Proceedings of Annual International Conference Syiah Kuala University - Social Sciences Chapter
Vol 7 (2017): 7th AIC in conjuction ICMR 2017 Universitas Syiah Kuala October 2017

From grab and go to engaging communities in language research

Stefanie Pillai (Department of English Language, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur)



Article Info

Publish Date
05 Jun 2018

Abstract

In many cases, language researchers collect data from community of speakers and then go on to write their theses, academic articles book, and present at conferences. The benefit of the research to these communities is often minimal. There is often no social obligation for researchers to give back to communities via knowledge-sharing activities. This leaves a large gap in the process of language research as the research findings have little or no impact on the communities concerned. This paper discusses (i) shifting the ‘grab-and-go’ research approach to one that incorporates knowledge sharing and community engagement; (ii) ways in which researchers can engage communities to help them to document, preserve and revitalize their language drawing on specific examples of the cycle of language research, documentation and revitalization of Malacca Portuguese Creole.

Copyrights © 2017