Literacy work in Papua New Guinea: the accidental and the planned
- Mary Raymond
Abstract
In this paper I present a case study of literacy projects in two languages of Papua New Guinea, Arop-Lokep (Arop dialect) and Karnai. While carrying out fieldwork on the Arop-Lokep and Karnai languages I assisted with several small scale vernacular literacy initiatives, including writers’ workshops, spelling or alphabet design workshops, and the publication of alphabet books, collected stories and ‘Shell Books’ (cf. Section 3). Most of these initiatives were planned in advance, but a number of them generated unanticipated offshoots and grew in unexpected ways (and with varying degrees of success), often as a result of community members exercising their own resourcefulness. In this paper I will argue for the importance of balancing planning and flexibility in an approach to literacy work. While it is the responsibility of linguists and community language workers to prepare thoroughly, not only for the core activities but also for the preparatory and follow-up stages of the literacy projects they plan to carry out, it is also their task to be responsive and adaptable to the needs and interests of the community, and to respond to the unexpected opportunities that may arise.
Keywords: Papua New Guinea, Arop-Lokep, Karnai, literacy, projects, initiatives, flexibility, planning
How to Cite:
Raymond, M., (2007) “Literacy work in Papua New Guinea: the accidental and the planned”, Language Documentation and Description 4, 174-194. doi: https://doi.org/10.25894/ldd267
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