Dr. Mayuree Thawornpat delivers lecture on field methods for language documentation and revitalization in Thailand

The Lingg 225 (Mga Pangfild na Metod sa Linggwistiks) class hosted a special lecture on field methods in Southeast Asian Linguistics on 22 November 2021 via Zoom. Titled, “Field methods for language revitalization in Thailand”, the lecture was delivered by Dr. Mayuree Thawornpat of the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia (RILCA), Mahidol University, Thailand.

Dr. Thawornpat is a researcher and lecturer at RILCA and is currently engaged in the documentation, revitalization, and maintenance of endangered languages, as well as bilingual/multilingual education for ethnic groups in Thailand. Her specializations include orthography development, language development revitalization and maintenance for ethnic groups and also ethno-linguistics. 

In her virtual lecture, Dr. Thawornpat shared the community-based research model that they employ at RILCA in documenting the languages and cultures of various ethnolinguistic groups in Thailand. She emphasized how essential it is for researchers to work closely with members of the community as aside from having them as language consultants in the project, they can also assist in getting access to areas and persons that researchers, who might be outsiders of these communities, would otherwise not be able to reach.

Dr. Thawornpat also related the differences between language documentation and revitalization, and discussed the process that their researchers usually go through, which usually involve extensive discussions with community members and other stakeholders on their needs and what they believe they can and should do to maintain their languages. She also showed the many steps that follow these initial discussions with the community and how complex it is to get from the preliminary research stage to getting the government to support language revitalization programs.

The event is part of the virtual lecture series headed by Dr. Kritsana A. Canilao, one of our Assistant Professorial Fellows at the Department. It aims to give students an opportunity to learn from experts conducting fieldwork in neighboring countries, especially since the methods applied in the field and the tools used in data documentation and analysis have changed through time and given the current challenges.

Lingg 225 is a core course in the MA Linguistics program and one of the required MA courses for PhD Linguistics students without a background in linguistics. For more information about our graduate programs, please click this link.