Strengthening Fieldwork in Language Documentation

Forum for Language Initiatives (FLI) in collaboration with International Islamic University, Islamabad arranged a two day-long workshop for the faculty members and research scholars of the Linguistic Department for strengthening their skills in advanced linguistics research and language documentation. The participants were introduced to new tools, techniques, and technology used in field linguistic and language documentation.

The participants have appreciated the workshop, content, and the FLI’s efforts to work on the lesser-known languages of Pakistan. The faculty has resolved to assign each language to a group of students to work on during their final year project. The HoD of the English Department Dr. Akhtar Aziz pledged to introduce the course of field linguistics in the curriculum and expose the students to the practical field and tools.

The Rector of International Islamic University Dr. Masoom Yasinzai, while addressing the final session of the event said that Pakistan was linguistically diverse and it was like a bunch of flowers with each language having its own color and beauty. “We must preserve this identity of Pakistan”, he added. He also appreciated FLI’s contribution towards preserving and promoting the lesser known languages of the country.

The purpose of the activity was to collaborate with academia for working on languages. It is inspiring to observe that relevant departments of the universities in Pakistan are increasingly focusing on Pakistan’s languages and guiding their faculties and students to look into them. This is a great change, for which, FLI has been collaborating with the universities since long and it does hope to accelerate its cooperation with them providing the needful according to its capacity in future.