Bilingualism participatory method Appreciative Inquiry participatory method

3.3.6 Bilingualism participatory method

Description and Purpose: This method helps language community members describe the demographics and patterns of multilingualism within their community. Procedure: Participants listed the languages spoken most frequently in their community. They then described categories of people who speak each language well, the relative size of each category of speakers, and which categories may be increasing most quickly. See Appendix E-2a for the specific steps included in this method. Sampling: A group of 15 Yamphu speakers seven ladies and eight men in the village of Hedangna participated in this facilitation. Advantages: This method allows those participating to describe the linguistic situation in their community. Through discussion and interaction, it reveals the community’s perception of bilingualism. An insider perspective can be very insightful, providing data that other methods may miss. Disadvantages: This method is not very accommodating to multilingual situations exceeding the complexity of bilingualism. It does not help document or illustrate community attitudes towards their bilingualmultilingual context. The tool is exclusively descriptive and observational. It does not provide an opportunity for participants to evaluate the merits of various language use choices.

3.3.7 Appreciative Inquiry participatory method

Description and Purpose: The Appreciative Inquiry AI method helps community members discuss what they are proud of, what desires they have for their language, and begin planning for how to achieve those dreams. It shows what the community regards as priorities for their own language-based development. Procedure: Participants discuss things in their L1 or culture that have made them happy or proud. They then consider how to build upon the good things they identified, or list their own dreams for their language. Next, they discuss which dreams might be accomplished sooner and which ones will take longer. Then, they identify which dreams are most important to them. Finally, participants choose a dream they would like to create a plan for, including first steps, who will be involved, and when the plan will be put into action. See Appendix E-4a for detailed steps on how to carry out this method. Sampling: A group of 15 Yamphu speakers seven ladies and eight men in the village of Hedangna participated in this facilitation. Advantages: AI is very adaptable. Its emphasis is on what the community can do now to work towards their dreams for language development. Disadvantages: AI may raise false hopes of outside assistance in reaching their goals.

3.4 Overview of survey goals and methods