snider and Roberts (2006). The list of words can be handwritten or typed in a tentative orthography. Request each word be glossed according to these guidelines.*
If the language has substantial dialect differences, also request an additional translated list of 200 words for each of the recognized dialects.
Ask the community to record, transcribe and gloss 8-10 narrative texts according to these instructions.
Additional Notes on Spelling & Glossing
Wordlist:
As long as the speakers can read and write in a national language, they can use any tentative, initial spelling of their own language. At the same time, it is to be expected that the written word list will be a very rough draft, with spelling and glossing inconsistencies, unclear hand-writing, and translation in a very limited English. But long as the instructions for creating a word list have been more or less followed, accept and use the results.
Texts:
Narrative texts are essential to studying the language's natural grammar and discourse patterns. Glossing the texts enables linguists who do not speak the language to understand the texts. As with the wordlist assignment, no spelling rules or understanding of the grammar is needed to collect written texts. Although the texts received are anticipated to have inconsistent spelling and vague or inaccurate glossing, having this data from the beginning saves a great deal of time during the workshop by giving the facilitator a head start in analysis.
*In Stirtz's work with 10 different language communities, only 1 or 2 communities needed help understanding the English Word list or assistance with glossing the texts.
For Language Groups with Readily Available Word Lists & Literature
For Language Groups with Readily Available Word Lists & Literature
For language groups that already have wordlists, printed stories or other written materials in the language, make use of what is available. For example, stories in existing literacy books can be translated and submitted as the text requirement.
While any materials produced by a non-mother-tongue linguist should certainly be consulted, keep in mind that writing done by the speakers themselves can be a better starting point for the workshop. Mother-tongue speakers will have helpful intuition towards a workable writing system (as well as errors) that an outsider will not have.
Following Up
Following Up
If the preliminary work is not completed within a few months, it may be helpful, every so often, to ask the language group if they need any further instruction or help. Just reminding them of the opportunity for the workshop and showing examples of what books can result may be enough to encourage them to complete the preliminary work. RGC facilitators have occasionally waited for over a year for some groups to complete the wordlist and interlinearized texts, as there is often plenty of other linguistic work to do in the meantime.*
Help those who have legitimate difficulty with the request, but do not lower the requirements if at all possible. Important decisions for the writing system can only be made in an RGC workshop if there is sufficient data to study. As difficult as it may be to get adequate data before the first workshop, it may be even more difficult to get the data afterwards.
*However, the ability to be flexible with delays will also depend on administrators and budget approvals. While flexibility is encouraged, fields may or may not be willing (or able) to push an approved RGC budget to the following fiscal year.
Scheduling
Scheduling
After the wordlist and texts are in hand, it is time to schedule the first RGC workshop. The language community can proceed with choosing the time, place and participants for the workshop. Workshop organizers should also consider this itemized budget when resourcing funding for each workshop.
Who?
Who?
Let the language committee, church leaders or others with authority and interest in language development be the ones to decide who should attend the workshop.
Number of Participants
The RGC Approach recommends inviting 6 participants in order to strike a balance between the need for adequate personnel and also high engagement. A larger number of participants can make it challenging to keep everyone engaged in the grammar collection process while inviting fewer participants can overly limit the pool of trained personnel for the work of langauge development.
Qualifications
The participants should speak the language well, understand either simple English or the national language and be able to read any literacy materials already produced (and/or written materials in the national language). The approach can work reasonably well for those without a secondary education, as long as their command of English or the national language is at least minimal.
Invitations
Send an official written invitation to the selected individuals. These individuals will have the authority to make decisions about the writing system and will be the most likely individuals to continue development of the language. In the invitation, briefly state all the important details in simple English or in the national language. Include the workshop's goals as well as logistical details such as what food, transport and lodging will be provided.
Where?
Where?
Ideally, the workshop is held in the language's home area, such as in a central town or village. A local church, home or office is normally suitable for the workshop's needs.
Electricity is not required, since computers are not used (nor recommended, at least until the participants are using computers for language development). However, it is important to have a quiet location with tables and chairs, as well as two whiteboards (or chalkboards) that are at least 1 x 1.5 meters. If no such boards are available, bring some and leave them for following workshops in the area.
How Long?
How Long?
Two Phases of Research
RGC is structured as 2 phases of research with approximately 3 months to 1.5 years months between each phase. Although it might be tempting for funding reasons to combine the first and second phase into a single workshop, this is not recommended for at least 3 reasons:
In the first workshop, participants mainly need to be able to read words, whereas in the second workshop, participants need to be able to read sentences and entire stories. So, the more reading practice that participants have between workshops, the smoother the activities will go in the second workshop.
Correcting the texts for consistency and spelling will improve the participants’ reading in the second workshop. But the texts can only be corrected after the writing system is agreed-upon. If the two workshops were united, there would be insufficient time between workshops to correct the texts according to the spelling decisions made in Phase 1.
The more language development that is done before the second workshop, the more chance there is for any remaining issues to arise. All writing issues that come up should be discussed and dealt with in the second workshop.
For Each Phase
It is recommended to structure each workshop in a 2-week block.
Working through the language's constructions in a relatively short period of time (such as 2 weeks) enables participants to keep in mind the big picture of their language when making informed writing decisions. When the analysis is spread out over months or years, there is a risk that certain relevant constructions will be forgotten when the time comes to make decisions. In addition, many participants find it challenging to be away from their regular responsibilities for more than 2 weeks at a time.
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