77 Language Learning: OER for specific languages
Collections
Global Storybooks Portal 
(CC BY-NC-SA)
A collection of early-reader books available in the official, Indigenous, and commonly spoken languages of nations all around the world. Countries represented include Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Ghana, Haiti, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indigenous, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Mexico, American states (Minnesota, Washington), Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, United Kingdom, and Zambia.
Language OER Network (CC BY)
The goal of the Language OER Network (LOERN, pronounced ‘learn’) is to showcase the work of open educators in the field of language learning and teaching (L2LT). The site also includes links to learning materials.
Storybooks Canada (CC BY-NC-SA)
Storybooks Canada is a free open educational resource that promotes literacy and language learning in homes, schools, and communities. It makes 40 stories from the African Storybook available with text and audio in English, French, and the most widely spoken immigrant and refugee languages of Canada. These languages include Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese, German, Italian, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Turkish, and Urdu.
Tools
Bilingual Language Profile (CC BY-NC-SA)
The Bilingual Language Profile (BLP) is an instrument for assessing language dominance through self-reports that is concise, quick, and easy to use. The BLP is intended to produce a continuous dominance score and a general bilingual profile taking into account a variety of linguistic variables.
Resources by Language
Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe/Salteaux)
Ojibwe Bilingual K-4 Book Series (Free, but not openly licensed)
A collection of 15 books dedicated to those that lost their language and those that aspire to learn Anishinaabemowin. These books are available for free to anyone worldwide. This is our contribution to the preservation and restoration of Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe/Salteaux).
Arabic
Arabic and English Sentence Patterns: A Comparative Guide
This text explores verb time, tense, aspect, and mood through comparison of Arabic and English sentence patterns. It includes examples of the Arabic patterns from classical and popular sources so Arabic students can learn by explanation and example how to formulate cohesive and grammatically correct sentence structure.
Arabic Teaching Methods (CC BY-NC)
A website that aims to support professors teaching Arabic as a foreign/second language.
A web site designed for learners and teachers of Arabic seeking materials for listening comprehension. The site provides listening materials and accompanying activities that are intended for the various levels of proficiency from Novice to Superior.
From MSA to CA: A Beginner’s Guide for Transitioning into Colloquial Arabic (CC BY-NC)
This book is for students who have studied Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) for one year or more and would like to learn colloquial Arabic basics using their knowledge of MSA. It aims at transitioning learners from Novice Mid level to Intermediate Low through presenting situations useful for living in an Arab country. The book has several features including hyperlinks, practice dialogues with open answers, cultural tips, and more.
Cree
Cree: Language of the Plains / nēhiyawēwin: paskwāwi-pīkiskwēwin (CC BY-NC-ND)
Cree: Language of the Plains is a comprehensive educational resource, offering a broad range of learning materials that is easily accessible to Cree language learners. This collection includes an updated and redesigned Cree language textbook, Cree language audio labs, and a Cree language workbook.
Little Cree Books (CC BY-NC-SA)
The Little Cree Books are the first in what the creators hope will become a large collection of online books designed for early Cree readers. These little books are designed to incorporate the vocabulary and grammatical elements introduced at each grade level in Alberta’s Cree curriculum framework and guides to implementation (K–3 and 4–6).
Indigenous Storybooks: Cree (CC BY-NC-SA)
Indigenous Storybooks is a Canadian website for children, families, community members, and educators. Inspired by the open-licensed stories from Little Cree Books, this project aims to make the text, images, and audio of stories available in Indigenous languages (Plains Cree and Swampy Cree) as well as English, French, and the most widely spoken immigrant and refugee languages of Canada. A story that is read in English or French at school can be read in ancestral languages by parents and children at home. In this way, Indigenous Storybooks provides access to stories in ancestral languages as well as English and French. Similarly, the audio versions of the stories can help beginning readers and language learners make the important connection between speech and text.
Czech
Reality Czech (CC BY-SA)
A Czech textbook and curriculum currently under development. Resources are expected to be completed by end of Summer 2018. In addition to a textbook, resources will include an in-class activity book, online grammar and cultural units, and printable homework exercises.
English
French
Au Boulot! First-Year French (CC BY-NC)
Au boulot! is a two-year college French program consisting of: a textbook, workbook, and 21 accompanying audio exercises; as well as a reference grammar, to be used the entire two years.
Chapeau! First-Year French (CC BY-NC)
A first-year French-language textbook that includes a textbook, a workbook, and 24 accompanying audio exercises (mp3).
Enhancing French Skills (CC BY-NC)
A website for intermediate learners of French, created for students in a three-hour semester course at the University of Texas at Austin. Students expand their knowledge of the French language and francophone cultures and continue the development of their communicative abilities by practicing the four basic skills of speaking, listening, writing and reading.
Français interactif (CC BY)
An open textbook developed by the University of Texas at Austin for their first-year French program. The book helps you explore the French language and culture by following the lives of real UT students who participated in the UT Summer Program in Lyon, France.
French à la mode (CC BY-NC-ND)
This website has activities for French learners at the beginning and intermediate levels that are intended to be used in conjunction with any curriculum.
Le littéraire dans le quotidien (CC BY)
An open textbook offering a transdisciplinary approach to reading/writing at the first and second year levels of college French.
Les conversations mises à jour
A collection of authentic conversations in French that targets mostly intermediate and advanced learners of French. Each conversation highlights the shared experience of two native or near-native French speakers and provides both an oral history of that experience and a trove of cultural references.
Sons et lettres: A French Pronunciation Method for Intermediate-level French (CC BY-NC)
Sons et lettres provides a set of classroom materials to train students to hear and produce the sounds of French and to recognize the regular spellings used to represent those sounds in print. The materials are inspired by a desire to help students feel more confident about their French pronunciation and more at home saying the many French words.
Tex’s French Grammar (CC BY)
A user-friendly guide to French grammar that combines explanations with dialogues and cartoon images.
German
German Frame-semantic Online Lexicon (CC BY)
A German-English vocabulary resource that organizes words according to their meanings, rather than just alphabetically, provides detailed definitions and pointing out differences between seemingly similar German and English words, and includes a number of real example sentences for each word (from www.dwds.de) to show how it is used in context.
Haida
Indigenous Storybooks: Haida (CC BY-NC-SA)
Indigenous Storybooks is a resource designed specifically for children, families, community members, and educators. Inspired by the open-licensed stories from Little Cree Books, this project aims to make the text, images, and audio of stories available in Indigenous languages (Plains Cree, Swampy Cree, and Haida) as well as English, French, and the most widely spoken immigrant and refugee languages of Canada.
Hindi
Hindi in America Video Collection (CC BY)
A video collection of Hindi speakers answering questions about their experiences living in the United States.
Hul’q’umi’num’
Hul’q’umi’num’ (Cowichan) Language Resources (Not openly licenced)
A collection of resources developed by the Cowichan Valley School District to support Hul’q’umi’num’ language revitalization at an elementary level.
Ruler of the Forest (CC BY-NC-ND)
A digital story from School District 79 Aboriginal Education (Cowichan Valley) told in Hul’q’umi’num’.
Japanese
Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 1 (CC BY-NC)
This textbook is designed for beginning learners who want to learn basic Japanese for the purpose of living and working in Japan. Unlike textbooks written primarily for students, whose content largely centers on student life, this book focuses more on social and professional life beyond school.
Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 2 (CC BY-NC)
This textbook is designed for beginning learners who want to learn basic Japanese for the purpose of living and working in Japan. Unlike textbooks written primarily for students, whose content largely centers on student life, this book focuses more on social and professional life beyond school.
Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 3 (CC BY-NC)
This textbook is designed for beginning learners who want to learn basic Japanese for the purpose of living and working in Japan. Unlike textbooks written primarily for students, whose content largely centers on student life, this book focuses more on social and professional life beyond school.
Preadvanced Japanese (CC BY-NC)
This textbook is designed for students who have intermediate competency in Japanese, roughly at Level 2 on the ILR (The Interagency Language Roundtable) proficiency scale, and are working on reaching Level 3. This textbook can be used for self-study, as part of online course, and in a traditional classroom setting. It is comprised of four chapters, intended to be covered in one term of a quarter system.
K’iche’
Chqe’tamaj le qach’ab’al K’iche’! (CC BY)
This beginner-to-advanced level online course for K’iche’, a Mayan language of Guatemala.
Korean
Korean Through Folktales (CC BY-NC)
Korean Through Folktales consists of four chapters and each centers on a famous Korean folktale. Through the selected folktales and various activities offered in the book, students can gain cultural knowledge and insights into traditional and cultural values while they are given linguistic lessons to reinforce their acquired skills and to apply the learned materials in an integrated approach. This book is designed to accompany 1st-year, 2nd-year, and 3rd-year Korean courses.
Mandarin
Gateway to Chinese (CC BY-NC)
This site offers a collection of free interactive language learning resources for beginning Mandarin Chinese. Students now have the option to practice pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, listening, and reading skills at their own convenience.
Portuguese
Brazilpod (CC BY)
A collection of teaching materials created at the University of Texas at Austin for the study of Portuguese.
Spanish
Acceso (CC BY-NC-ND)
Acceso is intended as a complete, interactive curriculum for intermediate-level learners of Spanish.
Heritage Spanish (CC BY)
On online community created to help Spanish instructors share and find teaching resources.
Spanish Corpus Proficiency Level Training (CC BY-NC-ND)
Video recordings of Spanish learners of different levels answering several questions, a written transcript of what they say, and exercises that will guide you interactively to notice features about their talk, as well as answers to those exercises.
Spanish in Texas (CC BY)
The purpose of the Spanish in Texas project is to profile Spanish as it is spoken throughout Texas today and to provide open learning tools that allow students, teachers, and the general public to explore Spanish language variation. A central goal of the project is to encourage users to view local varieties of Spanish and their speakers as important resources for learning about language and culture.
Yorùbá
Yorùbá Yé Mi (CC BY-NC-ND)
An interactive, communicative, introductory, multi-media program intended to provide college/university students with basic listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills of language learning in Yorùbá. It exposes the learner not only to Yorùbá language in meaningful situations but also to the culture of the Yorùbá-speaking people of South-western Nigeria.
