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.