Linguistic and technical training as a community empowerment tool: The case of the Mayangna linguists’ team in Nicaragua

This paper addresses linguistic technical training of members of the community, under a Participatory Action Research approach. We show how it can be a contributing factor to obtain an egalitarian relationship between the speaking community and the external researchers. The paper describes an example of the training component concerning the members of the Mayangna Yulbarangyang Balna and an external researcher, stemming from the need to handle the data collected since the 1990’s. In particular, we describe in detail the process and results of a technical training workshop carried out in Rosita, Nicaragua, in January 2008. The external member of the team provided the technical training for transfer and annotation of the linguistic data collected, which involved the following steps: (a) the use of (video, audio) equipment for (new) data recording, (b) the conversion of the collected data from analog to digital format, (c) the transfer of the linguistic data into ELAN software, and (d) its use for transcription and annotation. The results show how this training increases the self-sufficiency of the indigenous team, and facilitates their role as agents in research, while being an effective element to facilitate the community’s empowerment process and strengthen their agentive role in linguistic research.