Using the Transcriptions in the Community

Clifton Pye

Email: pyersqr (at) ku (dot) edu

The National Science Foundation in the United States requires investigators to address the broader impacts in research proposals. This requirement suggests that investigators go beyond simply seeking permission from the language community for their research and think of the ways in which their research can be returned to the language community and the wider world. The broader impact of research on language acquisition is an issue that we need to address systematically as a research community. Additional information on addressing the broader impact of linguistic research is available at the Documenting Endangered Languages Programme at the School of Oriental and African Languages (SOAS).

Many indigenous communities have bilingual teachers who help to ease the children’s transition to kindergarten and first grade where the instruction occurs in the majority language. Bilingual teachers may be keenly interested in learning how to write their language and struggle to produce written materials in the indigenous language. Researchers can look for ways to forge alliances with teachers and community members in order to jointly develop materials for teaching reading and writing in the indigenous language.