Gathering baseline data

A well-planned literacy program is based on information that gives you an understanding of the current situation and a realistic prediction of the future situation. This information is the baseline data.

• Ask questions relating to the following:

  • The general situation of the community

    • The educational situation
    • The economic situation
    • The sociocultural situation
    • The spiritual situation

  • The attitudes of different groups to indigenous languages

    • The community's attitude toward their language
    • The national and regional attitude towards local languages in general
    • The attitude of those in the formal education system to the use of local languages in the classroom

  • Motivation for literacy

    • Motivation among community members
    • Motivation among government, education, and nongovernment organization leaders

  • The dialect situation as it will affect a literacy program

    • The numbers and location of dialects and their mutual intelligibility
    • The dialects which should be selected for beginning the program

  • Leadership and support for the program

    • Community members who can be trained for full-time involvement in the program
    • Community members who will provide support for the program
    • Nongovernment organization and government personnel who will support and facilitate the program

• How to prepare by research and planning

• Task module: Gathering baseline data
• In task module: Doing preliminary research and planning for a lite..., by Stephen L. Walter and Trudy K. Stewart (general editor)
• In task module: Preparing for a literacy program
• In modular book: Prepare for a literacy program, by Stephen L. Walter, Mary Morgan, and Leah B. Walter
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 22 October 1999

© 1999 SIL International