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.), Enquete et description des langues a tradition orale. I L'enquete de terrain et l'analyse grammaticale. II.Approche linguistique (Questionnaires grammaticaux et phrases) III Approche thematique (Questionnaire technique et Guides thematiques). Paris, SELAF, 2nd ed., 1976).