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‘What a dolt one is’: language learning and fieldwork in geography
Author(s) -
Watson Elizabeth E
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/j.0004-0894.2004.00324.x
Subject(s) - vernacular , set (abstract data type) , sociology , language acquisition , linguistics , foreign language , epistemology , pedagogy , mathematics education , psychology , computer science , philosophy , programming language
This paper discusses aspects of the theory and practice of foreign language learning for fieldwork in geography, a rarely discussed set of issues despite the personal investment that language learning requires from the researcher. In some cases of cross‐cultural research, it may be particularly desirable to learn a vernacular language for which there are few (or no) study aids. However, there is little guidance about how learning such a language should be approached, or discussion of its significance for the subsequent research. Through a discussion of personal experience in Ethiopia, the paper describes one way of learning a vernacular language, and explores the advantages that this brought to the fieldwork and to the resulting research understandings.