Working Groups
WALS has set up certain interest groups, known as Working Groups. These groups organize separate sessions during congresses and continue to keep in touch in the period between congresses. The main working groups are the Benue-Congo Working Group, the Kwa Working Group (which was later merged with the former as Benue-Kwa Working Group), the Chadic Working Group, the Oral Literature Working Group, and the Sociolinguistic Working Group. By far the most successful of the groups is the Benue-Congo Working Group whose work resulted in the publication by WALS of the following two volumes:
- Williamson, Kay and Kiyoshi Shimizu (eds.)(1968). Benue-Congo Comparative Word List vol. 1, Ibadan: West African Linguistic Society
- Williamson, Kay (ed.)(1973). Benue-Congo Comparative Word List vol. 2, Ibadan: West African Linguistic Society.
Other projects sponsored by WALS include the following:
- the Data Sheets Project which has resulted in two publications: Kropp-Dakubu, Mary Esther (ed.)(1980) West African Language Data Sheets vol. 1, Legon: West African Linguistic Society. Kropp-Dakubu, Mary Esther (ed.)(1980) West African Language Data Sheets vol. 2, Leiden: West African Linguistic Society and African Studies Centre.
- English and French as Second Languages in West Africa
- Language Policy Research
- The African language short story competition
To these projects will be added in due course:
- Linguistic Map Project
- Practical Grammars Project
- Terminology Project
- Computer-assisted Linguistic Research