Planning a Language Development Program
Language development, done cooperatively with members of the local community, involves orthography design, ethnographic and linguistic analysis, literacy, and translation components. Strategic planning seeks to develop goals and implement plans for a project that are appropriate to its context.
In its simplest forms, program planning may consist of little more than listing and ordering various activities so as to achieve some goals which may not even be precisely defined. The work of a typical SIL language team, however, tends to be rather complex and its goals may need careful definition. Language development, done cooperatively with members of the local community, involves orthography design, ethnographic and linguistic analysis, literacy, and translation components.
SIL attempts to provide an overall framework for language program planning which takes into consideration all aspects of our programs and the contexts in which they operate. We assist our teams to assess the total context of their language development activities. We want them to avoid making unwarranted assumptions and to plan their activities in the light of clear thinking about their circumstances which is based on good research.
Our planning model includes four major components:
- The Identification of Key Factors -- Language assessment activities help us identify the linguistic, social, economic, political, and religious factors which are most important in characterizing a community and its felt needs and goals.
- Definition of Goals -- Based on the key factors, goals for the language development program are defined. These are long range definitions of what we hope to see accomplished in the project.
- Identification of Strategies -- The key factors also help us identify what methods or strategies will be most effective in achieving the goals of the project. Strategies take into account existing community-based groups and programs, the scoioeconomic situation, the dynamics of language contact and language use, and any other key factors that have been identified. A new set of strategies we are actively developing is that of vernacular media strategies.
- Planning of Objectives and Activities -- For each major strategy that is developed a number of short- or mid-range, measurable objectives are determined. Specific activities are planned and implemented which are aimed at achieving those objectives.
An important characteristic of the planning framework is that it is not a "once-and-for all" operation which remains substantially unchanged until the project is completed. Situations are constantly changing and our strategies and maybe even our goals may need to be altered in the light of these changes. Planning is a process which is continually being updated, and which has built into it regular times at which the facts about the situation are reviewed and our assumptions about our goals and strategies are re-examined.