Competencies

All orthography consultants need to demonstrate that they have the general competencies that are required of all consultants of all domains. Full details of these competencies and suggestions of resources that help with making progress towards them, can be found by clicking on the links below.

The general competencies cover the following areas:

1. Interpersonal Skills

2. Multicultural Environment

3. Language and Culture

4. Mentoring

5. Adult Education

6. Scholarship and Documentation

7. Technology for Consulting

8. Consulting Process Skills

9. Program Design and Engagement

10. Relating to Other Organizations

More information can be found on the SIL Consultant Competencies Website. 

These competencies are expected to be achieved by all orthography consultants. Because of the multi-disciplinary nature of orthography development and revision, achieving the core competencies requires synthesis of all the skills and knowledge from the Related Discipline competencies.

Three competencies full under this category: Evaluating Orthographies, Prioritizing Factors, and Testing Orthographies.

• Evaluate the adequacy of an existing orthography taking account of all relevant usability and acceptability issues.

• Assist communities and teams in considering options for next steps, giving recommendations where appropriate.

Rationale: A basic question that may be asked about an existing orthography is whether it is adequate or not. “Adequate” includes multiple factors, and if even one of these is not good, the use of the orthography can be crippled.

• • • Assist language communities to evaluate and prioritize all relevant factors relating to orthographic decisions (including linguistic, literacy and educational, sociolinguistic, cultural, political, and technological factors).

    • In assisting language communities with issues relating to orthography decisions, use relevant participatory methodologies as appropriate to the local culture.

Rationale: Not all factors in an orthography are equally important, and this can vary from situation to situation. It is necessary to evaluate which factors are crucial in a given situation, and what can be tolerated even if less than ideal.

• • • Implement various approaches and methods for investigating orthographic alternatives (e.g. surveys, preference activities, miscue analysis procedures, spelling tasks, etc), selecting the most appropriate approach for the situation and the issue being investigated.

    • Design and undertake investigations taking account of the various factors which might influence/bias the results.

    • Analyze empirical data (either qualitatively and/or quantitatively as appropriate), forming sound conclusions about the results.

    • Understand the basic concepts of statistical testing.

Rationale: Testing is an essential part of evaluating whether an orthography will actually work.

These competencies are grouped into the subcategories of Linguistics, Literacy & Education, and Sociolinguistic & Political. They cover aspects of these disciplines which are particularly relevant for orthography development and revision.

Five competencies fall under this category: Phonetic Transcription, Determining Contrasts, Phonological Processes, Morphosyntax and Linguistics Participant Methodologies.

• Transcribe phonetic data from the local area in IPA, including suprasegmentals, making appropriate decisions about the level of phonetic detail included in the transcription.

• If relevant to the context, use software for acoustic phonetics, as necessary, to aid transcription.

Rationale: Since most orthographies base their representation on sounds, it is important to know what those sounds in a language actually are.

• • • Identify the phonemes of the language.

    • Identify tonal contrasts in the language, both lexical and grammatical.

    • Assist teams and language communities in exploring phoneme-grapheme mapping, and (where relevant) orthographic representation of tonal contrasts.

Rationale: Orthographies are typically based on contrasts, with a separate character (or combination of characters) for each contrastive element.

• • • Identify the main phonological processes (segmental and suprasegmental) that occur in the language

    • Recognize differences in types of phonological process (e.g. lexical versus post lexical processes) and implications for level of orthographic representation.

    • Assist teams and language communities in exploring how best to spell words and morphemes.

Rationale: An understanding of how and why the sounds of a word vary can help to determine the best spelling for the word.

• • • Identify morphemes and morpheme breaks.

    • Determine basic syntactic structures.

    • Recognize compound words and clitics.

    • Assist teams and language communities in exploring word break issues in the orthography.

Rationale: Determining morpheme and word boundaries is an essential part of determining where breaks or joining should take place in the orthography.

• • • Use participant methodologies to discover phonemic contrasts, selecting the most appropriate methodology for the situation and context.

    • Use participant methodologies to discover morpheme and word breaks, selecting the most appropriate methodology for the situation and context.

Rationale: Involving native speakers in the discovery stages is important for both usability and acceptance.

Four competencies fall under this category: Ease of Reading and Writing, Pedagogical Methods, Script Choice and Other Orthographies.

• • • Recognize over- and under-differentiation, their possible consequences for both readers and writers, and in such instances investigate ease of reading and writing, and the functional load of the relevant contrasts.

    • Understand the balance between factors that contribute to ease of reading and to ease of writing (including diacritics, visual crowding, written word length, visually similar symbols, grapheme complexity, handwritten language, etc) and apply this to specific orthographies.

    • Evaluate reading comprehension for different possibilities for representing tone (including symbols used, amount of tone marking, and orthographic depth of tone marking).

    • Understand the balance between phonological decoding and whole word recognition and investigate this for specific orthographies.

Rationale: Ease of reading and writing can play a major role in how much an orthography is used.

• • • Find out the particular pedagogical methods used in the local situation, discussing with relevant education personnel the relationship between the (proposed or existing) orthography and the local pedagogical methods.

    • Assist teams and language communities in considering possible options when aspects of the (proposed or existing) orthography do not fit well with the local pedagogical methods.

Rationale: Choices made in orthography design may interact with pedagogical methods.

• • • In situations where there is a choice of script, investigate how well the relevant scripts work for ease of reading and writing.

    • Recognize social factors having to do with local scripts.

    • Assist teams and language communities in considering factors relating to script decisions.

Rationale: Choice of scripts can affect acceptability of an orthography.

• • • Compare a proposed local orthography with other relevant orthographies, discussing the differences and possible implications with local speakers, teachers, literacy workers, etc.

    • In assisting communities with orthographic issues, apply knowledge or other relevant orthographies, and any challenges of transfer to/from these orthographies.

Rationale: How a local orthography relates to regional and national ones not only can affect acceptability, but also helps or hinders a transition to reading those other languages.

Three competencies fall under this category: Socio-political, Dialects and Intergenerational Language Change.

• • • Find out who the relevant stakeholders are and what their interests and viewpoints are, including any policies of the country regarding orthographies.

    • Investigate other socio-political factors that might influence people’s acceptance or rejection of a particular orthography.

    • Assist teams and local communities in evaluating the impact of socio-political factors on the acceptability of an orthography.

Rationale: Socio-political factors can have an enormous influence on both the process of developing an orthography, and its eventual use or disuse.

• • • Find out which dialect (if any) is most prestigious and which is most understood.

    • Collect details that would help decide among unilectal and multilectal options for orthography.

    • Assist teams and local communities in exploring orthography options for dialects.

Rationale: Dialect issues are essential to consider, since they affect how much of the language community benefits from the orthography.

• • • Discover how a language is undergoing phonological changes across generations.

    • Apply knowledge of intergenerational phonological change when assisting communities to make orthography decisions.

Rationale: Understanding phonological changes across generations is relevant for who can easily use the orthography.

This category contains two subcategories: Technology and Communication.

There is just one competency here: Technology Issues

• • • Understand the need for using Unicode, including the difference between wordforming and non-wordforming characters, so that the orthography can be used with various software.

    • Use keyboard software (e.g. Keyman) where relevant.

    • Investigate what technology is in common use in the local situation, and its capability.

    • Apply knowledge of technology issues to orthography development.

Rationale: Technology issues are crucial in usability of an orthography on various devices and with various software.

There is just one competency here: Communication

• • • Explain orthographic principles to a variety of audiences, including uninformed audiences.

    • Present in writing and in oral form, orthography decisions and the reasons for those decisions, both with established technical terminology, and with simplified terminology accessible to those without a high level of formal education.

Rationale: An orthography does not stand in isolation, but needs support from a number of stakeholders, including but not limited to, the community, universities and governments, and funding agencies, so a worker must be able to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences.