Open Educational Resources

OER Materials by Language:

Arabic Chinese Croatian Czech French German

Italian K'iche' Malayalam Nahuatl Portuguese

Russian Sanskrit Spanish Turkish Yoruba

Arabic

Aswaat Arabiyya by *Mahmoud Al-Batal

Aswaat Arabiyya is an archive of 245 videos in Arabic, listed by difficulty level and accompanied by glossaries and four worksheets each that focus on every aspect of listening comprehension. Selections come largely from Arabic media, with some cultural presentations by native speakers. Videos cover the entire Arabic-speaking world and include MSA and different dialects. Materials are designed to be used both as in-class activities and homework assignments. Videos can be slowed down.

Tadriis: Teaching Modules for Teaching Arabic as a Second or Foreign Language by *Mahmoud Al-Batal

The Tadriis site is a multimedia online Arabic teacher training intended for Arabic teachers in the U.S. and abroad. It expands on COERLL’s Foreign Language Teaching Methods course by covering the latest in K-16 Arabic language pedagogy. With Tadriis, users can access video samples of teacher-student interactions in actual Arabic language classrooms, pedagogical demonstrations and teaching tips, samples of L2 Arabic language production, a glossary of key teaching terms, and suggestions for further reading. 

---

Chinese

Chinese Dialogues by *Wen-Hua Teng

An audio collection of simple Chinese dialogue exchanges. The listening materials are suitable for beginners and help them take the first step toward becoming proficient listeners. Based on the beginning level Chinese curriculum, the dialogues are creative yet realistic scenarios on topics that listeners can relate to, such as the social, family and school aspects of one’s life. Full transcripts transcripts in both traditional and simplified characters as well as English translations are provided as downloadable PDF documents.

 

Chinese Flashcards by *Wen-Hua Teng

Practice vocabulary on the go! The original idea conceived by a fellow Chinese language student, this flashcard exercise is an engaging and effective way to review vocabulary terms from the convenience of your mobile device.

Chinese Take-In by *Wen-Hua Teng

Chinese Take-In provides an interactive environment where first-year Chinese learners can practice listening outside the classroom according to individual needs and paces while receiving immediate feedback.

Chinese Word Order Exercises by *Wen-Hua Teng

Created by student request, this set of basic word-order exercises will help beginners practice the foundational skills of how to use the language in the right order.

Chinese Grammar Lesson Videos by *Wen-Hua Teng

A collection of video lessons on grammar topics for beginning Mandarin Chinese, available as a YouTube playlist.

Gateway to Chinese by *Wen-Hua Teng

The project developed a suite of free interactive language learning resources for beginning Mandarin Chinese, giving students the option to practice pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, listening, and reading skills at their own convenience. Gateway to Chinese resources are designed to give students the valuable feedback they need to improve language skills in the critical early stages of learning. An extensive number of interactive exercises allow students to practice what they learn. With these tools, instructors can utilize valuable classroom time to do what they do best: teach!

Pitch Perfect Pinyin by *Wen-Hua Teng

Pitch Perfect Pinyin is a two-part interactive website for learning Pinyin pronunciation.

---

Croatian

Tako Lako: Beginner-Level Croatian Textbook by Frane Karabatic

Tako Lako is an openly-licensed online textbook and curriculum for beginner-level Croatian.

---

Czech

Reality Czech by Christian Hilchey

Reality Czech is an openly licensed online curriculum for beginning to intermediate-level Czech students. The course aims to be a highly communicative introduction to Czech language and culture and includes over 240 interview compilation videos shot in the style of a reality TV show on a variety of everyday topics such as daily schedule, hobbies, food and drink, studies, holidays, health, weather, and more.

---

French

Chansons Françaises by *Kelle Keating and Karen Kelton

Chansons françaises is the integrated music component of Français interactif. Chansons features a French or Francophone song, related to each chapter's cultural or pedagogical focus, presented via audio or video. Accompanying pdfs provide additional information, as well as comprehension exercises. Songs act as a portal to various Francophone cultures and musical genres. Aural comprehension and study of lyrics afford students practice with culturally authentic text and expression. Students discover yet another reason to be passionate about studying French!

Enhancing French Skills by Nancy Guilloteau and Karen Kelton

Enhancing French skills is a website for intermediate learners of French. It includes authentic language videos from French websites, as well as interviews of French speakers on cultural topics. Videos and activities are organized into five broad themes and tagged by communicative language function with links into Tex’s French Grammar for specific grammar explanations and interactive exercises. Each theme includes a pdf of suggested classroom activities and homework.

Français Interactif by Carl Blyth, Nancy Guilloteau, and Karen Kelton 

Français interactif is a unique, award-winning 1st-year French curriculum used by learners all over the world. Students explore French language and culture by following the lives of real students who have participated in the UT Summer Program in Lyon, France. The online curriculum includes over 320 videos, vocabulary and phonetics audio, online grammar reference with self-correcting exercises and audio dialogues, verb conjugation and practice tools, internet activities, and a textbook of classroom exercises.

Le Littéraire Dans le Quotidien by Carl Blyth and *Joanna Luks

Le Littéraire dans le quotidien is an open textbook for use in French courses. The Literary in the Everyday represents a new pedagogical approach to reading and writing at the lower levels and is applicable to all languages. Teachers of foreign languages besides French can read about the approach in the Teacher's Guide.

Les Conversations Mises à Jour by Beatriz Schleppe and Melissa Skidmore

Les Conversations Mises à Jour is 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.

Tex's French Grammar by Carl Blyth, Nancy Guilloteau, and Karen Kelton 

An online pedagogical reference grammar of the French language that combines authoritative grammar explanations, self-correcting exercises and online audio with surreal dialogues and cartoon images.

---

German

Deutsch im Blick by *Zsuzsanna Abrams

This textbook includes all 10 chapters of Deutsch im Blick (2nd ed, 2017). Deutsch im Blick is the web-based first-year German program developed and in use at the University of Texas.

German Frame-Semantic Online Lexicon (G-FOL) by Hans Boas

The German Frame-semantic Online Lexicon (G-FOL) is a prototype of a new kind of pedagogical dictionary. The goal is to help students learn how words are used in modern-day German. This online resource is different from traditional dictionaries and textbooks because it is based on the German FrameNet at the University of Texas at Austin, a digital archive of how German words are used in real life contexts. As such, students can easily access up-to-date information about the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic contexts in which a German word appears. In addition, each lexical entry provides information about a word’s register, frequency, and related meanings.

Grimm Grammar by *Zsuzsanna Abrams

An online German grammar reference, featuring zany post-modern Grimm's fairy tale characters, authoritative grammar explanations, self-correcting exercises, online audio and cartoon images.

---

Italian

Radio Arlecchino by *Antonella Del Fattore-Olson and *Eric Edwards

Selection of aural Italian grammar lessons (podcasts). Grammar examples and dialogs are built upon the escapades of Arlecchino, Pulcinella, and other masks of the Italian Commedia dell'arte. Lessons feature topical grammar discussions, dramatic readings, pdf grammar notes ... and general audio zaniness.

---

K'iche'

A Beginner to Advanced Level K'iche' Online Course by Sergio Romero

Chqe’tamaj le qach’ab’al K’iche’! is a set of beginner online course materials for K’iche’, a Mayan language of Guatemala.

---

Malayalam

Malayalam Open Educational Resources by Donald R. Davis Jr. and Darsana Manayathu Sasi

Includes classroom materials, curricular plans, lesson plans, and other resources to facilitate teaching and learning Malayalam. In collaboration with the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning (COERLL), the Department of Asian Studies and South Asia Institute support the ongoing creation of OER for Malayalam. 

---

Nahuatl 

Nahuatlahtolli: A Beginner to Advanced Level Nahuatl Online Course by *Catalina Cruz de la Cruz, et. al.

This self-paced course is based on the Nahuatl variant from the Huasteca of Veracruz that is spoken in Chicontepec, Veracruz, Mexico. The principal aim of this course is to develop the student’s oral, written, and comprehension abilities primarily through the study of grammar, listening, and reading. The intended audience for this pedagogical resource is foreign students interested in developing their language skills, as well as native teachers in bilingual schools in the Chicontepec region.

---

Portuguese

Portuguese Communication Exercises by *Orlando Kelm

Portuguese Communication Exercises is a compilation of brief video clips in which native speakers of Portuguese from various locations throughout Brazil and Portugal demonstrate various language tasks. The objective of the clips is to provide students of Portuguese with the necessary tools to be able to talk about the same topics in Portuguese.

ClicaBrasil by Vivian Flanzer

Here you will find Portuguese language resources that highlight aspects of Brazilian culture. These materials are designed for intermediate to advanced students, but are accessible to everyone. Each unit includes videos of Brazilians from all walks of life speaking naturally about their lives and giving their personal opinions about their country, and numerous activities and exercises available in PDF files.

ClicaBrasil: Portuguese Language and Culture for Intermediate Students by Vivian Flanzer

This is a PDF of the textbook ClicaBrasil.

Língua da Gente by *Orlando Kelm

In Brazil, the term língua da gente (literally ‘language of the people’) refers to the way that people actually talk in everyday speech. And that, in essence, is the object behind this series. We hope to provide practical lessons that demonstrate how people really speak, and we do this by presenting brief, slice-of-life dialogs, which focus on some daily situation, scenario, or task that we encounter every day.

Tá Falado by *Orlando Kelm, et. al.

Tá Falado includes 46 podcast lessons on the pronunciation and grammar of Portuguese, specifically designed to help those who already speak Spanish. 

---

Russian

Rockin' Russian by Thomas Garza

Rockin Russian is designed to give students exposure to the Russian language and culture through the medium of Russian music videos. Students are able to perfect their grammar while rocking out to music videos from Russia's pop stars. Based on Russian music videos from MTV Russia, Rockin' Russian is supplemented with exercise materials focusing on pronunciation, vocabulary development, grammar and cultural features. Parts of the videos are embedded into exercises in each category that students can revisit, strengthening their language skills.

---

Sanskrit

Resource Library for Dharmaśāstra Studies by *Patrick Olivelle

Various Sanskrit texts with commentary. 

Sanskrit Instructional OER by Donald R. Davis Jr.

Sanskrit lesson plans and instruction guides. 

---

Spanish

Introduction to Oral Proficiency Levels by *Judith Liskin-Gasparro

Introduction to Oral Proficiency Levels is a free open educational resource that can help Spanish teachers gain a foundational understanding of how to evaluate Spanish speakers. The resource includes 17 video-based practice modules designed to strengthen your understanding of the ACTFL Speaking Proficiency Guidelines and to help you evaluate the speaking levels of your language students.

¡Listos! by *Meredith Clark and *José Sologuren

¡Listos! is a series of units for Heritage Spanish learners in grades 6-12. Three lessons aligned to the K12 Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) form four thematic clusters. Relevant scenarios related to personal life, college tasks, career readiness and civic participation frame each lesson and increase student engagement by making learning authentic and relevant to real issues that students face. Each lesson identifies an intermediate or advanced proficiency target that supports language acquisition in the interpersonal, interpretive and presentational modes. The project also provides teachers with a replicable approach to lesson design for adapting or creating their own materials.

Español Abierto - Open Educational Resources for the Spanish Classroom

A repository for open Spanish resources.
 

Spanish Grammar in Context by *Barbara E. Bullock and Almeida Jacqueline Toribio

Welcome to Spanish Grammar in Context, where you will find detailed grammar explanations of the Spanish language. Unlike traditional reference grammars, each topic is explained using authentic video examples from the Spanish in Texas project. Accompanying practice quizzes are available on an open Canvas course site.

Spanish Heritage Language Professional Development Videos from COERLL

These videos from COERLL's annual Heritage Spanish workshop address different topics in heritage teaching.

Spanish Proficiency Exercises by *Orlando Kelm

A compilation of brief video clips in which native speakers of Spanish from various locations throughout Latin America and Spain demonstrate various language tasks.

SpinTX: Authentic Spanish videos for language learning by *Barbara E. Bullock and Almeida Jacqueline Toribio

Authentic Spanish videos for language learning.

The Texas Coalition for Heritage Spanish by Texas Coalition for Heritage Spanish

TeCHS is a cooperative platform to support the success of Spanish heritage language speakers and their communities in Texas, assisting and promoting bicultural and bilingual development in the state. Our collaborators include Spanish program faculty and instructors from across Texas.

Trayectos 1: Mi vida en la universidad and Trayectos 2: Más sobre mí by *Gabriela Zapata and *Alessandra Ribota

Trayectos is an open curriculum for beginning second language (L2) learners of Spanish.

Recorridos by *Betsy Arnold and *Rose Potter

COERLL has partnered with Rose Potter and Betsy Arnold to publish Recorridos-Don Quijote, a pair of openly-licensed books for the study of Cervantes’ Don Quijote in upper level Spanish courses, including AP. The student workbook, accessible online for free, deepens students’ understanding of the text through reading, pre-reading, and post-reading activities and glosses. The companion teacher support facilitates the teaching of Don Quijote through student-centered strategies and activities, historical and cultural information, quizzes, exams and more.

---

Turkish

Her Şey bir Merhaba ile Başlar! (Everything Begins with a Hello!) by Jeannette Okur

Her Şey Bir Merhaba ile Başlar! was developed for intermediate level Turkish language courses at the University of Texas at Austin. Intermediate learners and their instructors may use it for different purposes: self-study, classroom instruction, tutoring, or as a pastime. The lessons in Her Şey Bir Merhaba ile Başlar! integrate reading, listening and viewing comprehension, writing and speaking practice, grammar, vocabulary, and cultural activities. Dozens of audio and video clips of Turkish speakers describing their lives, their culture, and their country support and enhance these activities.

---

Yoruba

Yorùbá Yé Mi by *Fehintola Mosadomi

Yorùbá Yé Mi is 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. It contains effective techniques for teaching and learning Yorùbá including tones, and is userfriendly in its approach.