African language consultants
The Mizzou Linguistics Program seeks applicants for a position as language consultant to the course Field Methods in Linguistics in Spring 2020. Field Methods is the capstone course of the Linguistics major at Mizzou in which students study the linguistic structures of a language they do not know through interviews with the language consultant. Each year we focus on an African language; in past years we have studied languages of DRC, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, and Tanzania.
The language consultant will attend all class sessions and there will also be a few (1-3) additional hours of meetings outside of class each week. The main task of the language consultant will be to translate words, phrases, and sentences from English into his or her language. Students will transcribe the consultant's pronunciations and analyze the language data they collect. We may also study other examples of spoken language (e.g. folktales or stories) with the language consultant’s assistance. It is not the job of the language consultant to teach us his or her language, but for us to learn how to ask the right questions, write down the answers, and then make sense of them.
The main requirements for this position are that the consultant must:
be a fluent, first-language speaker of an African language.
be available during class time, Tuesday / Thursday 2:00 – 3:15 pm, and for a few additional hours of meetings per week from Jan. 21 to May 7, 2020.
live in or near Columbia, MO, and be authorized to work in the US.
The language consultant will be paid $15/hour. International students must be eligible to work around 6 hours per week on this position. Non-students are also welcome to apply.
Applicants should submit an expression of interest to Michael Marlo (marlom@missouri.edu) that includes their contact information, and the name of their language(s) and any information about variety/dialect. Please also contact Michael with any questions, and feel free to share this announcement with others who might be interested in the position.
Please submit expressions of interest in the language consultant position by Sunday, December 1, 2019.