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About the Book
This volume discusses the cooperation, research and information needed in order to strategically plan significant language development in settings where multilingualism, urbanization, migration, language shift, diaspora populations, and refugee situations are prevalent and relevant factors. The important themes are useful collaboration in research, understanding the linguistic ecology, community engagement, and assessing impact. This volume stems from the experience and research of members of SIL International who are actively engaged in this type of collaboration and research for impact in language development. The collection of papers was selected from those presented at the Seventh International Language Assessment Conference (ILAC VII), held in Penang, Malaysia, from May 9-16, 2018. The overall theme of ILAC VII was *Understanding the Implications of Multilingualism*. The plenary papers at that conference, from which this collection was selected, focus on the theme of *Research and Collaboration for Impact in Multilingual Communities*.
This theme is designed to help us explore how collaborative research and participation can help address strategy and planning for language programs in multilingual communities. It is explicated by the following research questions:
- What is a Practical and Productive Framework for Collaboration and the Collecting of Strategic Information throughout the life of a language program?
- How do we best understand the whole Linguistic Ecology, including Language Repertoires, Multilingualism, and Vitality relevant to language programs?
- What do we know about The Practice and Importance of Engaging Communities in Planning the Future of their Language relative to the success of language programs?
- How do we best Assess Impact such as Scripture Engagement?
About the Editors
John W. Eppele lived and worked in South and Southeast Asia for over 15 years, conducting surveys or consulting for research of over 200 languages. He now serves as Language Assessment Coordinator for SIL International and LEAD Asia-Pacific (a service unit of SIL, integrating Language, Education and Development in Asia and the Pacific).
Mark E. Karan is a Language Strategy Consultant and Senior Sociolinguistics Consultant for SIL International, and an adjunct professor at Dallas International University. He holds an MA in Linguistics from the University of North Dakota and a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. He is particularly interested in the motivational dynamics of language shift and language related choices.
Angela Kluge is an International Language Assessment Consultant with SIL International, the series editor for Journal of Language Survey Reports, and the head of the German SIL training program Seminar für Sprache und Kultur. Since1992, she has been involved in language survey work (West Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia), doing field research as well as teaching and training language assessment specialists. She holds an MA in Language and Communication Research from the University of Cardiff and a PhD in Linguistics from Leiden University. She is especially interested in the assessment of language clusters and continua and in nonstandard Malay varieties.