This work was the authors' response to a need they saw for methodology in field research. They give techniques for gathering and processing data from unwritten languages, and include questionnaires for many aspects of both language and culture. Examples of the latter are time, currency, measures, and kinship. This is an English translation of a work that was first published in French in three volumes (Bouquiaux, L. & Thomas, Jacqueline M.C. (eds.), Enquête et description des langues à tradition orale. I L'enquête de terrain et l'analyse grammaticale. II.Approche linguistique (Questionnaires grammaticaux et phrases) III Approche thématique (Questionnaire technique et Guides thématiques). Paris, SELAF, 2nd ed., 1976).