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Three relevant components
Analytical skills
Methodological skills
Practical skills
Fieldwork skills
How these are understood and taught differs considerably.
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Analytical skills Often understood as the core linguistic skills
necessary to arrive at descriptive statements based on empirical data:– Building an analysis based on paradigm elicitation or from
a text.– Generally starting with phonemic analysis because of its
importance for understanding morphology.
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Methodological skills
The knowledge to employ varied and adequate data collection techniques in order to arrive at a valid analysis of a given linguistic domain.– Potential and limits of corpus
data– Benefits and challenges of
elicitation– Knowledge of stimulus-based
data collection techniques– Expertise with the collection and
analysis of quantitative data
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Practical skills
The skills necessary in order to conduct a field-based research project:– Getting accepted by the
speech community– Setting up a field base– Selecting, using,
maintaining and repairing equipment
– Collecting, editing, digitising and analysing primary data
– Dealing with health and safety issues
– …
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Crucial: interdependence of the components
Analytical skills
Practical skills
Methodological skills
Art Craft
Fieldwork skills
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What can be taught in class?
The format of field method courses should be expected to have consequences for their content:– Number of consultants– Choice of language– Length of course– Availability of equipment and technical and IT support
and expertise
However, there is less variation than one would expect between the basic
setup and focus of field method courses.
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Number of consultants
Courses generally work with one consultant, one or more instructors,
and a group of students of varying size.
This setup entails limits regarding the
nature of linguistic
information and
interaction.
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Choice of language
A number of courses work with speakers of any ‘exotic’ language, even if there is a wealth of information on it available, e.g. Korean, Swahili, etc.
Other courses insist on selecting a language for which little or no linguistic information exists.
This setup entails more scope for in-depth investigation of specific areas of
grammar.
This setup is more similar to the initial
situation in the field, where all
areas of grammar need to be
understood before specific areas can
be researched.
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Length of course
Courses vary dramatically in length, from a whole academic year to a trimester.
However, depending on the language chosen, the analytical and methodological task for a course of twelve weeks in length can be as big as that for a course spanning two semesters
Maybe only longer courses should
focus on un(der)described
languages?
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The old ELAP LDD model
Term 1 Term 2
Issues in LDD – ‘artsy’ practical and
methodological skills
Technology and LDD – ‘craftsy’ practical and methodological skills
Field methods – focus on
analytical skills
Problem: practical and methodological skills are learned through working with language data, so
should ideally use the data collected in field methods.
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The new ELAP LDD model
Term 1 Term 2
Issues in LDD – ‘artsy’ practical and methodological skills
Technology and LDD – ‘craftsy’ practical and methodological skills
Field methods – focus on analytical skills, but more inclusion of practical and
methodological skills
Problem: skills learned in the Issues and Technology courses don’t build up on each
other but are needed simultaneously, ideally at the beginning of Field methods.
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No more field methods course?
Term 1 Term 2
Issues in LDD – ‘artsy’ practical and methodological skills
Technology and LDD – ‘craftsy’ practical and methodological skills
Project work finding a language
community in London and
collecting first sociolinguistic
data
Project work: student groups
investigate different areas of that language and
exchange data and findings
Ass
ess
ment
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Your vote
Please vote for one of the course layouts:– Classic (one speaker, focus on analytical
skills)– Old ELAP LDD (Issues and Technology
precede Field methods)– New ELAP LDD (Field methods alongside
Issues and Technology)– No more Field methods course, but
integrated project work
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Challenges
The more controlled the teaching of field work skills is, the more it is removed from the reality of working with a language under field conditions.
However, the setup of higher education requires modularity and effectiveness of assessment, more difficult to achieve in integrated setups.
In addition, integrated setups are more difficult to realise because skills and approaches across teaching staff are not identical.
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Description vs. documentation
“For description, the main concern is the production of grammars and dictionaries whose primary audience are linguists… In these products language data serves essentially as exemplification and support for the linguist’s analysis.” (Austin 2006: 87)
[..] Language documentation, on the other hand, places data at the center of its concerns.” (Austin 2006:87)
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If we are serious about the centrality of data, the skills associated with their collection
and analysis should be a central part of the curriculum, be it in a designated course or
distributed over the syllabus.
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