SIL International

SIL International aims to train students to do the following:

• work with sensitivity alongside members of another culture
• learn to speak unwritten languages and develop practical writing systems
• record and describe the sound system, the grammar, and the lexicon of a language
• do ethnographic research and apply it to language development
• promote mother-tongue literacy and the development of ongoing literacy programs
• assist an ethnic group and government agencies in planning and executing language development strategies
• facilitate production of a body of literature in the indigenous language (such as educational literature, folk histories and legends, a dictionary, grammatical description, the Bible, and health manuals), and
• pass on the above skills to others, especially to the speakers of the indigenous languages.