College of Menominee Nation’s “Let’s All Speak the Language” video series entered its second phase this month. Through partnerships with MenominiYou and Speak Mahican, the first iteration of the multi-year project shared some classroom conversational words in both the Menominee and Mahican languages. This academic year, the series will offer learners a chance to master conversational terms in Oneida and Ojibwe.
Imagined as a way to help turn every classroom into a language classroom, each of CMN’s series entries begin preproduction with a similar script in English. A recognized community language teacher then translates the terms and phrases into one of Wisconsin’s First Nations’ languages. Each teacher is then filmed speaking the words in their Native tongue before offering the English translation. A text version of the Indigenous words then appears on the screen, enabling learners to both hear and visualize what is being taught.
Each series will have eight videos that run between one and three minutes each and cover a logical progression of classroom conversation. Beginning with a self-introduction and moving through phrases a teacher will likely share during any lesson plan, plus probable answers students will offer, the series takes learners through a typical class meeting from start to finish. Optimally shared throughout a single semester, the course instructor can play the videos in-class and assign them as homework, reinforce them during lesson plans, and ultimately normalize the use of language during class meetings.
Since the summer of 2023, 90 CMN students answered anonymous survey questions that captured their collective thoughts on the series being utilized in their classes. Sixty-seven percent of respondents reported they watched the videos both during and after class meetings, and 64.4% stated they would use the language taught in the videos outside of the CMN classroom. Three out of five stated that the video series should be used in all CMN classes, and 73.3% stated they would be interested in partaking in a similar video series with a different Indigenous language.
One student also shared that using the videos “is a great way to learn some of the language to use in the classroom. Because the teachers speak in the videos you know how to say the words and are not embarrassed about saying them wrong. I think if the videos were used in all classes there may be more students that use the words and could interact with each other that way.”
A student who identified as an education major wrote, “I really enjoyed the videos! I have shared them with my coworkers and would like to implement them in my future classrooms.”
This past spring, the Scott Zager Venture Fund agreed to sponsor the 2024-25 phase of the series. Beginning this September, Dr. Rosa King’s series of Oneida language videos is both debuting in CMN classrooms and being released to the public through the school’s social media on a biweekly biases.
King, CMN’s Oneida language and history instructor, offered a message for language learners, “We have to start. We have to speak. We have to learn. Whatever we can do. I always tell learners, whatever you can do. Whether it’s taking a class here at CMN or attending a community class at the library or being involved in an immersion program. All of that is so necessary. It’s all helpful. It all strengthens the language and really influences its ability to thrive into the future.”
Over the spring 2025 semester, CMN will continue down the tried-and-true path by utilizing its Ojibwe language series and releasing them to the public simultaneously. Taught by Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University faculty member Dr. Michael D. Sullivan Sr., the videos will mark another collaboration between the two tribal colleges in Wisconsin.
Sullivan shared one of the reasons why the series is important for language learners. “No matter what we do, the next hundred years are going to pass. As we move into the future as a people, what are we going to bring with us? If there’s anything worthy of bringing along on this ride in life and into the future it is our language.”
CMN’s “Let’s All Speak the Language” video series is one way to help get conversations started.
Ryan Winn, Ph.D., teaches communications, English, history and theater at the College of Menominee Nation. Visit www.menominee.edu for more information about the school.
Watch your language on CMN video series
