Rapid Appraisal questionnaire Rapid Appraisal wordlist
was based on the suggested village groupings and ease of comprehension described in Grant et al. 1994. The researchers sought to answer three main questions:
1. Could literature based on the Kwaja speech variety be used in the villages of Bitui, Ncha, and
Antere? 2.
Could literature based on the Koffa speech variety be used in the surrounding villages of Manang, Mbat, Jui, Bang, Mballa, Kom, Mbah and Mbepji?
3. Could literature based on the Lus speech variety be used in the village of Inkiri?
In order to realize the second goal, the researchers gathered and analysed information according to the Rapid Appraisal method. This method includes research into sociolinguistics, using Rapid Appraisal
group questionnaires, and lexicostatistics. The researchers wanted to answer the following questions: 1.
Do the speech varieties of the quarters of Adere show a high level of lexical similarity based on wordlists?
2. What is the potential for language development based on language vitality see section 6.2,
language attitudes see section 6.3, social cohesion, attitudes towards community development, and demographics see section 6.4?
3. Could literature in Bugo the quarter where the chief resides be used in the surrounding
quarters of Adere? The desired outcome for this research was to gain insight into the language development needs in
the Mfumte area. By identifying language needs, work can proceed on creating orthographies, dictionaries, and other written materials. The desired impact is for the Mfumte people to be able to read
and write in a language that is, or closely represents, their mother tongue.
4 Methodology
The research tools used in RA are questionnaires and wordlist elicitation. The questionnaires help to address the question, “What are the language use patterns, vitality, attitudes, and inter-intelligibility in a
given region?” Wordlist elicitation and subsequent lexicostatistical analysis help to indicate which speech varieties can be grouped together.
The tools of RTT are comprehension testing and post-RTT interviews. RTT attempts to measure the degree of understanding that one speech community has with another, using a recorded story. It
attempts to answer the question, “Is literature based on one speech variety extensible to other communities?” RTT also aids in answering the question, “Are peoples’ comprehension levels a result of
inherent intelligibility or acquired intelligibility?” In the present survey, the post-RTT interviews helped to answer the question, “What are the attitudes of the people towards the speech varieties being tested?”
The following subsections describe the tools used in RA and RTT.