Event:

Language Technology Consultant Training course.  This will be an Anglo-Lusophone Africa training event.

Purpose:

To develop a base of competent language technology consultants and specialists to resource Bible translation and language development in Africa, by teaching relatively new tools and methods for performing common language software support tasks and by presenting specific problems that occur frequently and discussing their solutions from the combined experience of the group.  The participant will gain tools and skills that will make them more effective as a language technology consultant or specialist.

Dates:

2-11 March 2020

Location:

Ruiru, Kenya

Cost:

There is a cost subsidy that includes a full coverage of all local costs including room and board and transport to and from the Nairobi Airport for each participant. However, the participant or the entity is responsible for all the travel cost to Kenya.  In addition, each participant is required to pay a course fee of only $200.

Impact

Below are some testimonies from participants who have attended LTCT last year.

The Impact of the Language Technology Consultant Training (LTCT) by James Madaki from Nigeria (one of the participants)

I first attended the Language Technology Consultant Training otherwise known as LTCT in 2015. And since then, I have attended four annual training workshops organized by Africa Area.

This training workshop has been so beneficial in so many ways to me as an individual and my entity as a whole.

Ever since I started attending the LTCT program I have not remained the same. This workshop has afforded me a wide range of language software technological growth in the area of Paratext, Bloom, Language Explorer (Flex), Scripture App Builder, among others. It has improved and equipped my understanding on how best to plan and execute an effective training workshop down at my entity.

This workshop has further exposed us participants to newer versions of language software and its effective use and application…

The Impact of the Language Technology Consultant Training (LTCT) by David Oandah from Uganda (one of the participants)

Being from a purely strong IT background, there is a tendency to treat important organizational relevant technologies casually. For an IT technician, support of language technologies is not thorough in terms of use and optimization but rather it is about the usual technical troubleshooting and debugging to keep them working. This does not give relevant language development technologies core priority, yet these technologies directly aid communities in maximizing the use of their languages through literacy and linguistics development.

LTCT strategically focuses on developing others and me as consultants to give attention specifically to language technology. Through the years, I have gradually developed skills that have allowed me to grow as a consultant in language technology providing training, troubleshooting and promotion of these tools. It is an honorable task to work with translation, literacy or linguistics tools that directly drive the organization’s vision and mission. I truly appreciate the funding and support to LTCT so far. I hope to see language technology categorically and distinctively given more priority and more LT consultants brought on board to use these tools to steer the organizational agenda, which is to see communities enriched with God’s word through their languages.

Language of Instruction:

English

Participants:

Each SIL/WMO organizational unit (OU) in Anglo-Lusophone Africa is invited to send at least one participant to the workshop.  Each entity can send as many applications as necessary. The participant should be someone who is available to your entity to provide language technology support at least 33% of their time to translation and language projects.  The participant should be in a position to use their newly acquired skills immediately upon their return from the course.

The participant should be the kind of person that translators and linguists naturally gravitate to when they are looking for help with the computer.

If you sent a person to the Language Technology Consultant Training course in 2019, I encourage you to send the same person to this event, so that his skills can be developed and updated.  There are only 15 slots available  Repeat participants will be given priority.

The participant should already have at least a basic understanding in the following area

• Working knowledge of the Windows operating system

• Working knowledge of fonts

• Working knowledge of a word processor

• Working knowledge of an e-mail system.

• Working knowledge of internet

• Familiarity with standard format markers (SFM)

• Familiarity with some of the current language software programs.

• Familiarity with some of the tasks that translators/linguists do.

The participant will be put on a growth plan for becoming a language technology consultant or specialist for your entity, if he/she is not already on one.

Equipment:

The participant will need to bring his/her own notebook computer to use at the workshop.  The notebook computer must be running Windows 10.  It must be at least an Intel i3 processor running at 2.1 GHz or higher, or an Intel Core Duo processor running at 1.66 GHz or higher.  It must have at least 4GB of RAM.  It must contain a HDD of 200 GB or higher.  It must have at least two USB ports.  The participant will also need to bring an Android device (smartphone or tablet, preferably with Android version 5 and above) with him/her.  The Android device will need to be able to talk to your PC.