23 World Languages Lesson Plans That Incorporate Comics

Storyboard That is known for its excellent storyboard creation tool that can be used for many purposes including making comic strips, creating scripts, making greeting cards, and developing timelines. Storyboard That also offers detailed lesson plans that you can use for free.

The lesson plans in Storyboard That's collection of free lesson plans are written by teachers who actually use the product in their classrooms. One of the smaller, but growing sections of that collection is the World Languages section. In the World Languages section you will find seven lesson plans for French language classes and sixteen lesson plans for Spanish language classes. You can use the lesson plans and their corresponding storyboard templates as they are written or modify them to meet your students' needs.


Disclosure: Storyboard That is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com

iMendi Quick Vocabulary Review in Eight Languages

iMendi is a simple site for reviewing key vocabulary words and phrases in eight languages. To use the site simply select a language and start flipping flashcard questions. You get two tries at the answering correctly on each card before iMendi gives you the correct answer.

If you want to focus on a specific set of vocabulary words, you can pick a specific lesson or word list from iMendi's menus that appear above every flashcard.

iMendi is available in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, and Czech.

PBS LearningMedia Introduces New Curriculum-based iBooks

PBS LearningMedia has released a new series of iBooks for K-8 teachers. The series promises to provide teachers with iBooks on topics in math, English language arts, social studies, and Spanish language and culture. Each iBook will include lesson plans, videos, games, and other activities aligned to NCSS, ACTFL, and Common Core standards.

Two iBooks are available now and two more will be released by the end of this month. The two that are available now are All About the Holidays and Beginning Spanish.

All About the Holidays offers lesson plans for 61 holidays. Beginning Spanish is a mapped curriculum for teaching Spanish to students in third through fifth grade.

#instagramELE - Using Instagram to Practice Spanish

Last week I shared with you the #mathphotoaday challenge. That challenge asks students to take pictures of objects that represent concepts in mathematics. This morning I received an email from Pilar Munday who helped to develop a similar challenge for students learning Spanish.

The #instagramELE challenge asks students to take pictures of things that represent various Spanish vocabulary words. The challenge started back in February and already has more than 6,000 photos tagged with #instagramELE. A list of the #instagramELE words is available here.

Applications for Education
If the idea of having students use Instagram and publicly sharing pictures is not practical for your classroom, you can still use the concept of #instagramELE. You could have students share their pictures privately through a shared Google Drive or Box.com folder. Having your students complete a challenge like #instagramELE is a good way to build a collection of images to use for other activities in your classroom.

#instagramELE was designed for practicing Spanish vocabulary, but it could easily be adapted for use in other languages.

Learn a Language On the Go With Duolingo Mobile Apps

On the first day of the year I reviewed the free language learning service Duolingo. To learn a new language on Duolingo you read, listen to, and translate words and phrases. For example if I want to learn Spanish I'll be shown Spanish words with translations. I can can hear the words pronounced too. Then to practice I type and or speak translations. The activities start out with simple words and phrases. As I become more proficient, Duolingo gives me more challenging phrases. To help me track my progress Duolingo awards me point and virtual badges.

In addition to using Duolingo in your web browser you can also use the free Android and iOS apps. Tekzilla provides a short demo of the app in the video below.

10 Good Sites & Apps for Learning a New Language

Last summer I took a short trip to Iceland. Before I went I tried to learn a couple of phrases (I wasn't terribly successful, my mouth just wouldn't make some of the sounds). This summer I'm taking a short trip to Costa Rica so I'm brushing-up on my Spanish vocabulary before I go. If you're trying to learn a new language too, here are some free sites and apps that could help you.

Duolingo is a free language learning service and app through which you can learn Spanish, English, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese. To learn on Duolingo you read, listen to, and translate words and phrases. For example if I want to learn Spanish I'll be shown Spanish words with translations. I can can hear the words pronounced too. Then to practice I type and or speak translations. The activities start out with simple words and phrases. As I become more proficient, Duolingo gives me more challenging phrases. To help me track my progress Duolingo awards me point and virtual badges.

uSpeak HD is a free iPad app designed to help beginners learn Spanish. The app matches you with word lists and learning activities based on your current level of knowledge of Spanish. Before you even register on the service you take a quick assessment to match you to the appropriate lists and activities. Once you've registered all of your progress is stored in your uSpeak account. uSpeak's word lists are organized in webs of related words. Click on any web to reveal the words. Then click on a word to reveal a web of in-context uses of that word, images associated with that word, and synonyms and antonyms for your chosen word.

Spanish Is Your Amigo is a series of video lessons taught by Kristen Williams. The lessons are designed for beginners. The short, upbeat lessons cover the basics of things like letter pronunciation, numbers, syllabic stress, verb conjugation, nouns and articles, and common Spanish phrases.

iMendi is a nice little site for practicing vocabulary in the languages you're trying to learn. On iMendi you can practice vocabulary in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Russian, Arabic, and Czech. To use iMendi just select the language you speak and select the language you want to learn. iMendi then gives you the choice of choosing a lesson (level 1, level 2, etc) or trying a randomly chosen lesson. The "lessons" are really just simple vocabulary matching exercises with a score and the correct answers revealed at the end.

BBC Quick Fix offers a selection of essential phrases for forty languages. The list of phrases varies slightly for each language, but they all include greetings and other essential polite phrases like "I'm sorry I don't speak Icelandic." All lists can be printed. You can also hear all of the phrases pronounced. The pronunciations can be downloaded as MP3 files to take with you on your iPod or phone.

Hello World provides games and activities for students to develop their knowledge of foreign languages. Hello World has games and activities in nine languages including Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese. Not all of the games and activities are free, but enough of them are free to warrant listing as a good place for free learning activities. 

Vocabla is a service for learning English, Spanish, and Polish vocabulary. The service can be used online or with the free iPhone and Android apps. The concept behind Vocabla is similar to a lot of other language learning applications. In Vocabla you can create lists of words and phrases that you want to learn. Alternatively, you can select a list that was made by someone else and shared to the Vocabla library. You can study each list in a flashcard style until you feel like you're ready to take a practice quiz. You can earn digital trophies and badges for your scores on the quizzes that you complete.

Pictolang is a CAPL service that offers four image-based language learning activities. The Visual Word Trainer is simply a flashcard activity that shows students an image and the word or words that picture represents. The Picture Match Game shows students one word and they have to find the picture to match it. Word Match Game shows students one picture and they have to find the word to match it. The Analyst Game is probably the most challenging of the activities. The Analyst Game shows students a picture and they have to identify where that picture came from.

Forvo can best be described as an audio wiki for word pronunciations. One of the problems with learning to speak a language that is not phonetic is trying to figure out how to pronounce the words. Forvo hosts hundreds of recordings of word pronunciations by native speakers. Along with word pronunciations, Forvo provides some basic demographic information about each language. Forvo's content is user-supported and user-generated. New pronunciations are added on a regular basis.

Surface Languages is a free service offering flashcards and practice activities to help students learn the basics of a new language. Surface Languages supports 38 languages. To use the site simply select the language that you are trying to learn then select a set of words or phrases to practice. After selecting a set of words or phrases you will be able to listen to the pronunciations of those words or phrases. You can also flip through the words and phrases in flashcard format.

Vocabla - Learn English and Spanish

Vocabla is a service for learning English, Spanish, and Polish vocabulary. The service can be used online or with the free iPhone and Android apps. The concept behind Vocabla is similar to a lot of other language learning applications. In Vocabla you can create lists of words and phrases that you want to learn. Alternatively, you can select a list that was made by someone else and shared to the Vocabla library. You can study each list in a flashcard style until you feel like you're ready to take a practice quiz. You can earn digital trophies and badges for your scores on the quizzes that you complete.

Applications for Education
The aspect of Vocabla that makes it a nice option for use by teachers is that you can create a list of words and share publicly. All of your students can then use that list to study on their own.

Use Duolingo to Learn a New Language on the Go

Duolingo is a free service that aims to help you learn Spanish, French, German, or Portuguese. Recently, Duolingo launched an iPhone app (it will also work on iPad but it isn't optimized for iPad) that allows you to practice a new language anywhere you go. The Duolingo iPhone app and website provide a variety of translation activities to help learn to you read, listen to, and translate words and phrases. The activities include looking at pictures that are representative of words and phrases. After reviewing a couple of pictures students are asked to type translations. The app gives immediate feedback to students.

Applications for Education
Duolingo won't replace in-person instruction, but it could be a good site for students to use to practice writing and speaking a new language.

uSpeak HD - A Nice App for Learning Spanish

uSpeak HD is a free iPad app designed to help beginners learn Spanish. The app matches you with word lists and learning activities based on your current level of knowledge of Spanish. Before you even register on the service you take a quick assessment to match you to the appropriate lists and activities. Once you've registered all of your progress is stored in your uSpeak account.

uSpeak's word lists are organized in webs of related words. Click on any web to reveal the words. Then click on a word to reveal a web of in-context uses of that word, images associated with that word, and synonyms and antonyms for your chosen word.

uSpeak's learning games include matching words to images,  matching translations, and word association games.

Applications for Education
uSpeak HD could be useful in helping students acquire Spanish vocabulary knowledge. The webs and in-context examples could help students get a better understanding of how words fit together. The app advertises sound files of pronunciations but those files weren't working when I tried the app. Hopefully, that feature will be working soon.

Spanish Is Your Amigo - Video Lessons for Beginners

Spanish Is Your Amigo is a new series of video lessons taught by Kristen Williams. The lessons are designed for beginners. The short, upbeat lessons cover the basics of things like letter pronunciation, numbers, syllabic stress, verb conjugation, nouns and articles, and common Spanish phrases. Check out a sample lesson embedded below.


Applications for Education
As I say with almost every series of video lessons, they won't replace direct in-person instruction. But video lessons can be good resources for students who need a review or for students who can benefit from a slightly different wording or way of looking at material.

Spanish Is Your Amigo does have an etextbook available too, but the etextbook is not free as the video lessons are. 

Try Duolingo to Learn Spanish, German, and French

Duolingo is a free site on which you can learn Spanish, German, and French. To learn on Duolingo you read, listen to, and translate words and phrases. For example if I want to learn Spanish I'll be shown Spanish words with translations. I can can hear the words pronounced too. Then to practice I type and or speak translations. The activities start out with simple words and phrases. As I become more proficient, Duolingo gives me more challenging phrases. To help me track my progress Duolingo awards me point and virtual badges.



Applications for Education
Duolingo won't replace in-person instruction, but it could be a good site for students to use to practice writing and speaking a new language.

Verbling - Practice and Learn a Language with a Partner

Verbling is a new site designed to match people who are willing to help each other learn a new language. For now the site only supports English and Spanish, but it appears that they have plans to expand their offerings in the future.

Verbling matches native speakers of a language with people who want to learn that language. Then at the appointed meeting times the two people get together to have a live conversation using one of the suggested conversation starters. Half-way through the session they switch languages so that both people get to practice the language that is new to them. Currently, Verbling is hosting two conversation sessions a day at 3pm (ET) and 10pm (ET).

See TechCrunch's post about Verbling to learn more about the company.

Applications for Education
Verbling could be a good way for students who are trying to learn a language to get some valuable practice with native speakers of that language.

Learn Eight Languages in One Place

There are a lot of places on the web where you can find flashcards, games, and quizzes designed to help you learn a new language, I featured eleven good places here. Over the weekend I found another good site to add to  that list. Learn a Language offers flashcards and games for learning eight different languages. Learn a Language offers activities in Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, French, Japanese, Chinese, and English. 

The format for Learn a Language is the same for all eight languages. Users select a language then choose if they want to study individual words or phrases. Whichever they choose the format that follows is the same. Users can study flashcards then play a game called Lingo Dingo. Lingo Dingo requires players to accurately type a word or phrase before it disappears. The object of the game is to construct a dingo by earning points for correctly typed words and phrases. 

Applications for Education

Learn a Language could be a good place for students to practice spelling words and phrases in the language that they are studying. 

TimeRime Now Available In Spanish

TimeRime is a multimedia timeline creation tool that I've written about a couple of times in the past. TimeRime still offers all of the great features that it has in the past and now it also offers those features in Spanish. To use TimeRime in Spanish, just select Spanish from the language menu at the top any TimeRime page.

TimeRime allows you to have more than one type of media for each event on your timeline. TimeRime users can also select which media type they want as the feature piece of each event. You can embed your TimeRime timelines in a blog or share them via email.

Here is a related item that may be of interest to you:
Five Ways Students Can Build Multimedia Timelines

Vocabulix - Learn Spanish, German, and English

Vocabulix provides numerous free tools for learning Spanish, German, or English. On Vocabulix can be used to create quizzes or take quizzes online. Vocabulix provides dozens of drills and activities designed to help students learn Spanish, German, or English. The verb conjugation chart can be used on the Vocabulix website. The verb conjugator code is freely available for use in third party blogs, wikis, or websites. As most new language learning websites do, Vocabulix has a social networking option that helps match native speakers with learners.

Applications for Education
Vocabulix is a great tool for independent study or practice of a foreign language. The activities are short and sweet and give students instant feedback. The pre-made Vocabulix exercises are flexible enough for use with a wide range of students from beginners to advanced language learners. Students can select the type of response, multiple choice or written response, the level of difficulty, and choice of having or not having visual clues.
The verb conjugator widget is a nice tool to include on your class blog, wiki, or website to support student learning outside of the classroom.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
CAPL - Images for Language Lessons
Study Spanish - Free Lessons With Progress Tracking
Story Place - Digital Stories in English and Spanish

Smart.fm - Independent Learning Platform

Smart.fm is a free service designed to help you learn languages, mathematics, and history independently. At it's most basic, Smart.fm provides a flashcard-like service for learning languages, learning formulas, and learning facts. You can hear the flashcards read to you, read the flashcards, and play games based upon the flashcards you're studying. Smart.fm takes the flashcard concept a step farther by offering a personalized repetition schedule based upon what you've learned and what you haven't yet learned. The schedule adjusts each time you revisit your account. Watch the video below to learn more about how the Smart.fm system works.


If you want to take you're learning on the go, Smart.fm offers iPhone apps.

Smart.fm orginally launched in Japan as a language learning system and has grown to include other content areas. They have plans to include content from places like MIT's OpenCourseWare in the near future.

Applications for Education
Smart.fm could be a good way for students to supplement the content they're learning in your classroom. For example, the Spanish resources that I previewed could be great study aids for high school students learning Spanish.

Smart.fm also looks to be a good resource for students who have an interest in a particular topic when a course on that topic is not offered by their school.

Many Things - Lots of Things for ESL Students

Many Things is a website offering ESL students and teachers an extensive collection of games, quizzes, and other online learning activities. Visitors to Many Things will find materials appropriate for beginning through advanced ESL students. In addition to games and quizzes, visitors will find listening activities made possible through the use of MP3 recordings. Many Things also offers visitors video lessons on speaking and writing English. Embedded below is an example of the video lessons you can find on Many Things.


Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
The Spanish-English Sentence Database
My English Images - Resources for ESL/ELL Teachers
ESL Printables - Worksheets and Lesson Plans

Shmoop in Spanish and 19 New Learning Guides

Shmoop, a website that produces excellent study guides, has just released some great new content. Shmoop now offers fifteen of their book summaries and study guides in Spanish for ESL/ EFL students. Some of the titles included in the Spanish translations are Huckleberry Finn, The Odyssey, and Romeo and Juliet. Check out all of the translated study guides here.

Shmoop has also added ninteen new learning guides in English. The new guides include works by Tolstoy, Chaucer, and Carroll. Check out all of the Literature Titles here.

Applications for Education
I have used the Shmoop study guides for US History and Civics with my classes this year. The guides provide a nice framework and background for in-depth classroom instruction. I have also linked Shmoop to my classroom blog and have already had a couple of students tell me that Shmoop has been helpful as a review tool for them.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
Shmoop Adds Civics and Biographies
Shmoop Study Guides for History and Literature

The Spanish-English Sentence Database

The Spanish-English Sentence Database, developed by Spanish Only, is a new resource containing more than 3100 sentences written in Spanish accompanied by their English translations. The sentences are designed to be used as part of a spaced repetition studying system. You can search the database by noun, verb, or you can simply browse through the database alphabetically.

Applications for Education
The Spanish-English Sentence Database is a resource that anyone trying to learn Spanish can access. Teachers could have students diagram various sentences from the database. Students could also put the sentences on flashcards to study.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
CAPL - Images for Language Lessons
Study Spanish - Free Lessons With Progress Tracking
Story Place - Digital Stories in English and Spanish

Study Spanish - Free Lessons With Progress Tracking

Study Spanish is a good resource for locating Spanish language instruction and practice quizzes. Not all of Study Spanish is free, but there is enough free material to warrant mentioning it on Free Technology for Teachers.

Study Spanish offers students free accounts in which they can read tutorial materials and then test their new knowledge on free quizzes. Students can keep track of the items they did and did not know. Teachers can create free accounts to monitor the progress of their students.

Applications for Education
Study Spanish is not going to replace teachers in the classroom, but it is a good supplementary resource for Spanish learners.

Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Euronews - News in Eight Languages
Large Selection of Language Learning Games
Teaching Spanish - Resources and Lesson Plans