Websites 2010-Language Learning-Activity-Based
All Languages Links
Learning theory: latest research
http://web.mst.edu/~rhall/ed_psych/index.html
Wonderful website for all
http://tonitheisen.wikispaces.com/
Internet Resources for Super Language Sites
http://www.uni.edu/becker/
Colby College Resource Center
http://www.colby.edu/lrc
http://www.colby.edu/~bknelson/SLC/index.php - lots of great stories read by native speakers & videos with lessons
added to them
General listing of links to lots of info on language/culture
http://eleaston.com/languages.html
http://eleaston.com
FL Teach has many resources
http://www.cortland.edu/FLTEACH/flteach-res.html
Many resources from Canada for 2nd languages
http://www.caslt.org/resources/modern-lang/spanish-resource-links_en.php
NCLRC Language Center: Collection of all kinds of activities
http://nclrc.org/teaching_materials.html
Ten Ways to Use Jokes in the Classroom
Source: MFL Resources
An MFL Resources listserv subscriber recently posted the following ideas for using jokes in the classroom:
1. Running Dictation – Divide your students into groups of 4. Allow them to number themselves 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Attach a joke to the board – in fairly small letters. On the word go, the number 4s come out, remember as much of
the text as they can, go back to their group, dictate it to them. As soon as number 4 is back, number 3 can go up
etc. The winning group is the one who has a perfect copy of the joke. Remind your students of basic health and
safety – and play by standard WWF rules. No biting, kicking, punching, gouging etc.
2. Get your students to look through some jokes and find 3 jokes about animals.
3. Shouting Dictation. Get your students find a partner. They should stand on opposite sides of the classroom so
that you have two lines of students facing each other, at least three metres apart. Give each student a short joke.
They have to dictate it to their partner and write down the joke dictated to them by their partner. This can be a
VERY noisy exercise.
4. Matching two parts of a joke. Select short jokes that have two lines. For example: Waiter waiter, there’s a fly in
my soup! Don’t worry sir, there’s a spider on your bread. Cut up the jokes into individual lines. The students then
have to find their partner. This is best done as an oral exercise and the students cannot read the other lines, only
listen to them.
5. Get your students to look through some jokes and find 3 jokes about children.
6. Who has the punchline? Hand out 5 punchlines to some jokes to the students in groups of 4-5 (Each group has
all five punchlines). Then read out the jokes, stopping just before the punchline. Which group will be fastest in
finding the correct punchline?
7. Reward your students. Print out some of the jokes. If a student does a particularly good piece of work, attach a
funny joke for them as a reward.
8. Find the joke. A variation on the running dictation in which lines of a joke are ‘hidden’ around the classroom. The
students have to find the lines, copy them down, then try to arrange them in the correct order to make the joke
work.
9. Get your students to look through some jokes and find 3 jokes about romance.
10. Get your students to write out their favorite joke in the foreign language you are teaching.
Spanish teachers can get a joke e.mailed to them every day from
http://www.chistes.com/scripts/subscription/chistes_subscribe.asp
Anyone wanting liven up their German lessons may like to have a look at
http://www.jeremytaylor.eu/germanjokebook.htm
French teachers could do worse than to download an e.book of French jokes from
http://www.sharewareebooks.com/eBooks/Multimedia_eBooks/Learn_French_With_Jokes
Taylor, J. [mflresources] Ten ways to use jokes in the classroom. MFLResources listserv
(mflresources@yahoogroups.com, 11 Jun 2009).
Visit Mr. Taylor’s website and learn more about his jokebooks and jokes in many languages at
http://www.jeremytaylor.eu
Story Writing/Reading
How to tell a story
http://www.storyteller.net/articles/253
Cartoons to write stories about
http://www.eslconnect.com/apspanish/regentspictures/pictures.html
On this webpage you will find 50+ web tools you can use to create your own web-based story. It is available at
http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools
TPRS stories
http://www.tprstorytelling.com/index.php
Getting More from What You Have: Digital Storytelling
Source: NCLRC
From http://nclrc.org/teachers_corner/tech_for_teachers/feature.html
Getting More from What You Have: Digital Storytelling
By John Ross
March 2010 NCLRC Newsletter
Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but digital pictures have got to trump that. Add digital audio and
video, and you’ve certainly hit the jackpot.
Students can use a variety of software applications to tell “stories,” but the stories can be told about any
content area and told by students in any grade level. The stories can be in any language, or more than one
language, and can incorporate audio, graphics, digital pictures, scanned images, or video. Digital
storytelling is often personal in nature, but the skills used in developing and telling stories are valuable for
learning how to communicate in many forums.
Read the full article and access further digital storytelling resources at
http://nclrc.org/teachers_corner/tech_for_teachers/feature.html
http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/index.cfm
http://www.storycenter.org/book.html
http://www.tech-head.com/dstory.htm
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http://www.techteachers.com/digstory/ideas.htm
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/alignment.html
Lesson Plans
AskEric Lesson Plans for Spanish classes
http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/res.cgi/Subjects/Foreign_Language
McCrel’s listing of language lesson plans
http://www.mcrel.org/lesson-plans/foreign/index.asp
Foreign Language Lesson Plans and Resources for Teachers
http://www.csun.edu/~hcedu013/eslsp.html
Type your language and get posted lesson plans:
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/lesson-plans/lesson-5774.html
Dictionaries/Phrases/Vocabulary
Langtolang Multilingual Dictionary
Source: Langtolang
From http://www.langtolang.com
Langtolang is an online multilingual dictionary translating from/to English, Albanian, Arabic, Breton, Catalan,
Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Corsican, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish,
French, Gaelic, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese,
Korean, Kurdish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malagasy, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese Brazil, Portuguese
Portugal, Romanian, Russian, Serbo Croat, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish,
Vietnamese, Yiddish, Walloon, Welsh languages. Some user-generated vocabulary practice activities are
also available at the website.
Explore Langtolang at http://www.langtolang.com
Frelang free dictionaries or ask a human translator for help
http://www.freelang.net
Foreign words: 265 online dictionaries for 73 languages and translation
http://www.foreignword.com
http://wordreference.com/ Dictionary - World Reference.com
Fonetiks: audio clips-multilingual
http://www.fonetiks.org/
Tongue Twisters:multilingual
http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister
Gastronomical dictionary: meant for hotelkeepers, restaurant staff to understand menues, ordering in English,
Spanish, French etc.
http://www.todine.net/dictionary.html
http://www.uni.edu/becker/Spanish3.html#food
Internet Picture Dictionary: multilingual picture dictionary + activities such as fill-in-the-blanks all ages
http://www.pdictionary.com/about.html
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Animal Noises in Different Languages
What noises do animals make in different languages? Go to
http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/personal/dabbott/animal.html to find out.
Visual Dictionary in English, French, and Spanish
Source: The Visual Dictionary
Current categories in the online Visual Dictionary include biology, human body, clothing, transportation, and
music. This large collection of labeled pictures is available in French, Spanish, or English at
http://www.infovisual.info/index.html .
Verbix: Verb Conjugations for Hundreds of Languages
Verbix is an independent non-profit organization that aims to promote and protect linguistic diversity. Their site
contains verb conjugations for hundreds of languages, ranging from national and international languages to
regional and even extinct languages.
Visit verbix at http://www.verbix.com <http://www.verbix.com/>
Activities on the Web
LinguaZone: Customize online games (super fun games BUT you pay)
http://www.linguazone.com
Comic pages to be completed
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
For copies of these printables and more go to http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix and click on the
PRINTABLES button at the bottom right. The feature also offers comix templates featuring characters from the web
site along with blank talk and thought balloons that students can fill with text to create their own comic strips.
TEACHING WEATHER
A series of interactive learning activities for learning the weather in French, German, Spanish, or Italian is
available at *http://www.linguafun.eu/preview/pchoice.html
Online Jeopardy Templates
Source: JeopardyLabs
JeopardyLabs allows you to create a customized jeopardy template without PowerPoint. The games you
make can be played online from anywhere in the world. The website is available at http://jeopardylabs.com
Stopwatch-Timing of activities
http://www.online-stopwatch.com/
Build your own website
Have you been thinking about building your own website but your not sure that you have the skills you need
to do so. Well, relax.... it is not as hard as you think and the truth is...it is becoming easier to do so everyday.
View this teacher’s presentation and associated resources at http://www.germanforspalding.org/id39.htm
Indoor Games
Source: Teachers.net
Here are some ideas for indoor games, many of which can be adapted to language instruction by giving the
directions in the target language: http://teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/editor/indoor-games
Quotes in many languages
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Are you looking for materials for beginning-of-class activities? Short authentic examples of language use? Ways to
introduce important cultural and literary figures? A compilation of quotations, organized by nationality, is available at
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/nationality.html
The Language Menu Site for Teachers
This website was created by language teachers for language teachers. It includes worksheet generators,
interactive games, a clipart gallery, a database of materials downloadable in PDF format, and more.
Now you can make worksheets in 35 languages: Arabic, Bahasa, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Croatian, Czech,
Danish, Dutch , English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic,
Italian, Japanese, Latin, Macedonian, Mandarin, Norwegian, Pinyin, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian,
Serbian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish and Vietnamese.
Registration is required to access the resources, but it is free.
Visit the Language Menu at http://teachers.thelanguagemenu.com
FLAn: Hypermedia Editor for Foreign Languages
Source: RedHotWords.com
From http://redhotwords.com/huh.html
FLAn is a FREE hypermedia editor. You can add hyperlinks to translations, grammar notes, comments,
audio, images, animations, videos, online activities, quizzes and cultural sites. Learn more about FLAn at
http://redhotwords.com
Youth Create Language Lessons for Other Youth
From http://www.solarnet.tv/projects/languagevideos
Solar Net is an international youth network. One of its projects involves Solar Net members helping each other
learning their languages by providing free language video courses for another.
A variety of video-based lessons are available in Polish, Turkish, German, Arabic, English, Italian, Portuguese,
Russian, Spanish, and other languages. Browse the available products at
http://www.solarnet.tv/projects/languagevideos/info
Prizes/Manipulatives
www.orientaltrading.com
Worksheet, puzzlemaker, lesson plans, online quizzes , etc.
http://www.discoveryschool.com
True/False Video Activity Template (provides step-by-step instructions fro preparing a lesson about video segments
http://www.utm.edu/staff/globeg/tbobswap.html
Folk Tale Podcasts
Source: Worldwise Schools
World Wise Schools celebrates folk tales from around the world with a collection of podcasts at
http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/multimedia/podcasts/folktales/?cid=wwsfolktales
At the LearnVerbs website students and teachers can hear the pronunciations of many verbs conjugated in
paradigms. Languages available include Russian, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, Galician, Catalan,
Spanish, and English. Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic may be coming soon. Only the audio is available; the verb
forms are not written out.
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LearnVerbs requires a free registration and is available at http://www.learnverbs.com/index.html
Variety of resources for teachers in general
http://www.toolsforeducators.com
Flashcards
Make flashcards, word lists, bingo cards, study sheets, quizzes, tracing, word scrambles, word searches
and big signs in French, Spanish, and German. They have categories like about twenty categories that you can
choose from:
http://www.educationalpress.org/
Flashcards
StudyStack <http://www.studystack.com/> allows you to create banks or stacks of electronic cards that can be
reviewed online, printed, or exported to a pda, cell phone, or iPod. Email registration is required in order to create a
Study Stack, but students can use public study stacks if they do not have an email address or if you prefer to create
the cards for them ahead of time. StudyStack offers several modes of studying: each stack can be viewed in flash card
mode, in match mode, as a hangman game, crossword, word find, or bug match. Click on the export feature once you
have created a study stack to learn the best way to export data to a hand held device. You will find prepared stacks for
a multitude of stacks in content areas.
A different repository of electronic flashcards can be found online at Flashcard DB. In fact, I found the selection of
digital flash cards housed on this site to be far more extensive than those at StudyStack
Quizlet is another excellent little application that will help students study vocabulary words
Another very large database of flashcards can be found at the Flashcard Exchange.
Flashcard Search Site
Source: Flash Card Flash
This online search engine looks for flashcard sets from 18 leading flashcard sites. It is available at
http://www.flashcardflash.com
Make your flashcards and play games with them (free)
http://quizlet.com/
Graphic organizers
http://www.worksheetworks.com/miscellanea/graphic-organizers.html
Worksheets, puzzles, lesson plans
http://www.teach-nology.com/
Make worksheets, maps, etc.
http://www.edhelper.com/Spanish.htm?gclid=CLn_0PWNnZUCFQS7sgodBFGxfw
Animal Noises in Different Languages
What noises do animals make in different languages? Go to
http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/personal/dabbott/animal.html to find out.
The Soap Opera
Source: British Council
From http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try
In this activity students create a profile for a group of people and imagine their relationships to each other.
They then construct a soap opera based around the characters and write a scene from the soap opera. This
activity can be completed in one lesson or divided across a number of lessons if you feel your students need
more support and correction.
Read a full description of the activity at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/activities/soap-opera
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Online Content Generators
For those of you looking for an alternative to quia or hot potatoes, there ARE alternatives that can be used
offline... Here are three sources that give you templates for making flash based programs...all of which are
free
-http://www.barkingcollege.ac.uk/cw/html/template.htm
-www.contentgenerator.net
-http://www.superteachertools.com
Online unscramble activity for practicing word order is available in the following languages:
French (http://www.transparent.com/games/unscramble/french/french_unscramble.htm )
German (http://www.transparent.com/games/unscramble/german/german_unscramble.htm )
Spanish (http://www.transparent.com/games/unscramble/spanish/spanish_unscramble.htm )
Italian (http://www.transparent.com/games/unscramble/italian/italian_unscramble.htm )
Portuguese (http://www.transparent.com/games/unscramble/portuguese/portuguese_unscramble.htm )
Bringing the World to Your Classroom through Film
Source: Asia Society
What if you could take your students to all corners of the globe and introduce them to the people and ways of life in
a different country - and be back by lunchtime? These days, with a wealth of foreign DVDs readily available, foreign
films can be a meaningful and effective teaching tool. The very ability of films to immerse audiences "increases the
need for an analytic approach," according to Tanya Lee, Program Director of the Asian Educational Media Service
(AEMS). With a few guidelines as well as savvy use of resources, educators can choose an engaging and ageappropriate international film with high artistic merit and effective cultural insight, and effectively integrate it into the
curriculum.
Go to http://tinyurl.com/3y6t427 to learn how to choose appropriate movies as well as see a list of programs that
can help you with curriculum and professional development.
Hello-Hello: New Language-Learning Website
Source: ACTFL
From http://www.hello-hello.com/index.php?id=aboutus
Hello-Hello.com, the world’s first free online language learning and social networking website developed in
collaboration with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), was officially
launched during ACTFL’s Annual Convention and World Languages Expo. Hello-Hello is a Washingtonbased free language training website that allows members to:
* Learn: complete the lessons online anytime, anywhere.
* Teach: help other members to learn their native language and get help from native speakers.
* Communicate: chat with people around the world to practice the language and make friends.
Read more about Hello-Hello at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/11/prweb3231704.htm or
http://actfl.informz.net/actfl/archives/archive_528390.html
Hello-Hello currently offers lessons in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese and is available at
http://www.hello-hello.com/index.php
What Do You Do To Keep Students (& You!) Focused Near The End Of The School Year?
Source: Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day
From http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org
It’s that time of the year when it’s not unusual for both students and teachers to have difficulty focusing — there’s a
month or two left in the school year, everybody’s a bit tired, and summer is in the air. Read one teacher’s
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suggestions for keeping the learning going at http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/04/23/what-do-you-do-to-keepstudents-you-focused-near-the-end-of-the-school-year
Dialogue Activity Ideas
Source: AATG-L
Here are two ideas for activities to do with dialogues, from the American Association of Teachers of
German listserv:
This idea is from a colleague of mine, Mrs. Georgia Hash- Put 5 random words on the board. The students
have 5 minutes to create a dialog (number of lines per person is up to the teacher) using all the words. They
then present or hand in a written copy. The less related the words are, the more hilarious the dialog.
1. You can have a dialogue - say an exchange at a clothing store or something similar - and cut it up into
strips, separating the lines, and have students put them into the correct order. However, that means at the
end of each hour you'll inevitably find one strip of paper on the floor.
2. When discussing professions, have students brainstorm lines related to each...."things a _____ might
say" - Isn't that from the 25,000 dollar pyramid?
3. Somewhere on the internet i found a whole set of dialogues (Verkaeufer - Kunde) with the customer part blank.
You see this often for tests... Students are prompted to create language that THEY might use... Those dialogues
that i found - each one has about 20-25 lines for the salesperson - are generally at the A1+ / A2 level. Students
could work these out in pairs and then, with another couple, compare their answers, being asked to justify their
responses.
Internet Activities for Foreign Language Classes
http://www.clta.net/lessons/
Teacher Resource Exchange: Database of resources and activities created by teachers
http://tre.ngfl.gov.uk/server.php
TrackStar – a site where you can create your own activities for students. You can upload websites for student use or
use others already listed.
http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/index.jsp
WebQuest page
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/
ThinkQuest-communicate with different countries around the world while doing shared global projects
http://www.thinkquest.org
Art gallery WebQuest project
http://www.webquest.org
Study Strategies Booklets
Source: FLTEACH
Here are two teacher-made online study strategies booklets for foreign languages:
-A study strategies booklet for students of a foreign language and their parents, by Joanne E. O’Toole, is
available for free download at http://issuu.com/jeotoole/docs/studystrategies
-Another study skills booklet that uses French examples is available at
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dc5gngw5_75fnrtnrfn
French
TF1.FR latest news and views (French)
http://www.tf1.fr
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Creating French Culture
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/bnf/bnf0001.html
French video clips
http://www.colby.edu/lrc/projects/senegal.html
Lots of information for French teachers
http://www.consulfrance-chicago.org/
A much more comprehensive French-only visual dictionary is available at
http://www.ledictionnairevisuel.com
German
Lots of German teaching resources
http://germanteaching.com/
Goethe Institute: extensive teaching and learning materials
http://www.goethe.de/dll/enindex.htm
Deutsche Welle: media company distributes multimedia and multilingual information from Germany to rest of
world
http://www.dw-world.de/
Educator Site
http://www.germaninfo.us/German_Web_Pag/Page_2.html
Main Site
http://www.germaninfo.us <http://www.germaninfo.us/
Virtual Worlds and Second Languages
From http://philp.de/blog/?p=23
Two and three dimensional worlds offer great platforms for language acquisitions due to their characteristics to
simulate total immersion. Increased bandwidth and powerful computers have enabled these virtual worlds to
become multi-player environments and this means that one can literally meet people from around the world from
the comfort of the office or from home.
AVALON, which stands for ‘Access to Virtual and Action Learning live ONline’, is about language learning in
Second Life and is just about to begin its 2-year development with 26 partners in 8 European countries, 11 of
whom are Universities.
Here is the Avalon Ning URL and the Avalon Second Life SLURL:
Ning: http://avalon-project.ning.com
SL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/AVALON%20Learning/80/224/41
CALICO has already set up a Virtual Worlds Special Interest Group (VW SIG):
http://colanmc.siu.edu/virtualworlds
EUROCALL already has a headquarters building in Second Life, on the EduNation III island at
http://slurl.com/secondlife/EduNation%20III/9/29/22
CALICO has now acquired the land immediately next door and will shortly be building its headquarters there,
linked to the EUROCALL HQ, thus creating a significant presence in Second Life for teachers and learners of
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foreign languages.
This new joint HQ in Second Life will be available for:
--social gatherings
--virtual meeting space
--virtual classroom space
--and anything else they can create!
CALICO and EUROCALL are also currently collecting a number of resources that will be available on the site
(some of these are already there), including:
--Items for newbies (those new to Virtual Worlds)
--classroom resources
--building resources
--landmarks (SL equivalent of Internet bookmarks)
--scripts (to make things "do" stuff in SL)
--and more!
Sadler, R. Joint CALICO/EUROCALL Virtual Worlds SIG. Calico discussion list (CALICOL@mail.MODLANG.TXSTATE.EDU, 4 May 2009)
See The Language Educator, Feb. 2008 Vol 3 Issue 2 article on Second Life
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