On Location

On Location

On Location

Local language development initiatives from around the world

Language is fundamental to one's identity and to a sense of community and personal value.

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Featured Story

In Bangladesh, Mahle learning circle participants bring good health to their families and community.

A kitchen garden blooms, a mother and child are safe and healthy, and an elderly woman receives the support she needs.


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Africa

In Cameroon, SIL literacy consultants organized a course designed specifically to help language projects produce their own literature--without the complicated technology of computers.

Books. They are everywhere in the developed world. Bookstores and publishers abound. But for people in developing countries, books are hard to come by--especially in the mother-tongue languages of the people.


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Asia

Mon children on the western border of Thailand used to spend their days trying to understand the teacher who was speaking a language they did not understand well. Now, at least some Mon children are being taught in their own language.

By partnering with numerous organizations and the Thai government The Foundation for Applied Linguistics (FAL), a partner of SIL, helped provide a pilot program for Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education in the Mon community.

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Europe

Will a language die before the children learn to write it?

Teachers-in-training discuss problems of the lack of textbooks in the children's language and learn how they can develop their own materials.

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North America

In Guatemala, a week-long training event for Ixil speakers from two dialects was held to focus on mother-tongue education and equipping teachers.

HELPS International - an NGO working in Guatemala and indigenous Ixil educators requested some specialized training from SIL International Literacy and Education Consultants.
 

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South America

The Nadëb-speaking people of Brazil are now literate in their language and the national language.

The ability to read and write in the Nadëb language and the national language has resulted in growth of self esteem. They are now better equipped to address individual and community goals.


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Pacific

The STEP course is committed to the empowerment of Papua New Guineans as competent resource people with a vision to serve their own communities through vernacular literacy.

Course graduates are teachers in local elementary schools, or in adult literacy programs or in their churches. This training equips teachers to assist their students in reading fluency and creative writing skills.

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Sign Languages

Sign languages are unique among the world’s languages—they are languages of the eye rather than the ear.

The Ethnologue lists more than 130 signed languages, but the number of identified sign languages continues to climb with ongoing sociolinguistic survey of Deaf communities around the world.


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