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:
(a) 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..
(b) English and French as Second Languages in West Africa
(c) Language Policy Research
To these projects will be added in due course:
(d) Linguistic Map Project
(e) Practical Grammars Project
(f) Terminology Project
(g) Computer-assisted Linguistic Research