ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a perspective on impact from the point of view of a linguist working in an area that necessitates the development of close relationships with particular speech communities. The author describes her work in language documentation. Of particular relevance to the topic of the book as a whole is the author's view that assessing the success of a language documentation project necessarily involves assessing its impact. Here, Chelliah refers to the positive societal impact that that language documentation research can have (for example, the effects it can have on both literacy and health and wellbeing). The author also discusses the effects of doing impact-focused research on academics' careers, with particular regard to the US context.
