Recommended Websites for World Language Education by Jonathan Harris,OFLA Early Language Learning Chair, Spanish Teacher: In my previous article, I provided a list of apps recommended by NNELL, the National Network for Early Language Learners. As an early language teacher for nearly the past twenty years, I have been routinely asked by parents for ways that their children can learn language at home. I love hearing these questions since they show both a passion for learning the language (in my case, Spanish) and a willingness to practice on their own time. Their advocacy committee recommends the list below with their descriptions.

BBC Languages website allows you to access an enormous amount of text, audio, and video in a large number of languages: French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, and Greek—but there are also links to find useful phrases in Estonian, Gaelic, Urdu, Lithuanian, Catalan, Polish and more. There are interactive videos, many photo slide scenes, and links to student and teacher resources in the target language. Those links include Internet tips, TV links (with BBC news links in target languages that include transcripts), and tutoring tips (with ideas for games and assessments.) This site yields numerous resources to support the teaching and learning of foreign languages .

The Asian Society has devoted part of its website to activities for children, which include stories, art, languages, and games. Children visiting the site can read stories from Asian culture, learn to count in Chinese and Hindi, put together a map of China, decipher early human writing, make an origami bunny, learn about festivals/holidays, and explore Australia, Iran, and China.

National Geographic can help teachers and students learn more about culture and languages. The online magazine helps visitors learn beyond the headlines. The Travel Quiz link includes divisions by country, continent, city, and national park. Visitors can take the quizzes, which give immediate feedback and provide a rationale for the answer.

The Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) site is teaming with authentic material in different languages. Many video clips give visitors to the site a glimpse of how the language is spoken and how certain cultural aspects are practiced. The Merlot is an amalgam of fee-based and free resources.

Digital Dialects offers online games in 60 languages. Click on a language and then listen to native speakers’ recordings of frequently used words and phrases. Games focus on different themes that include numbers, colors, foods, animals, the calendar, time, greetings, and clothing.