21 - Researcher training and capacity development in language documentation

Summary

This chapter discusses the specific and general skills which are taught in language documentation training courses. It attempts to identify the major types of likely target audience, The chapter outlines the main approaches to training in language documentation up to the present day, from graduate courses to short workshops and summer schools. When discussing training it is necessary to determine who it actually is that is being trained, who is in fact a language documenter. The chapter discusses training programmes in language documentation and conservation (LDC) which lead to a recognized postgraduate degree. It looks at short courses and training programmes generally aimed at academic linguists but sometimes also including native speaker language activists. The chapter ends by looking to the future, with some observations and proposals based on experience and feedback from both trainers and trainees on various courses.