In October-December 2025, ELP held its 7th annual Language Documentation Learning Series. This free online course offers an introduction to language documentation, with the goal of supporting people to document their own languages - no prior experience needed. This year's topics included:
🤔 What is language documentation? Why do languages become endangered?
🎤 How can I make good-quality audio and video recordings?
💬 How can I record the sounds, words, and grammar of my language?
🤝 How can I record some of the social dimensions of my language?
🐠 How can I record biocultural knowledge in my language?
📽️ How can I make subtitled videos in my language?
🌱 How can I use documentation to revitalize my language?
Each week, workshop leaders from ELP and the Language Documentation Training Center (LDTC) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa facilitated sessions on these topics and more - and answered questions from language champions all over the world.
We hope you'll find these videos useful in your own language work!
Below, you'll find each of the recorded sessions.
Week 1: Language Endangerment and Documentation
Session facilitator: Anna Belew, Endangered Languages Project
Week 2: Audio and Video Recording
Session facilitator: Nathan Adamson, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
This week, Nathan Adamson from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa led a session on how to make good-quality audio and video recordings in your language documentation work - even without professional equipment.
Week 3: Documenting Morphology (Words) and Syntax (Sentences)
Session facilitator: Yumi Standlee, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
This week, Yumi Standlee from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa led a session on how you can start documenting your language's morphology and syntax (words and grammar) - don't worry, that may sound like some intimidating academic jargon, but we started from the beginning!
Week 4: Phonology (Sounds) and Orthography (Writing Systems)
Session facilitator: Cole Flottman, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
This week, Cole Flottman from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa lead a session on how you can start documenting your language's phonology (sounds) and thinking about how that relates to orthography (writing systems)!
Week 5: Sociolinguistic Documentation
Session facilitator: Anna Belew, Endangered Languages Project
This week we learned a bit about sociolinguistic documentation, or documenting the fascinating relationships between language and social structures! This included topics like multilingualism, documenting different dialects or varieties of your language, looking at differences in how individual people in your community talk, and more.
Week 6: Documenting Biocultural Knowledge
Session facilitator: Haʻalilio Solomon, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
This week we learned about documenting the relationships between language, the natural world, and culture! This week, Dr. Haʻalilio Solomon led a session on how to start documenting all the biocultural knowledge that is woven into your language - knowledge about land, living things, ways of understanding the world, ways of acting and being a person, and more.
Week 7: ELAN and Video Subtitling
Session facilitator: Kelsey Bialo, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
This week, Kelsey Bialo led an introductory session on how to use the free software ELAN to transcribe, annotate, and create subtitles for your recordings. Recordings of your language can be used to create learning resources, language promotion campaigns, research or teaching materials, and more. Creating subtitled videos is a great way to expand the usefulness of your recordings.
Week 8: Language Revitalization and Funding
Session facilitator: Armando Molina Gomez and Violet King, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
This week, we wrapped up the 2025 course by talking about language revitalization - ways to protect, sustain, promote, and pass languages on to future generations. 🌱 We also talked a bit about ways to seek funding to do this work.