Professional Pathway Information

This page provides information to assist individuals wishing to apply for accreditation via the professional pathway; further information about eligibility and the application process is provided on the Accreditation page.

Applicants for accreditation via the professional pathway must provide evidence of experience and expertise in at least six of the listed subject areas. The level of skills and knowledge should be approximately equivalent to an undergraduate course or higher. Specific skills and knowledge, as well as examples of how these might be demonstrated by applicants, are listed below for a selection of subject areas. These are intended to be illustrative only.

If you require further clarification of the requirements, please contact the Accreditation Committee. If you require one-on-one advice regarding how you might meet or work towards the criteria for accreditation through the professional pathway, this can be requested via the ALS Mentoring Scheme.

Example subject areas

Language archives and collections

Skills and knowledge may include the following:

• Can apply best practices in data management, metadata, file-naming, vocabulary standards, etc., and understand the importance of these for resilience, longevity and transparency
• Can create a structured digital collection for archiving, including appropriate use of technology to manage metadata
• Can identify potentially relevant repositories of language materials (such as archives and libraries), utilise online search functions, and navigate process of gaining access and/or depositing materials
• Can understand and effectively navigate ethical, cultural and legal issues regarding intellectual property, and FAIR and CARE principles for data governance
• Can contextualise materials/data found in collections and apply this knowledge to create new language resources and/or conduct linguistic analysis

Expertise may be demonstrated through activities such as:

• Participated in intensive archival research workshop
• Created pedagogical or other language resources based on primary archival records
• Prepared and deposited a digital collection in a recognised language archive
• Conducted independent archival research including identifying and accessing relevant collections and using linguistic knowledge to interpret materials
• Managed the digitisation and/or transcription of primary language materials (e.g. on platforms such as Nyingarn)
• Developed protocols for ethical access and use of archival language materials in consultation with stakeholders
• Contributed to development or implementation of metadata standards, vocabularies, taxonomies, ontologies, user interface design or other work relevant to language collections infrastructure

Linguistic field methods

Skills and knowledge may include the following:

• Has an understanding of the different outputs of language documentation (e.g. grammar, dictionary, texts) and their value to different users
• Can use appropriate recording equipment and techniques for linguistic fieldwork
• Can employ effective elicitation techniques to systematically gather language data
• Can manage linguistic data efficiently and systematically
• Can apply ethical principles at all relevant stages including consultation, project design, collaboration, and data management/custodianship
• Can use relevant software for language documentation (e.g. ELAN, FLEx)

Expertise may be demonstrated through activities such as:

• Collaborated with language speakers to produce and transcribe video or audio content
• Conducted elicitation sessions with language speakers/users
• Ethically co-designed or consulted about language documentation as appropriate to the community
• Recorded and/or archived primary language data
• Trained community members in linguistic fieldwork techniques
• Communicated findings from fieldwork to academic or community audiences.

Language policy

Skills and knowledge may include the following:

• Can understand and apply theories relating of language planning and/or language rights in a relevant sector (e.g. language maintenance, revitalisation, public policy)
• Can understand the relationship between linguistic behaviour, language ideologies, multilingualism, identity, power, and language policy
• Can identify, synthesise, analyse and communicate complex issues in language policy
• Can assess social, educational, economic and political impacts of existing language policies, and identify structural and resourcing needs for proposed language policies
• Can draft recommendations or advise on language policy (e.g. in government, organisations or schools), based on lived experience and/or consultation with diverse groups and/or data and case studies

Expertise may be demonstrated through activities such as:

• Developed policy recommendations, provided expert advice or consulted with diverse stakeholders regarding a language policy and planning issue (e.g. in education, healthcare, or other organisational context)
• Designed and implemented a language revitalisation strategy
• Contributed to educational standards/policy/curriculum design relating to language and multilingualism
• Advocated for specific language policies at a local, state/territory or federal level (including lobbying, public awareness campaigns, submissions to government, or other activities relating to official language policy).

Language technology

Skills and knowledge may include the following:

• Can understand and describe how specific language technologies (e.g. automatic speech recognition, chatbots) work, including the importance of high quality training data and quality assurance processes
• Can understand and apply natural language processing (NLP) techniques and tools
• Can apply linguistic knowledge to the design and implementation of technology projects
• Can apply computational skills to linguistic research or analysis
• Has an awareness of relevant technical standards (e.g. Unicode, ISO-639), and their application in technology settings
• Can evaluate ethical issues related to language technologies, including cultural and intellectual property, bias, linguistic diversity and variation, environmental and social risks, and propose mitigation strategies

Expertise may be demonstrated through activities such as:

• Used Python or similar for processing of language data
• Developed, managed, or made significant contributions to a language technology project
• Taught or mentored others in language technologies and/or computational linguistics
• Wrote guidelines regarding dialectal/orthographic variation for a language technology project
• Applied linguistic knowledge in data annotation or quality evaluation for a language technology project
• Conducted user testing or evaluation of language technology products
• Contributed to open-source language technology tools or resources

Lexicography

Skills and knowledge may include the following:

• Can understand and apply relevant linguistic concepts such as lexeme, lemma, citation vs inflected form, polysemy, parts of speech, etc.
• Can use software (such as Excel, Toolbox and/or FLEx) to manage dictionary data and/or metadata.
• Can work collaboratively with language speakers to elicit vocabulary, OR can systematically draw on own language knowledge to document vocabulary, OR can use available language materials to compile vocabulary.
• Can draw upon empirical evidence (such as corpus data) to understand and illustrate the meanings of words, and how meanings change over time

Expertise may be demonstrated through activities such as:

• Worked with speakers of a language to elicit and document vocabulary
• Worked with qualified linguist to systematically document own language, e.g. documenting specialised vocabulary across different semantic domains, providing definitions or examples of usage, providing sociolinguistic information
• Used software such as Excel/Toolbox/FLEx in a community dictionary project
• Led workshop for community members on how to plan and develop a dictionary

Phonology

Skills and knowledge may include the following:

• Can distinguish between phonetics, phonology, and orthography
• Can interpret and use the International Phonetic Alphabet accurately
• Can identify and describe phonological structures (e.g. syllable structure, consonant clusters, stress) and processes (e.g. assimilation, deletion, epenthesis)
• Can describe speech sounds/phonemes in terms of their distinctive features
• Can identify and describe phonological similarities and differences between languages

Expertise may be demonstrated through activities such as:

• Led workshop on sounds and spelling of an Australian language
• Developed structured, evidence-based materials for teaching phonological concepts, phonological awareness, or second language pronunciation
• Developed resources relating to, or taught language teachers or learners about phonological awareness
• Applied knowledge of phonology in a language technology project

Second language acquisition

Skills and knowledge may include the following:

• Can understand and apply key theories and concepts of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), including learner characteristics, cross-linguistic influence and social dimensions of the learner in context
• Can analyse the special characteristics of learner language and differentiate between first and subsequent language acquisition processes
• Can independently formulate and conduct SLA research, including designing classroom-based research projects
• Can interpret SLA research findings and apply them to practice
• Can develop and implement effective instruction strategies for successful second language development

Expertise may be demonstrated through activities such as:

• Developed language teaching materials, curricula or assessment tools informed by SLA principles and research
• Developed effective and appropriate language teaching materials, curricula or assessment tools based on archival materials and/or grammatical description and/or own fieldwork or expert knowledge of an under-resourced language
• Provided expert consultation of SLA-related issues for educational institutions or policymakers
• Designed and implemented professional development programs for language teachers based on SLA research
• Designed and carried out classroom-based SLA research, and applied findings to practice

Case studies

The following are fictionalised examples of linguists who would be eligible for accreditation via the professional pathway.

Kieran

Kieran has been involved in language revitalisation for 10 years and is a recognised language knowledge holder within his community. His work has involved archival research, documenting the cultural and linguistic knowledge of elders, leading community workshops to make spelling decisions, developing resources to teach his language, setting up a language committee and managing issues around Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP). For the last 3 years, he has worked for an organisation providing training to other First Nations communities to do their own language work. As part of this role he has also drafted submissions to state government about how to support Indigenous languages. Kieran is eligible for accreditation through the professional pathway as he can demonstrate significant expertise and experience across the following subject areas:

• Language archives and collections
• Phonology
• Second language teaching and learning
• Language Policy
• Lexicography
• Morphology

Alex

Alex is a language tech worker, helping to create commercial voice recognition systems. They did an undergraduate computer science degree and took an introduction to linguistics and natural language programming as a second-year elective. Since then, Alex has learnt more about the acoustic properties of spoken languages, using their understanding of the acoustic properties of voice onset in human speech to build better voice detection for automated speech recognition systems and to support the evaluation of ASR systems on diverse languages and accents. Alex is eligible for accreditation through the professional pathway as they can demonstrate significant expertise and experience across the following subject areas:

• Phonetics
• Phonology 
• Morphology
• Research methods in linguistics [specifically statistical methods used for evaluation]
• Language Technology
• Recognition of prior learning: Introduction to Linguistics

Nakamarra

Nakamarra has worked as an educator and language worker for over 30 years. She started her career working in the Literacy Production Centre, where she developed a sequence of books and posters to teach children how to read and write in their first language. She has mentored several other young assistant teachers and LPC workers over the years, helping them to develop their first language literacy and metalinguistic awareness. In recent years, she has taken an advisory role and helped with planning on how to keep language strong in the region despite changes to government policies. Over the years, she has collaborated with several linguists. This work has included making video and audio recordings, interviewing community members about the different languages they use and understand, using ELAN to transcribe and translate, helping to analyse and interpret recordings, and teaching linguists the complexities of her language’s grammar. She was a major contributor to the dictionary, helping to run community workshops, as well as writing down and double-checking specialised vocabulary, example sentences and definitions. She occasionally teaches an introductory language course to non-Indigenous people. Nakamarra is eligible for accreditation through the professional pathway as she can demonstrate significant expertise and experience across the following subject areas:

• Second language teaching and learning
• Phonology
• Language Policy
• Bi/multilingualism
• Lexicography
• Linguistic field methods