Fieldwork as a Participatory Research Activity: The Mayangna Linguistic Teams

Abstract

In dealing with endangered languages, focus has been shifting from the languages themselves and their scientific documentation to the communities that speak such languages. This paper is an attempt to examine how linguistic, scientific research can be conducted in a way that actively involves and empowers the target community-an approach which falls under the umbrella of what may be known as participatory research. In this paper, we will address the particular goals and theoretical bases of a participatory-research-based approach to linguistic research, we will present some of the projects that have been or are presently being conducted in Nicaragua, and we will evaluate the preliminary results of those projects.