Report on the CAMEEL inquiry

Jean de Dieu Karangwa and Jacques Souillot
CRIM-INALCO, Paris

CONTENTS

0. INTRODUCTION

1. RESULTS

2. Conclusion

APPENDICES

0. INTRODUCTION

One of the recommendations of the Paris (17-19 Sept 1996) meeting was to undertake an inquiry in the different partner institutions of CAMEEL (see Appendix 1 for the updated list). The main aims of this inquiry are:

In the beginning, the responsible person for that inquiry was Pascal Potron, then researcher at CRIM-INALCO Paris. The results he got from a preliminary survey were exposed during the meeting of Vico Equense (7-13 Oct 1997).

Afterwards, in consideration of the presurvey results, some methodological modifications were made. The former, one and general, questionnaire was revisited in its presentation and content, which helped to make it more precise. That questionnaire was divided into two separate questionnaires, the first one, general, intended for heads of departments and the second one for teachers and researchers (see Appendix 2a, 2b).

The inquiry itself began in mid-December 1997 under the responsibility of Jean de Dieu Karangwa and Jacques Souillot, researchers at CRIM-INALCO. Questionnaires were mailed to the 19 CAMEEL partners. E-mail, ground mail were principally used and fax if need be.

At that time, the objective was the presentation of the report during the meeting of Paris (30-31 Jan 1998). But that was impossible because all the answers were not sent back, despite recall mails sent in mid-January 1998. So, it was just a brief report based on the few available answers which was presented in Paris. The core group decided that the inquiry should continue, which meant chasing up the partners who had not answered the questionnaires and asking them to fill up the documents and send them back, the deadline to data collecting being 28 Feb 1998.

The results reviewed in this report are based on information supplied by 15 out of the 19 institutions contacted and reflect the current situation in 1997-98.

1. RESULTS

This part consists of three sections: the African languages taught, the human resources and the available computer tools, software and hardware.

1.1. African languages taught

The number of African languages taught is 34, provided by twelve institutions (see Appendix 3 for their distribution). This is their classification according to their frequency, from the more to the less frequently taught:

i) Kiswahili

ii) Hausa

iii) Amharic

iv) Bambara, Berber, Somali, Yoruba

v) Wolof, Ge'ez, Tigrinya

vi) Ewe, Luo, Fulani, Zulu, Ciluba, Akan (-Twi)

vii) Maasai, Malagasy, Comorian, !Kung, Lucazi, Kirundi, Khosa, Oromo, Igbo, Bemba, Ndonga, Kanuri, Shona, Koronfi, Moore, Luganda, Lingala.

The Bantu group is apparently the most represented (12, i.e. 34%). And according to the answers of the 43 teachers, the linguistic aspects are more taught than the literary ones (33, i.e. 76.5%, vs 10, i.e. 23.5%).

1.2. Human resources

1.2.1. Students

The students, for each institution, are distinguished as Undergraduates and Postgraduates.

Except for Brussels where there are no undergraduates, the other institutions record a total number which varies from 15 to 575 students, with:

As far as postgraduates are concerned (see also next page diagramme) they are

Those figures indicate the rough number of students in various Africa departments, all options included (History, Civilisation, Linguistics, Literature...). The attempt to get precise statistics about the students involved in language studies was successless since it was not an easy task for all correspondents to have this information. This invites the reader to consider cautiously those figures, which give a global picture of different departments, notwithstanding our ignorance of students'attendance.

1.2.2. Teachers and researchers

A total of about 170 teachers and researchers are involved in African languages teaching and research in the 15 institutions and they are:

Though we have got information on the different languages they teach or on which they carry research, it was not possible to know the position (teacher, teacher/researcher, researcher..., part or full time working) of all of them.

In fact, 44 persons responded to the questionaire, i.e. 25% out of the approximate total of 170. Among them, 12 (i.e. 27%) are teachers and 25 (i.e. 57%) teachers-researchers. The majority are employed full time, 31 (i.e. 70%) vs 8 (i.e. 18%) part time.

Most of them (15, i.e. 34%) teach Kiswahili or carry research on that language. 6 are involved in Kiswahili only, 6 in Kiswahili plus another (or more) Bantu language(s) and 3 in Kiswahili plus another non Bantu language. Others teach mainly Bambara, Berber, Ewe...

As seen above (1.1), they are more numerous to teach language (33, i.e. 75% vs 10, i.e. 22.5%) ; 28 (i.e. 63.5%) provide courses to undergraduates, while 7 (i.e. 16%) do the same for postgraduates.

1.3. Computing

1.3.1. Teachers/researchers' knowledge and skills in computing

Among the 44 teachers and/or researchers, 6 (i.e. 13.5%) think of themselves as basic users of desktop software. 16 (i.e. 36.5%) have more advanced expertise in computing. 22 (i.e. 50%) did not answer the question.

As regards the languages on which they work, 7 are mainly concerned with Kiswahili. The other languages are Zulu, Igbo, Oromo, Somali, Gbe, Bambara, Hausa, Malagasy, Akan...

23 persons (i.e. 52%) mentioned the kind of software they would like to have.

1.3.2 Software and needs

i) 8 (i.e. 34.5%) are principally interested in acquiring lemmatizers and parsers, and subsidiarily in:

ii) 6 (i.e. 26%) would like to have software dedicated to dictionary making, some give more details:

iii) 5 (i.e. 21.5%) need fonts, of which:

iv) 3 (i.e.13%) need "Shoebox".

v) One needs "Qsu Nud/st Quatre" and SGML/LML tools.

vi) Two persons would like to be seriously informed on the available software relevant for them, one had heard of "Mariama" only.

Out of the above 23 who expressed their need to acquire software, 13 (i.e. 56.5%) envisaged getting the software they mentioned, while 8 (i.e. 34.5%) thought they could not or would not. Nearly all of those who did not think they would and could, gave financial reasons (too expensive, no money...). The other reasons were: software non-availability, lack of institutional environment, analysis of target audience requiring a long reflexion, a market research.... One person said "Filemaker pro" was sufficient for their needs.

1.3.3 Software development and expertise

16 teachers and/or researchers (i.e. 39.5%) have already been involved in the creation or adaptation of language software. Those software deal with fundamental computational linguistic issues. 8 of those software can be used in teaching, and another 8 can be used for research purposes.

The same Thilo Schadeberg is very experienced in using commercial software for (African) linguistic needs.

1.3.4 Programming languages

The various programming languages used by those teachers and researchers range from the traditional to the newly released:

Traditional languages:

Basic: 7; C: 2; Lisp and Prolog:1

Others: Tex: 1; Hypertalk (Glossary): 1

Object-oriented languages:

C++: 5; Smalltalk: 1; Java: 3; Javascript: 3

Others: Pascal.

Authoring languages:

Authorware: 0; Toolbook, Director: 1

Other languages:

Perl and AWK: 1

Com. dtbase software lexicography, CC (SIL), Beta ( a rewriting language).

1.4 Institutions and their equipments

Except for Lisbon, Vienna, Hamburg, Gent, Naples who did not answer the question, all other institutions have got at least one computing unit.

There are units

In some of those institutions, teaching and research are carried out (Paris, Brussels, Nice, Berlin, Zürich, Leiden, Helsinki, Koln). Others deal with teaching only (London, Leipzig).

1.4.1 Regarding teaching:

1.4.2 Regarding research:

1.4.3 Types of computers in use

Within those institutions, the computers available fall into two categories: Mac and PC, with a clear predominance of the second one:

  Mac PC
Naples 1 6
Vienne 10 20
Zürich 13 3
Leiden 20 10
Paris 10 9
London 15  
Brussels 4 2
Gent   5
Helsinki   several
Lisbon   several
Berlin   4
Leipzig   6
Koln   10

All the institutions have at least Windows 3.1 and 95 and Windows NT is available in Leipzig.

Zürich, Helsinki and Koln use the Unix/Linux environments.

1.4.4 Peripherals

The following table recapitulates the available number of sound cards, CD Rom drivers and scanners:

 

Sound-Cards

CD-Rom drivers

Scanners
Naples

1

7

1
Paris

3

5

3
London

15

6

1
Leipzig

2

3

1
Brussels

1

2

  
Berlin

1

2

1
Gent

3

5

1
Zürich

1

1

  
Koln

3

3

1
Hamburg

1

  

1

1.4.5 Software used

As for desktop software:

The database software currently used are:

Inventoried specific software dedicated to linguistics in general and African linguistics in particular can be classified in two groups.

Some are common to several institutions:

Others are specific to different institutions.

This is a comprehensive table of all the software mentioned:

  Names Languages Institutions
Fonts and keyboards		 New Lacito; IPA times

World Script

Truetype fonts + Keyman (SIL)

SIL IPA 93 fonts

Tavulte soft keybrd manager

SIL IPA Fonts

SIL (TTF, PS)

"Hansa" (TTF)

Kasai

  

Amharic

Akan, Toura

Latin alphabet

IPA

Hausa

Ciluba

 Brussels

London

Zürich

Berlin

Leipzig

Gent
Constitution and handling of corpora		 Adapted File-Maker Pro 40

Swatwol

Shoebox, Asksam

DBT

Several tools

It, Shoebox

Shoebox

WordSmith

  

Kiswahili

Latin alphabet

depends

Ciluba

 Brussels

Zürich

Koln

Naples

Helsinki

Hamburg

Leipzig

Gent
Lemmatizers		 Shoebox 3.09

Aini, Shoebox

Aini

Swatwol

Shoebox

  

Kiswahili

Kiswahili

 Zürich

Koln

Naples

Helsinki

Leipzig
Parsers		 Shoebox 3.09

Aini

Swatwol + Swacgp

Shoebox

Aini

Shoebox

  

Kiswahili

Kiswahili

 Zürich

Koln

Helsinki

Berlin

Leiden

Leipzig
Tagging tools		 Shoebox 3.09

Swatwol + Swacgp

Shoebox

 

Kiswahili

 Zürich

Helsinki

Leipzig
Statistical tools		 Asksam Word

Home-made

DBT, Aini

Swatwol + Unix programs

Lexistat

   Zürich

Koln

Naples

Helsinki

Leiden
Documentary tools Word 6.0/7.0

Shoebox

   Zürich

Berlin
Sorting tools		 Shoebox/Word

Aini, Shoebox

Those on Unix programs

Shoebox

   Zürich

Koln

Helsinki

Berlin
Computer Aided Language Learning		   Hausa

Akan

 London

Zürich
Others:		 Mapmaker 3

Signaliser (phonetics)

Swahili spell checker

Afrofoon

  

Kiswahili

African languages

 Brussels

London

Naples

Leiden

Lisbon declares to work with other institutions where most of these items might be available.

As for the adequacy of those software for use in some of the modules proposed for the Masters, several positive answers were recorded from different institutions. They can be useful for morphology and lexicography (Naples, Brussels), Hausa CALL can play a demonstrative role, Signaliser might play a role in phonetics (London). Shoebox can be used in many modules (Berlin, Leipzig). In Zürich they are currently using those tools for research, and are moving towards the development of computer resources for ODL.

1.4.6 Electronic communications

About communication, four means (local network, e-mail, Web, Telnet) were suggested and the aim was to know if they were accessible to teachers/researchers, undergraduates and postgraduates.

In four institutions (Berlin, Leipzig, Helsinki, Koln), those means are available for the three groups of users. The only difference between London and Leiden, on the one hand, and the four previous institutions, on the other hand, is that Telnet is exclusively reserved to teaching/research staff.

Vienna and Naples have some similarities because in the two places access to web and e-mail is free for all. But Vienna has got a local network, which is not the case for Naples.

As for the other institutions, their situation is summerized in this table:

  Researchers/teachers Undergraduates Postgraduates
Local network Hamburg, Zürich    
E-mail Paris, Zürich, Gent, Hamburg, Brussels Zürich, Hamburg Zürich, Hamburg, Gent
Web Zürich, Hamburg, Gent Zürich, Hamburg Zürich, Hamburg, Gent
Telnet Zürich, Hamburg    

We must note that if all the heads of departments and all Cameel correspondents have got e-mail addresses, it is not the same for all teachers. As an example, 10 out of the 44 who answered the questionnnaire (i.e. 22.5%) do not have any.

1.5. Masters modules and institutions

Concerning the possibility of providing the different modules of the Masters, their distribution according to different places is shown hereafter.

The names of the departments are reduced to two lower case letters and the names of the institutions to two upper case letters.

According to the previous results, there is an unequal repartition among departments and other units. The second ones are evidently the most suited to provide a great number of modules. The departments keep the general and classic courses such as Introduction to linguistics; Phonetics, Phonology and orthography; Morphology and syntax; Lexicography and to some extent Use of tools for phonetic analysis. Tools for comparative linguistics can only be taught by two departments. No department can teach Programming language and Design of data structure and algorithms. Computer Assisted Language Learning and software design can only be provided by one department and three units and Use of computer assisted teaching material, Use of language corpora and text archives by four units.

As for ODL, it can be taught by Hamburg and Helsinki. Zürich plan to do it in a near future with a partnership of Berlin, on a common project of teaching Akan named "ALI AKAN". In London, not as a department but as a school, they host a major ODL programme in Eunomics (sic). Lisbon also participate in ODL programmes for Portuguese language learning.

Taken as a teaching tool, ODL could help Helsinki in the teaching of CALL and Tools of comparative linguistics.

Globally, the cross department/other units and number of teachable modules makes

for departments:

for other units:

For a better interpretation of these data, the following diagramme presents them:

  be BE br BR ge GE ha HA he HE ko KO ld LD lp LP li LI lo LO na NA ni NI pa PA zu ZU  
Structure and use of computers: basic concepts   *   *       *   * *     *       *       *       *     9
Introduction to computational linguistics   *   * *     *   * *     * *     *               *   * 11
Networks (e.g. Internet), multimedia and databases   *           *   *   *     *     *       *       *     8
Use of computer-aided teaching material   *             * *               * *             *     6
Introduction to linguistics * *   *     *     *     *   * *   * *   * * *   *       14
Phonetics, phonology and orthography * * * *     *   * *   * *   *       *     * *   *   *   15
Morphology and syntax * * * *     *     *   * *   *       *   * *     *   *   14
Lexicography * *     *       * *   *     *       *   *         *     10
Programming languages *   *       *   * * *   *   *         * *               10
Design of data structure and algorithms *   *       *       *   *   *                   *       7
Use of language corpora and text archives   *             * * *   *               *         * *   8
Use of tools for phonetics analysis       *       *   * * * * * *         * * *           * 12
Working in Unix/Linux environment   *             * *   *                   *       *     6
Preparing and encoding data   *   *         *   *     * *                     * *   8
Computer-aided language learning systems...   *               *         *                     *     4
Open and distant learning                *   *                                 *   3
Building lexical database   *   *         *   *   * * *           *         * * * 11
Building morphological analyzers   *   *         * *       *   *         *             * 8
Building syntactic and semantic analyzers   *   *         * *       *   *           *           * 8
Tools for comparative linguistics     *               *                                   2
   6 15  5 10  2  0  5  5 10 16  9  6  8  7 12  3  0  5  5  2  8  8  2  0  4 10  6  5  

2. Conclusion

In this report, as many elements as possible, even sometimes details, have been given voluntarily. The aim was to provide the reader with an extensive overview of the current situation.

In this conclusion, the attention will be focused on the human and material resources, the main pillars of the Masters. Progressively, the strong and weak points within them will be shown to allow the core group to take the relevant decisions concerning the various aspects of the Masters implementation.

a) Human resources:

i) Students

The African departments generally have a sufficient number of students to allow for a satisfactory recruitment (for the Masters). There would also be room for students from non-Africanistic origin (general linguistics or computational linguistics).

A campaign of explanation and information towards the students seems indispensable in each institution, it would be followed by a small inquiry that would help to gather their expectations, their needs, their professional ambitions (the diploma is intended for them....).

ii) Teachers/researchers

According to the lists and brochures sent by Cameel correspondents and Heads of departments, the Africanistics departments are not understaffed. Most of their staff carry out African languages teaching and research based on traditional academic knowledge. Their expertise in those domains are clearly superior to their skills and competences in computing, a characteristic which is even more pronounced as regards computational linguistics.

As an example, we take the case of the 44 teachers/researchers (i.e. 25% out of an approximative total of 170) who kindly answered the questionnaire. Though the sample is not representative because of the small number, it nevertheless provides a situation picture which is non negligeable for Cameel.

Yet the fact that they have answered is a sign that they are interested in multilingual engineering. But half of them (22) did not answer the questions about their experience in computer applications. Maybe they have not any... As for the other half (22), 6 (i.e. 13.5%) of them have just a few desktop notions and 16 (i.e. 36.5%) have more expertise in computing. Their interests are of a great variety, which is reflected, for example, in the various programming languages they resort to.

Both groups (beginners 6 and experts 16) are of vital interest for the launching of the Masters. But it is more with the second one that the Cameel project will find its foundational basis. But they are not many, there is hardly one and scarcely 2 per institution. The fact that they also have other academic duties must be taken into account.

So the lack of African language teachers/researchers specialized in computational linguistics remains a crucial question which will have to be addressed.

b) Material resources

It is interesting to note that there exist at least a computational linguistics unit either at department or institution levels. And most of them carry out teaching and research.

But some reservations might be expressed about the availability of the necessary equipment in relation to the affluence of students. Some institutions are not well equipped in computers and particularly in multimedia peripherals. The teaching could suffer from this handicap. Another problem would be to find rooms where to gather all that material, most of it belonging to research units...

Software availability does not seem to be a major problem. "Shoebox" is multifunctional and fits several languages. As far as languages are concerned, Kiswahili is relatively better provided, contrary to many other languages which are less or not at all addressed.

Reinforcement of communication tools (web, e-mail...) and free access to them for everyone must be envisaged as a priority. One of the solutions to some of the problems mentioned above is ODL, already experienced by some of the CAMEEL partners and from whom others can learn. The implementation of an ODL system will require the active participation of every CAMEEL partner institution.

Beyond those material problems for which solutions can be found, according to the data collected and some comments and suggestions expressed by those who answered the questionnaires, there would appear that there remain a few points needing some more investigation or clarification. Taking them into consideration will be a major condition for the good running of the project:

The exacting work which was required for the collection of the data (through the questionnaire), its processing, and its analysis in this report, was made possible thanks to all the answerers' very active and benevolent cooperation. We hope that the final document sheds a better light on some of the ways and means which could ensure a higher coefficient of success to the birth and life of the European Masters in ME, which is aimed at.

APPENDIX 1: List of Cameel correspondents and their institutions

Austria

Schicho, Walter. Institut für Afrikanistik. Universität Wien. Doblhoffgasse 5/9. A-1010 Wien. Österreich. Tel. ++43-1-4074757. Fax: ++43-1-405227319. e-mail: walter.schicho@univie.ac.at

Belgium

Janssens, Baudouin Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres. ULB. Av. F. D. Roosevelt 50. B-1050 Bruxelles. Belgique. Tel. ++32-2-6502419, Tel. Tervuren ++32-2-7695672. Fax Tervuren: ++32-2-7695642. e-mail: baujans@ulb.ac.be

Kabuta, NgoSemzara. Vergelijkende cultuurwetenschappen en Afrikaanse talen. RUG. Rozier 44. B-9000 Gent. België. Tel. ++32-9-2643813. Fax: ++32-9-2644180. e-mail: NgoSemzara.Kabuta@rug.ac.be

Finland

Hurskainen, Arvi. Dept. of Asian and African Studies). Helsingin yliopisto (University of Helsinki). Meritullinkatu 1-B. SF-00140 Helsinki. Suomi. Tel. ++358-9-19122677. Fax: ++358-9-19122094. e-mail: ahurskai@ling.helsinki.fi

France

Slodzian, Monique. CRIM-INALCO. 2 rue de Lille. F-75007 Paris. France. Tel. ++33-1-49264213. Fax: ++33-1-49264299. e-mail: monique.slodzian@inalco.fr

Souillot, Jacques. (see address Slodzian, Monique) e-mail: jsouil@inalco.fr

Karangwa, Jean de Dieu (see address Souillot, Jacques)

Mohamadou, Aliou. INALCO. Dép. Afrique. 2 rue de Lille. F-75007 Paris. France. Tel. ++33-1-49264200. Fax: ++33-1-49264299. e-mail: Gerard.Philippson@mrash.fr.

Nicolai, Robert. Dep. des Sciences du Langage. Section de linguistique africaine. Universite de Nice. - Sophia Antipolis. 98 Bld. Edouard Herriot. BP 369. F-06007 Nice Cedex. France. Tel. ++33-93972042. Fax: ++33-93972042. e-mail: nicolai@unice.fr

Hombert, Jean-Marie. Dép. des Sciences du Langage. Universite Lumiere - Lyon 2. F-69500 Bron. France. Tel. ++33-78697070. Fax: ++33-78695601, -78697282. e-mail: hombert@univ-lyon2.fr

Germany

Wolff, Ekkehard. Institut für Afrikanistik. Universität Leipzig. Augustusplatz 9. D-04109 Leipzig. Deutschland. Tel. ++49-341-9737030/1. Fax: ++49-341-9737048. e-mail: wolff@rz.uni-leipzig.de

Kiessling, Roland. Institut für Afrikanistik und Ethiopistik. Universität Hamburg. Rothenbaumchaussee 67/69. D-20148 Hamburg. Deutschland. Tel. ++49-40-41234874/1. Fax: ++49-40-41235977. e-mail: af5a0068@rrz.uni-hamburg.de

Fiedler, Ines. Seminar für Afrikawissenschaften. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Unter den Linden 6. Sitz: Luisenstr. 54/55, D-10099 Berlin. Deutschland. Tel. ++49-30-20936673/0. Fax: ++49-30-20936666. e-mail: Ines.Fiedler@rz.hu-berlin.de

Beck, Rose Marie. Institut für Afrikanistik. Universität zu Köln. Albertus-Magnus-Platz. D-50923 Köln. Deutschland. Tel. ++49-221-4702708. Fax: ++49-221-4705158.e-mail: Rosemarie.Beck@Uni-Koeln.DE

Italy

Toscano, Maddalena. DSRAPA - IUO. Piazza San Domenico Mag., Palazzo Corigliano I-80134 Napoli. Italia. Tel. ++39-81-5517840. Fax: ++39-81-5517901. (Tel/Fax home: ++39-81-7764084). e-mail: dsrapa@unina.it

Zampolli, Antonio. ILC-CNR (Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale - Centro Nazionale di Ricerca) Via della Fagiola 32. 56100 Pisa, Italia. Tel. ++39-50-560421. Fax: ++39-50-551013.

The Netherlands

Mous, Maarten. (Dept. of African Languages and Linguistics). Rijksuniversiteit Leiden (RUL). Postbus 9515. NL-2300 RA Leiden, Nederland. Tel. ++31-71-5272245/3. Fax: ++31-71-5272615. e-mail: mous@rullet.leiden.univ.nl

Norway

Endresen, Rolf Theil. Institutt for lingvistiske fag. Universitetet i Oslo (UIO). Postboks 1102, N-0317 Oslo. Norge. Tel. ++47-224348. Fax: ++47-226919. e-mail: r.t.endresen@ilf.uio.no

Hellan, Lars. Lingvistisk institutt. Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet (NTNU). N-7055 Dragvoll (Trondheim), Norge. Tel. ++47-73-596526. Fax: ++47-73-596119. e-mail: lars-hellan@hf.ntnu.no

Portugal

Martinho, Ana Maria. Instituto de Estudos Portugueses, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas. Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Avenida de Berna 26-C. P-1050 Lisboa. Portugal. Tel. ++351-1-7933519, -7933919. Fax: ++351-1-7977759.e-mail: anaferro@fch.ucp.pt

Switzerland

Bearth, Thomas. Seminar für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft. Universitüt Zürich. Plattenstr. 54. CH-8032 Zürich, Schweiz. Tel. ++41-1-2572091. fax: ++41-1-980 4181. e-mail: bearth@compuserve.com

UK

Mann, Michael. . Dept. of African Studies. SOAS. Thornhaugh Street/Russell Square. London WCIH OXG. UK. Tel. ++44-171-3236279 (dir.)/55 (secr.). Fax: ++44-171-3230174. e-mail: mm3@soas.ac

APPENDIX 2a: Questionnaire aimed at Heads of Department

1. Personal data

Mr: [ ] First name: ........................ Surname: ......................

Mrs: [ ] Position: ...........................

Ms: [ ] Tél: ................... Fax: ...................... E-mail: ...................

2. Name of your institute or university:

2.1. Name of your department or unit:

2.2. Number of students in your department or unit:

undergraduates: ............... postgraduates: ..................

2.3. Number of teaching and research staff and their specializations: (use extra sheet if necessary)

 

Teachers

Researchers

Teachers and
Researchers
 

Nbr

African languages

Nbr

African Languages

Nbr

African languages
Languages            
Linguistics            

3. Computer applications in linguistics:

3.1. Is there a unit in your institute or university specialized in computational linguistics?

department [ ] institute [ ] university [ ]

3.2. If so, could you give a short summary of the kind of work they carry out?

Teaching [ ]

Research [ ]

4. Modules taught

4.1. Referring to the Masters, indicate whether the following modules could be taught in your department or in other units within your university or elsewhere?

  Your department Other Units Open and Distance Learning & others
structure and use of computers: basic concepts      
introduction to computational linguistics      
networks (e.g. Internet), multimedia and databases      
Use of computer-aided teaching material      
introduction to linguistics      
Phonetics, phonology and orthography      
morphology and syntax      
lexicography      
programming languages      
design of data structure and algorithms      
use of language corpora and text archives      
use of tools for phonetics analysis      
working in Unix/Linux environment      
preparing and encoding data      
computer-aided language learning systems and software design      
open and distant learning      
building lexical database      
building morphological analyzers      
building syntactic and semantic analyzers      
tools for comparative linguistics      

4.2. Other current modules:

5. Computer material

5.1. Which hardware and software (commercial or non-commercial) do you use for didactic and research purposes?

5.1.1 Hardware

Computers

Type: ...........................................................................................................................

Number: ..............

Operating System:

DOS [ ] Windows [ ] MacIntosh [ ] Unix [ ] Linux [ ]

Others: .........................................................................................................................

Multimedia peripherals :

Graphic card: [ ] number: ........

Sound card: [ ] number: ........

CD-Rom drive: [ ] number: ........

Scanner: [ ] number: ........

Others:

5.1.2. Software

Word processors:

Database software:

Specific software dedicated to linguistics (for which languages, African and other ?)

  Names Languages
Fonts and keyboard manager (e.g. Unicode-based tools)    
Constitution and handling of corpora    
Lemmatizers    
Parsers    
Tagging tools    
Statistical tools    
Documentary tools    
Sorting tools    
Call (Computer Aided Language Learning)    
Others:    

5.2. Are those software fit for use in one of the modules proposed for the Masters modules (cf list in 5.1)?

6. Communication

6.1. Access to communication tools

  Teachers and/or Researchers Undergraduate Postgraduate
Local network      
E-mail      
Web      
Telnet (or similar)      
Others      

6.2. Do you participate in ODL (Open and Distance Learning) programmes?

no [ ] yes [ ]

6.3. Do your students use ODL ?

no [ ] yes [ ]

If yes, for which subjects?

7. What African languages do you teach?

7.1.Which subjects?

undergraduates:

postgraduates:

7.2. What are your fields of research (specifying languages)?

8. What is your experience/involvement in computer applications to linguistics? Concerning which language(s)?

9. Needs in software

9.1.What types of software would you like to have?

9.2. Do you think that you will acquire it/them?

yes [ ] no [ ]

If the answer is no, why?

10. Software creation

10.1. Have you been or are you involved in the creation or adaptation of any software?

no [ ] yes [ ]

10.2. If the answer is yes, could you describe the software developed?

Title of software and modern languages concerned:

Collaborators (universities, departments, research centres):

Functions:

Used in: teaching [ ] research [ ]

Public concerned:

11. What are the programming languages you use?

11.1. Traditional computer languages

Basic [ ] C [ ] Lisp [ ] Prolog [ ]

Others:: ...........................................................................................................................

11.2. Object-oriented languages

C++ [ ] Smalltalk [ ] Java [ ] Javascript [ ]

Others:

11.3. Authoring languages

Authorware [ ] Toolbook [ ] Director [ ]

Others:

11.4. Others:

AWK [ ] PERL [ ]

Others:

12. Your remarks, ideas and suggestions:

P.S. : Could you please send us the brochure related to your department?

Questionnaire to be sent back to: CRIM-INALCO, 2 rue de Lille, 75343 Paris, cedex 07, France. Thank you.

APPENDIX 2b Questionnaire aimed at Teachers/Researchers

1. Personal data

1.1. Mr: [ ] First name: .......................... Surname: .....................

Mrs: [ ] Position: .......................

Ms: [ ] Tél: ............................... Fax: ....................... E-mail: ..................

1.2. Are you employed

As: a teacher [ ] a researcher [ ] a teacher-researcher [ ]

Full time [ ] Part time[ ]

2. Name of your institute or university

...........................................................................................................................................

2.1. Name of your department or unit:

...........................................................................................................................................

3. What African languages do you teach?

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

3.1.Which subjects?

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

undergraduates:

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

postgraduates:

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

3.2. What are your fields of research (specifying languages)?

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

4. What is your experience in computer applications to linguistics? Concerning which language (s)?

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

5. Needs in software

5.1.What types of software would you like to have?

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

5.2. Do you think that you will acquire it/them?

yes [ ] no [ ]

If the answer is no, why not?

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

6. Software creation

6.1. Have you been or are you involved in the creation or adaptation of any software?

yes [ ] no [ ]

6.2. If the answer is yes, could you describe the software developed?

Title of software and modern language(s) concerned:

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Collaborators (universities, departments, research centres):

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Software object and functions

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

used in teaching [ ] research [ ]

Public concerned

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

7. What are the programming languages you use?

7.1. Traditional computer languages:

Basic[ ] C [ ] Lisp [ ] Prolog[ ]

Others: .............................................................................................................................

7.2. Object-oriented languages:

C++ [ ] Smalltalk [ ] Java [ ] Javascript [ ]

Others: .............................................................................................................................

7.3.Authoring languages :

Authorware [ ] Toolbook [ ] Director [ ]

Others:

7.4. Others:

AWK [ ] PERL [ ] others : ...........................................

8. Your remarks, ideas and suggestions:

Questionnaire to be sent back to: CRIM-INALCO, 2 rue de Lille, 75343 Paris, cedex 07, France. Thank you.

Appendix 3: African languages taught in CAMEEL's partner institutions

  Be Ge Ha He Ko Ld Lp Lo Na Pa Vi Zü
Akan (-Twi) p         s           p
Amharic p   p s p s   s p p    
Bambara     s   p         p p  
Berber         s s     p p    
Ciluba   p                 p  
Comorian                   p    
Ewe         p p            
Fulani                   p p  
Ge'ez     s     p     p      
Hausa p   p   p   p p p p p  
Igbo             s          
Kanuri                     p  
Khosa     s                  
Kirundi         s              
Kiswahili p p p p p p p p p p p p
Koronfe                     p  
!Kung         s              
Lingala                   p    
Lucazi         s              
Luganda                     p  
Luo     s     s            
Maasai       s                
Malgache                   p    
Moore                     p  
Ndonga       s                
Oromo p                      
Shona                     p  
Somali       s s     s p      
Tigrinya     s           p p    
Wolof     s s           p    
Yoruba       s     s p   p    
Zulu p             s p      

p: Languages taught on a permanent basis;
s: Languages taught sporadically.

Note: In Brussels, research in Bantu and Mande Languages, Leke, Bobo-fing. Nice and Lisbon have no African department.