4. Have any materials produced for the target group been used?
If materials have already been produced by PBT, the government, or another NGO, the use or non- use of those materials will tell us something about the excitement the community has for language
development. The indicator used for this research question is the following:
• If materials have been developed, they are being used in churchschool. This indicator was assessed in the questionnaire. Where possible, physical examples of these
materials were collected and photographed.
2.4 Survey instruments
Copies of the survey instruments used are given in the appendices.
2.4.1 Main Questionnaire
The Main Questionnaire Appendix A was conducted in each village with community leaders and anyone else present. Most cultures in Papua New Guinea are egalitarian; it is inappropriate to seek
answers for the group from an individual. To mitigate this, the questionnaire is given to the entire group at once allowing for discussion and a final “official” answer to be given and recorded. In these settings
most people are free to speak until a consensus has been reached. The answer was then related to me by a community leader.
2.4.2 Walkabout Questionnaire
The second questionnaire is the Walkabout Questionnaire Appendix B used to record miscellaneous information elicited during a guided tour through the village. It contains a place to record a sampling of
village houses and the number that belong to immigrants. The sheet also includes space to make observations about vernacular materials in church and school buildings.
2.4.3 Social Network Activity
The purpose of this activity was to create a social network map of the Lower Ramu villages. It reveals which villages are connected and how strong those connections are. Using a preset list of villages and
potential connections allows for consistency in the data that is elicited. Following is a description of the activity by which the social network map was created:
I placed a circle of yarn on the ground. I marked the circle with the name of the target village. I then gave a village leader a stack of cards with names of all the other Lower Ramu villages on them. I
explained that the circle represents a certain relationship or connection between the two, e.g. villages where you get women for marriage. I asked the people to list those villages by placing the cards with
their names inside the circle. All other villages remain outside the circle.
After the people finished, I reviewed the information and made any changes they wanted. Then I recorded the information and cleared the cards. The process was repeated for all other interactions or
connections between that village and others. Critique
I came to the area with a list of village names that I wanted to map socially. The list comprised all the villages of each of the Lower Ramu languages according to the latest census information. I expected each
village to recognize all the other village names. Instead, I found that most people did not know the villages by the names I had. Instead, what I had as multiple villages were sometimes conceived by the
people as one area, leading to confusion about which villagesareas I was asking about. Therefore I question the validity of some of the data gathered by this method.
In previous surveys this method has elicited positive participatory response. This time, due to the confusion about which villages we were talking, the method was received coldly. I came to see it as a
waste of time, and for the last half of the villages I took the information in questionnaire form.
2.4.4 Teacher Interview and Church Leader Interviews
