39 Peer-Recommended Resources for World Language Teachers
New Jersey Alternate Route candidates specializing in World Language Education recently recommended free web resources that they’ve consulted when preparing lessons and engaging, relevant activities for students. Their suggested resources are a part of our blog series featuring go-to-Websites, blogs, and other online teaching and reference materials for helping our state’s youth achieve the NJ Student Learning Standards. More than 300 teachers participated in this professional swap and share, with many contributing lesser-known resources that even seasoned educators will be excited to discover. Read why our World Language educators love the resources they recommend.
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language
"This is a well-known site for language teachers. It has many assessments, conferences, and resources for language teachers and students."
-Chaoqin C., Grades 6-8
"This is the primary American organization dedicated to the teaching of foreign languages, and it sets and promotes national standards and best practices."
-Matthew M., Grades 9-12
Amuta Spanish School
"This is a resource for planning a study abroad trip for students or teachers who wish to improve their Spanish literacy skills."
-Daniela C., Grades K-12
American Association of Teachers of Japanese
"In the unique language of Japanese, many educational resources are available on this site."
-Sakakibara R., Grades 9-12
Anenberg Group - World Languages
"This is a great resource for teacher professional development instead—not student content."
-Allie G., Grades 9-12
Arch Chinese
"This is a site for all Chinese teachers. You can create lesson, vocabulary, and worksheet for all level of Chinese class."
-Chaoqin C., Grades 6-8
Bablingua
"This site features activities, games, peer talk, lessons, videos, warm up exercises and calendars."
-Yanisbel F., Grades 6-12
Blooket
"Blooket is a review game website similar to Kahoot, but has many more game options. They allow direct export from Quizlet, which is another fantastic site where I host vocabulary lists in French. The students are very competitive when it comes to Blooket and review games."
-Keegan C., Grades 9-12
Boom cards
"Boom Cards have creative learning resources. Students can play learning games online, and teachers see results instantly. I think this website helps students practice basic literacy skills and foreign languages, and it is a great resource for teachers. Teachers can assign work directly to students and use it to track students' progress with automated grading, monitor their progress in real-time and post-assignment reports."
-Diana S., Grades K-8
"The site features interactive flash cards that can be used for studying or answering questions. The cards also have sounds that can be added."
-Mariam M., Grades 6-8
Canva
"The site is great for teachers of any subject area to make graphics and posters for the classroom. The set up and editing is easy, and teachers can use a free account. I have used it exhaustively this year."
-Keegan C., Grades 9-12
Compassionate Discipline: Dealing with Difficult Students
"The site is a great support for teachers of any subject area who have troubled students, as it explains the study of human behavior from a psychological perspective."
-Risa S., Grades 9-12
Conjuguemos
"Conjuguemos is a great site for Foreign Language teachers as it provides practice activities for a multitude of languages including German, French, Spanish, and more. It mostly provides activities to practice conjugation, which can be a difficult subject for young learners to grasp. The website has easy to follow activities that help students familiarize themselves with the practice of conjugating verbs."
-Lisa G., Grades 6-8
Dickinson College Commentaries
"A great resource for ancient texts and vocabulary resources useful for teaching Latin. There isn't a week when I don't consult this site for classroom materials."
-Michael V., Grades 9-12
Digital Dialecs
"This site offers games and flash cards to learn and practice new vocabulary. The educator can interact with students or assign them as practice."
-Margherita C., Grades 6-8
Duolingo
"You are able to choose a language that you are learning or wish to learn along with what level of the language you would be able to practice. There are many different levels and you advance according to what answers you get correct. This allows students to apply the content in many different ways-- writing, speaking, listening, and reading. There is also an app that can be downloaded on smartphones which is super convenient for students to practice at any time they want."
-Alicia B., Grades 9-12
"Marketed as a “free, fun, and the world’s number 1 way to learn a language”, Duolingo is an excellent resource for my Advanced Spanish Students. Based upon quick, bite-sized lessons, students earn points and unlock new levels while gaining real-world communication skills. Students make progress quickly as the courses effectively and efficiently teach reading, listening, and speaking skills. Students experience personalized learning at their own levels and pace Students enjoy learning with Duolingo and stay motivated through game-like features, fun challenges, and daily reminders from the Duolingo mascot, the owl. Students can have fun. Learning does not have to be boring and Duolingo's platform is filled with engaging exercises and playful characters. Students are able to use Duolingo on their Chromebook or phones and are able to use Duolingo as a free app and be successful. Paid subscriptions are available. However, my students engage in the free site without issues."
-Heydie R., Grades 6-8
"Teachers can set levels and goals for students to achieve in a foreign language. Students can engage in the language outside of the classroom.'
-Juan M., Grades 9-12
"Duolingo allows for asynchronous work to reinforce grammar basics and learn more vocabulary."
-Vincent C., Grades 6-8
"Practices language learning at varying levels."
-Ejona G., Grades 9-12
"Duolingo is an interactive language learning platform that allows students to work at their own pace, focusing on all four components of language learning--reading, writing, speaking and listening."
-Mouna K., Grades K-8
Flocabulary
"Flocabulary is a library of songs, videos and activities for K-12 online learning in general subjects and world languages. Teachers use Flocabulary's educational raps and Hip-hop videos and instructional activities that promote literacy and spark creativity."
-Imane B., Grades 6-8
French Today
"This website has clear, concise explanations of grammatical concepts and vocabulary and also lots of recordings. It's good for my students to hear voices other than mine speaking French."
-Alev A., Grades 9-12
John Piazza, M.A. - Resources for Latin Teachers
"A bevy of materials and activities designed specifically for the challenges of teaching a classical language, which is slightly different from teaching modern world languages."
-Jonathan W., Grades 6-12
Languages Resources
"This site has lessons and activities already planned with audios. The audios are from native speakers, which is very important, and the activities are fun and engaging. There are also Google slides presentations and worksheets. The only downside is that they don't have it in Italian, but they have Spanish, German, and French. Although these are the only languages they offer, the activities can be translated in other languages, and the audios can be recorded in the desired target language."
-Margherita C., Grades 6-8
Lawless French
"This site features a wide selection of free French language tools and lessons. The founder, Laura Lawless, keeps it current with activities like listening to a hit song by Belgian singer Stromae with interactive subtitles while practicing French comprehension."
-Alev A., Grades 9-12
Mary Glasgow
"This site features videos, activities, news and magazines. It also provides a tool for teachers to track students' progress as they use the site’s resources."
-Yanisbel F., Grades 6-12
Ministro de Educación de Chile
"This is Chile’s central education organization. The US does not have a strong federal organization like Chile and many other countries, so it is useful to see how Chile is able to push progress methodology such as progress-based learning to all corners of its country."
-Matthew M., Grades 9-12
Nearpod
"I can use or customize already existing interactive lessons or activities that can be teacher-led or used at an individual student’s pace. I can also create my own lessons, including YouTube videos and pausing points with questions, as well as games and different types of activities that captivate the attention of my students and encourage them to learn while enjoying the process."
-Mouna K., Grades K-8
Panda Tree Spanish Games
"Games that cover Spanish topics such as numbers, colors, and extensive vocabulary."
-Carlos C., Grades K-8
PBS Learning Media
"There seems to be some really varied and comprehensive content for reinforcement on the site!"
-Allie G., Grades 9-12
Quizlet
"Quizlet benefits students on their on-going learning in various ways. First, this website does not have to be used exclusively for world language; there are many different resources for any subject. For world languages, there are many different topics to choose and as an educator you can create your own set of flashcards. When you have flashcards, you are able to not only use flashcards but play "learning activity" games to help engage the students."
-Alicia B., Grades 9-12
Scholastic Teachables
"Scholastic Teachable is filled with awesome teachers' resources , especially for world languages . There are worksheets, mini-books, games, writing practice pages, and more resources to support learning concepts, literacy, and math skills. I think it's a ready-to-use resource to support instruction."
-Diana S., Grades K-8
Secondary Spanish Space
"Secondary Spanish space offers many ideas for classroom management, both for middle and high school, which are the levels I teach. It also allows other teachers to share resources."
-Daimaly G., Grades 6-12
Seterra Online
"Seterra has games for learning geography. Students can practice labeling maps for Italian regions, cities, and capitals – or those related to the languages you are teaching."
-Vincent B., Grades 6-8
"Students can learn maps of the world. In our world language Spanish class we focus on learning the countries, capitals and flags of all Spanish speaking countries."
-Carlos C., Grades K-8
Spanish 4 Teachers
"This site provides free pdfs, games, and worksheets to allow students to work independently and engage with the language rather than simply taking notes."
-Juan M., Grades 9-12
Srta. Spanish
"I really enjoy reading blogs from other Spanish/language teachers. This is my favorite blog for obtaining ideas on how to teach/incorporate ideas in my lessons."
-Daimaly G., Grades 6-12
TeachVid
"TeachVid is a platform that allows users to generate and access interactive learning content based on short YouTube videos for use in the classroom. Resources are available for multiple languages. Resources are listed by video language, as well as by student language, category and level, so it's easy to find a resource to suit every student's needs."
-Imane B., Grades 6-8
The Spanish Experiment
"This is a small site that I discovered while researching ideas for my newer, struggling students. I was immediately drawn to the easy setup of the site and its basic lessons which required very little prep work. In addition to the lessons, I was very interested in the reviews about the many programs available and the links to many sites. This site captured my attention and I have used their lessons for review, emergency plans, and quarantine work for stay-at-home students. Some other benefits of this site include a section of children’s stories in Spanish. This resource was great while we were studying Hispanic Heritage Month as it gave all of our students a translation of stories they know and enjoy. As always, I passed this resource on to our Performing Arts teacher to use within her classroom. The stories have audio, video, and offer all translations. My students thoroughly enjoyed this resource and were especially surprised by its offerings."
-Heydie R., Grades 6-8
The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World
"A fun site for students to explore. Basically it is Google maps for the Roman empire. Students can learn ancient geography, imagine trips using ancient roads and transportation, and gain an appreciation for how much slower ancient travel was."
-Jonathan W., Grades 6-8
Toda-lly Comprehensible Latin
"Great blog from an expert Latin teacher. His focus is on comprehensible input and technology use. Although he writes about his Latin classroom, so much of what he writes is applicable for other world languages as well."
-Michael V., Grades 9-12
Twinkl - World Language
"This site provides different templates for World Language teachers to conduct various activities in the classrooms. Teachers can also find cultural presentations they can adapt and use during some festivals like Mid-Autumn Festival, Spring Festival, and more."
-Zemin Z., Grades 9-12
WordReference
"Great resource for conjugation of verbs, and gives translation of words based on varying contexts."
-Ejona G., Grades 9-12
Wordwall
"On this site you can explore games and interactive quizzes for any subject and you can create your own activities. The site gives you five free activities to create and then you have to pay. Exploring activities created by other teachers is always free."
-Mariam M., Grades 6-8
Yabla
"This site provides authentic video for different levels of Chinese language study. It also provides different resources for practicing pronunciations."
-Zemin Z., Grades 9-12
Zeit fur Deutsch
"This site offers a wide span of lesson plans with included slide presentations, worksheets, activities and resources that I can use for a specific topic I want to cover in my German class. It already has everything prepared for me, so I just have to review and familiarize myself with the layout and then I am ready to go. I use this when I can't find the proper materials in my class for the curriculum area I need to cover."
-Lisa G., Grades 6-8
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Comments
Conjuguemos
This is an excellent website for drilling specific grammatical points and for verb conjugations. The initial set up is a bit time consuming and may be confusing for students but once it's set up students are able to use it independently. The website keeps students engaged on what would be an otherwise boring task. I also like to jazz it up by providing students other incentives if they finish within a certain amount of time or if they get a certain score. Students and teachers also get immediate feedback on how well they did.
Italian
The website "Conjuguemos" engages students with different game options that practice verb conjugation and vocabulary with virtual flashcards. The website offers Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, German, Korean, and limited Latin. The games encourage critical thinking about the grammar. It also gives the teacher the ability to assign games with the limitation that they can only assign what is available within the program. The website is user friendly, although it requires both teachers and students to create a free account and have a computer. Performance data is available, however feedback seems to be limited. The cite also seems to offer little customization. Overall, it can be a used in addition to daily class strategies as an "early finisher" activity.
World Language - Spanish
The rockalingua application/website is a very useful tool in my Spanish classroom. The application’s focus is relevant to the purpose of the app and appropriate for the student. The app offers some flexibility to adjust content and settings to meet student needs and provides student feedback. The best part is that students can launch the application by themselves as soon as they know how to navigate the site. This helps make students more likely to be encouraged to use the app on their own initiative in the future.
Summer 2023 Phase III - Resource Round Up
I am a high school world language teacher.
The resource that I chose for the Resource Round Up Assignment is the Conjuguemos website.
The purpose of this site is to help students practice verb conjugations, and that is exactly what it does. It is a useful resource because it is available in different languages, and in my case that is particularly helpful because I teach both Spanish and Italian.
The verb activities are customizable in the sense that they allows students to choose the specific verb tenses/forms that they would like to practice.
There are many options for student choice, even in the different activities and games that are available.
In addition, the activities are engaging and turn what can be a tedious concept into something fun.
The games and activities on the site also facilitate higher-level thinking because they require students to apply their knowledge of verb conjugations.
Students are given feedback instantly after completing an activity, but in order to share that feedback, they must screenshot their score and send it to their teacher.
The site is also very user-friendly and easy to navigate.
Seterra
Seterra:
When it's time to add more culture to your content, use this fun assessment tool. Seterra has endless interactive quizzes for when you want to add some geography to your content. Cities, flags, regions, neighboring countries and more ways to assess their geography knowledge. When you want to do an interdisciplinary class with a history twist, WWII could support your content. Or even integrating an Art class focusing on Medieval Europe 1444, students can benefit from these quiz games here. With a free account, you can play for free for 5 minutes every 15 minutes! It’s fun for my students using this for the ‘Food’ as well as the ‘Identity’ units.
-Samantha C. Grades 7-8
World Language, Spanish
Blooket is a great tool to use in my Spanish language class. Who said learning can't be fun! I like to use Blooket because not only is it a fun learning tool but is a tool I like to use for assessment purposes. The program comes with a large collection of assessments and also gives the teacher the option to create their own. I like to switch between individual and group participation. By customizing the questions, teachers can ensure that great thinking skills are applied.
Blooket Review
Blooket is a fantastic resource to teach vocab and grammar because students engage in recall. I teach HS level and my students love to play it. Questions can be post using images, sound (plus version) or writing which offers flexibility to meet the different needs of students. The free version only allows for multiple choice questions. However, the paid version has the option of typing answers. It can be played live (whole class) or homework mode (individually). I use the homework mode as a resource to study for exams. Performance data is available in app but exporting is limited.
Blooket Review
Blooket is a fantastic resource to teach vocabulary and grammar. I teach HS and my students love it. Questions can be asked using pictures, audio or words which provides flexibility to meet student's different needs. The free version only allows for multiple choice questions. However, with the plus version students can be asked to type in order to answer. Also, it can be played live (whole class) or solo. Teachers can also assign some games as homework. I find the homework version useful to engage students study for exams. Teachers can import questions from CSV files or Quizlets. In terms of performance data, it is accesible to students and teachers but exporting is limited and may
require a screenshot .Overall, Blooket has been a very useful tool in my class because its simplicity and engaging games.
Boom Cards!
Boom Cards offer an interactive and engaging learning environment, for the app uses multimedia components like images, videos, and audio to improve learning. Boom Cards have a number of advantages, such as gamification, accessibility, adaptive education, quick feedback, interactive learning experiences, and data recording. What I enjoy most about these characteristics is that they make it a useful tool for educators to raise student engagement, this improves academic advancement and promotes personalized learning in the process.
Chinese language and Culture
Miss Panda Chinese blog https://www.misspandachinese.com/blog/ is a resource for Chinese language and culture that can assist in bridging the gap between classroom and home. It focuses on the Chinese language acquisition with cultural understanding not just of Chinese culture but world culture. You can find worksheets, play pages, in-depth festival cultural shares, a podcast series, and storytime videos. Target ages are for preschool to elementary or year 1 and year 2 Chinese students.
World Language- Chinese
I am an elementary Mandarin teacher, and I enjoy using Nearpod to enhance my PowerPoint presentations. Nearpod allows me to upload lesson slides and add interactive activities directly onto them. These activities can be varied, including games like drawing, matching, fill-in-the-blanks, and quizzes. While students participate, I can monitor their progress on the screen and students can see the progress and get instant feedback. Additionally, Nearpod lets me embed videos and add comprehension questions for students to answer after watching. To assess understanding at the end of the lesson, students can complete exit tickets or polls, and we can then collaboratively review the results on the board. While the platform offers a library of pre-made lessons by other teachers, there are currently not many Chinese lessons available. Hopefully, we'll see more options in the future!
World Language - Blooket
Blooket encourages students to participate and learn new methods of learning. It is very easy to customize and add your own set of questions into the games. With the simple game ID code sign in students know what to do as soon as they see it. With older students you can have them make their own review game to quiz their friends.Teachers and students receive detailed score reports to make it easy to see their progress.
World Language - Spanish (Blooket)
The resource I will be reviewing is Blooket, a website in which teachers can create review games based on content. Blooket offers complete flexibility to alter content and settings to meet student needs and is very customizable. Feedback is immediate and somewhat specific when students answer questions during a game. Students will know instantaneously whether they got a question right or wrong, and what the correct answer is, but further details and more specific feedback would need to be provided by the teacher. Furthermore, students are able to launch and operate the app independently and can play a specific game their teacher has made for them by clicking a link on Google Classroom or entering a game code from the smartboard. This is a fun and competitive game and students are generally highly motivated to play. That being said, this resource is usually limited to lower order thinking skills like understanding and remembering. Overall, this fun resource can be a very valuable addition to class activities that promotes student learning and retention of knowledge.
Lyrics Training Review
LyricsTraining.com offers versatile resources for students of multiple languages, including French, Spanish, Portugese, German, and Dutch. This app's focus is listening practice. The modus operandi is for students to first choose an experience level, for instance, intermediate, (25% of the song is blanked out at random), then a song, then the song will play and the student will fill in the blanks.
I really love the interaction and game show feel of this app. Students are highly motivated because they often know the song. Imagine learning Spanish with Despacito, or French with La Vie en Rose. This is a great app but it is limited in the amount it saves and safeguards student work. It is a user-dependent front-end and students must be self-motivated to properly engage with the content.
American Association of Teachers of German (https://www.aatg.or)
The AATG (American Association of Teachers of German) is a valuable resource for both teachers and students. It offers various professional development and research opportunities, as well as networking opportunities in both Germany and America. Students can also explore scholarship opportunities through this association. Please note that a membership fee is required to apply for these programs.
Heather Ngoma has over 25 years of experience collaborating with educators across New Jersey to drive education innovation. She currently serves as the Director of the Rutgers-GSE Alternate Route Program in the Department of Learning and Teaching, a program which helps career changers, recent college graduates, and other aspiring education professionals become licensed teachers in New Jersey. Follow her on Twitter @heatherngoma.
French
https://www.languagesresources.co.uk/
This site really impressed me, as a French teacher, I believe this site has covered every lesson that comes to mind. It offered tones of subject sheets, worksheets, slideshows, sample tests, literally everything a French teacher needs.
This purpose of the site is closely related to the purpose of the application and is appropriate for the student. It offers complete flexibility to modify the content and settings to meet the needs of the students. It encourages the use of higher-order thinking skills, including creation, evaluation, and analysis. I really recommend teachers to use this site