A consultant needs to be equipped to help teams navigate choices regarding modality and forms of media (written, oral, signed, braille, drama etc) that may be appropriate for translation in their context.
Here are some resource suggestions to help your mentees grow in their skills related to modes of communication:
1. Communities of practice
Join in with networks and communities of practice focused on translation in different modes of communication, for example:
- International Orality Network: an affiliation of agencies and organizations working together with the common goal of making God’s Word available to oral communicators in culturally appropriate ways that enable church planting movements everywhere.
- Orality Landscape of Practice: Open interagency forum aiming to integrate a number of different types of practitioners within the wider landscape that represents orality in Bible translation. Hosted by the Seed Company. Monthly synchronous gathering, supported by an email list.
- Sign Language Bible Translation and Language Development list (SLBTLD). Request membership in google groups at: https://groups.google.com/a/groups.sil.org/g/signlanguagelist. Google group formed to facilitate communication between people working on or interested in SL work (including both Bible translation and related language development work, including survey, scripture use and distribution, linguistic studies, etc.)
Tip:
2. Books
These are some key books on using different modes of communication in translation:
- Sogaard, V (Ed). 2003. Communicating the Scriptures: The Bible in Audio and Video Format, United Bible Societies.
- Soukup, P & R. Hodgson (Eds). 1999. Fidelity and Translation: Communicating the Bible in New Media, Sheed & Ward and Franklin, Wisconsin and ABS New York.
Tip:
Further resources that might interest you
- Do you know of a good resource that should be listed here? Please let us know.
Bible Translation Consultant Competencies 