World Language Learning: Language & Languages
A guide to resources at the Boston Public Library and online that can help you learn another language.
Evolution of Language
Harvard professor, Steven Pinker, explores how language evolved, whether there is such a thing as an innate universal grammar, and why language is so important to the development of human society.
Ted Talks
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), is a series of conferences run by a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting "ideas worth spreading." Over 1900 TED talk videos are freely available online. Presenters include top innovators in science, technology, and culture. In the TED talk below, Dr. Patricia Kuhl explains how babies acquire language. Access additional TED talks on language here.
Searching the Library Catalog
Some search terms to use when checking the catalog are listed below. Results can be filtered by location, format, audience, and more.
Browse by Library of Congress Classification Number
Use Library of Congress classification numbers to find materials on language and language learning.
- P1-1091 - Philology. Linguistics.
P1-85 - General - P101-410 - Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar
P118-118.75 - Language Acquisition - P121-149 - Science of Language (Linguistics)
World Languages
Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a "comprehensive work cataloging all of the world's known living languages." It covers over 7,000 languages, providing information such as:
- Population
- Location
- Language Status
- Classification
- Dialects
- Typology
- Language Use
- Language Development
- Writing
How-to Guides & Resources for Second-Language Learners & Teachers
Babel No More: The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners by
In the tradition of the bestsellers Word Freak and The Language Instinct comes a fascinating exploration of linguistic superlearners whose abilities shed light on the intellectual potential in us all. What do an Italian cardinal, a Connecticut blacksmith, and a German diplomat have in common with an MIT linguist, a Hungarian translator, and a Scottish church organist? They were all "hyperpolyglots," "language superlearners," or "massive multilinguals." In Babel No More, Michael Erard delves into the lives and minds of these intriguing individuals both past and present and discovers the upper limit of the human ability to learn, speak, and remember languages. Hyperpolyglots-people who, by one definition, can use six or more languages-are fascinating not simply because what they do is out of the ordinary. Rather, their accomplishments serve as a point of reference for the rest of us-in some ways they are what the author calls a gifted neural tribe, absorbing language for reasons, and with methods, that few people would emulate. But they are also marked by simple, if dogged, methods-the most prolific multilingual in history, Cardinal Mezzofanti, used flashcards. Taken together, their pursuits present a natural experiment into the limits and the nature of memory and language. Part scientific detective story, part travelogue, part valentine to anyone who's ever hoped to sprechen or parler something other than a mother tongue, Babel No More takes us all over the world to look at language learning in an entirely new way.
Call Number: P140 .E73 2012ISBN: 1451628250Publication Date: 2012-01-10
Becoming Fluent: How Cognitive Science Can Help Adults Learn a Foreign Language by
Adults who want to learn a foreign language are often discouraged because they believe they cannot acquire a language as easily as children. Once they begin to learn a language, adults may be further discouraged when they find the methods used to teach children don't seem to work for them. What is an adult language learner to do? In this book, Richard Roberts and Roger Kreuz draw on insights from psychology and cognitive science to show that adults can master a foreign language if they bring to bear the skills and knowledge they have honed over a lifetime. Adults shouldn't try to learn as children do; they should learn like adults. Roberts and Kreuz report evidence that adults can learn new languages even more easily than children. Children appear to have only two advantages over adults in learning a language: they acquire a native accent more easily, and they do not suffer from self-defeating anxiety about learning a language. Adults, on the other hand, have the greater advantages -- gained from experience -- of an understanding of their own mental processes and knowing how to use language to do things. Adults have an especially advantageous grasp of pragmatics, the social use of language, and Roberts and Kreuz show how to leverage this metalinguistic ability in learning a new language. Learning a language takes effort. But if adult learners apply the tools acquired over a lifetime, it can be enjoyable and rewarding.
Call Number: QP360.5 .R63 2015ISBN: 9780262029230Publication Date: 2015-08-07
Fluent Forever by
The ultimate rapid language-learning guide! For those who've despaired of ever learning a foreign language, here, finally, is a book that will make the words stick. At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn't learn them in school -- who does? -- rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources. In Fluent Forever Wyner reveals what he's discovered. The greatest challenge to learning a foreign language is the challenge of memory; there are just too many words and too many rules. For every new word we learn, we seem to forget two old ones, and as a result, fluency can seem out of reach. Fluent Forever tackles this challenge head-on. With empathy for the language-challenged and abundant humor, Wyner deconstructs the learning process, revealing how to build a foreign language in your mind from the ground up. Starting with pronunciation, you'll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You'll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you'll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery, rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you'll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. Soon, you'll gain the ability to learn grammar and more difficult abstract words--without the tedious drills and exercises of language classes and grammar books. This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.
Call Number: P53.4115 .W96 2014xISBN: 9780385348119Publication Date: 2014-08-05
Fluent in 3 Months by
An Unconventional Guide to Start Speaking a New Language Today Benny Lewis is the creator of www.fluentin3months.com, the largest language learning blog in the world. His proven techniques break down language learning myths and replace them with practical "language hacks" that take advantage of the skills we already possess. Fluent in 3 Months provides everything you need to make learning a new language fast, intuitive, and fun.
Call Number: P53.77 .L49 2014ISBN: 9780062282699Publication Date: 2014-03-11
How Language Works by
Whether looking at the whistle languages of the Canary Islands or describing the layout of the human throat, this landmark book will enrich the lives of everyone who reads it.
Call Number: P121 .C675 2006xISBN: 9781585678488Publication Date: 2006-11-16
How Languages Are Learned by
A thoroughly updated edition of this award-winning, accessible guide to the study of language acquisition.
Call Number: P118.2 .L54 2013ISBN: 9780194541268Publication Date: 2013-03-21
The Language Instinct by
In this classic, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling story: language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution. The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize from the American Psychological Association and the Public Interest Award from the Linguistics Society of America. This edition includes an update on advances in the science of language since The Language Instinct was first published.
Call Number: P106 .P476 2007xISBN: 9780061336461Publication Date: 2007-09-04
On Language: Chomsky's Classic Works Language and Responsibility and Reflections on Language in One Volume by
An attractive new edition of two of Chomsky's most popular books on language - an ideal introduction to his pioneering work in modern linguistics. In Part I, Language and Responsibility, the legend discusses his political, moral and linguistic thinking via a series of interviews with French linguist Mitsou Ronat. In Part II, Reflections on Language, he explores the more general implications of his linguistic theories and the controversies among social scientists over fundamental questions of language.
Call Number: P106 .C523 1998ISBN: 9781565844759Publication Date: 1998-11-01
The Power of Babel by
There are approximately 6000 languages on earth today, the descendants of the tongue first spoken by homo sapiens some 150,000 years ago. How did they all develop? What happened to the first language? In this irreverent romp through territory too often claimed by stodgy grammarians, McWhorter ranges across linguistic theory, geography, history, and pop culture to tell the fascinating story of how thousands of very different languages have evolved from a single, original source in a natural process similar to biological evolution. While laying out how languages mix and mutate over time, he reminds us of the variety within the species that speaks them, and argues that, contrary to popularperception, language is not immutable and hidebound, but a living, dynamic entity that adapts itself to an ever-changing human environment. Full of humor and imaginative insight, The Power of Babel draws its examples from languages around the world, including pidgins, creoles, patois and nonstandard dialects. McWhorter also discusses current theories on what the first language might have been like, why dialects should not be considered "bad speech" and why most of today's languages will be extinct in 100 years. The first book written for the layperson about the natural history of language, Power of Babel is a dazzling tour de force that will leave readers anything but speechless.
Call Number: P140 .M34 2001ISBN: 0716744732Publication Date: 2002-01-15
Raising a Bilingual Child: A Step-by-step Guide for Parents by
If you would like your children to experience the benefits of becoming bilingual, but you aren't sure how to teach them a second language, then Raising a Bilingual Child is the perfect step-by-step guide for you. Raising a Bilingual Child provides parents with information, encouragement, and practical advice for creating a positive bilingual environment. It offers both an overview of why parents should raise their children to speak more than one language and detailed steps parents can take to integrate two languages into their child's daily routine. Raising a Bilingual Child also includes inspirational first-hand accounts from parents. It dispels the myth that bilingualism may hinder a child's academic performance and explains that learning languages at a young age can actually enhance a child's overall intellectual development.
Call Number: P115.2 .P43 2008ISBN: 9781400023349Publication Date: 2008-04-15
Teach Now! Modern Foreign Languages by
Being taught by a great teacher is one of the great privileges of life. Teach Now! is an exciting new series that opens up the secrets of great teachers and, step-by-step, helps trainees to build the skills and confidence they need to become first-rate classroom practitioners. Written by a highly-skilled practitioner, this practical, classroom-focused guide contains all the support you need to become a great modern foreign languages teacher. Combining a grounded, modern rationale for learning and teaching with highly practical training approaches, the book guides you through all the different aspects of MFL teaching offering clear, straightforward advice on classroom practice, lesson planning and working in schools. Teaching and learning, planning, assessment and behaviour management are all covered in detail, with a host of carefully chosen examples used to demonstrate good practice. There are also chapters on the essentials of the MFL curriculum, pedagogical techniques, strategies to engage students in language learning, and how to succeed in observations and interviews. Throughout the book, there is a great selection of ready-to-use activities, approaches and techniques which will help put you on the fast track to success in the classroom. Covering everything you need to know, this book is your essential guide as you start your exciting and rewarding career as an outstanding MFL teacher.
Call Number: P53.85 .A44 2015ISBN: 9781138016149Publication Date: 2014-12-19
Understanding Second Language Acquisition by
Whether we grow up with one, two, or several languages during our early years of life, many of us will learn a second, foreign, or heritage language in later years. The field of Second language acquisition (SLA, for short) investigates the human capacity to learn additional languages in late childhood, adolescence, or adulthood, after the first language --in the case of monolinguals-- or languages --in the case of bilinguals-- have already been acquired. Understanding Second Language Acquisition offers a wide-encompassing survey of this burgeoning field, its accumulated findings and proposed theories, its developed research paradigms, and its pending questions for the future. The book zooms in and out of universal, individual, and social forces, in each case evaluating the research findings that have been generated across diverse naturalistic and formal contexts for second language acquisition. It assumes no background in SLA and provides helpful chapter-by-chapter summaries and suggestions for further reading. Ideal as a textbook for students of applied linguistics, foreign language education, TESOL, and education, it is also recommended for students of linguistics, developmental psycholinguistics, psychology, and cognitive science. Supporting resources for tutors are available free at www.routledge.com/ortega.
Call Number: P118.2 .078 2013xISBN: 9780340905593Publication Date: 2009-01-28
There are many different approaches to learning a second language and many helpful online resources. The resources listed below contain a variety of tips and strategies for language learning, and include sites by some well-known polyglots who share their experience and knowledge.
- BBC - Language Learning TipsHow to learn a language by memorize vocabulary, speaking and listening, and using media.
- Fluent ForeverGabriel Wyner, author of the book "Fluent Forever," shares his language learning strategies.
- Fluent in 3 MonthsBenny Lewis, the Irish polyglot, shares his language learning theories and stories.
- FluentUFluentU blogs, while part of the FluentU language learning subscription service, are free and offer great tips for learners and teachers of world languages such as Chinese, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese.
- FluentU - The 14 Best Polyglot YouTube ChannelsCheck out FluentU's list of top YouTube polyglot channels and see if you can find a favorite.
- Life Hacker - Top 10 Tips and Tools for Learning a New LanguageTips on learning a new language with links to articles on the science of language learning, and more.
- Study Guides & Strategies - Language Learning StrategiesLanguage learning strategies from Studygs.net.
Language learning memoirs are an excellent complement to more traditional resources. They describe the author's personal experiences learning the target language, often explore the customs and culture of the people who speak it, and/or delve into the science of second language learning. Featured titles are listed below.
La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair With Italian, the World's Most Enchanting Language by
Italians say that someone who acquires a new language possesses it. In my case, Italian possesses me. With Italian racing like blood through my veins, I do indeed see with different eyes, hear with different ears, and drink in the world with all my senses. A celebration of the language and culture of Italy, La Bella Lingua is the story of how a language shaped a nation, told against the backdrop of one woman's personal quest to speak fluent Italian. For anyone who has been to Italy, the fantasy of living the Italian life is powerfully seductive. But to truly become Italian, one must learn the language. This is how Dianne Hales began her journey. In La Bella Lingua, she brings the story of her decades-long experience with the world's most loved and lovable language together with explorations of Italy's history, literature, art, music, movies, lifestyle and food in a true opera amorosa, a labor of her love of Italy. Throughout her first excursion in Italy -- with non parlo Italiano as her only Italian phrase -- Dianne delighted in the beauty of what she saw but craved comprehension of what she heard. And so she chose to inhabit the language. Over more than twenty-five years she has studied Italian in every way possible through Berlitz, books, CDs, podcasts, private tutorials and conversation groups, and, most importantly, large blocks of time in Italy. In the process she found that Italian became not just a passion and a pleasure, but a passport into Italy's storia and its very soul. She offers charming insights into what it is that makes Italian the most emotionally expressive of languages, from how the pronto; (Ready!) Italians say when they answer the telephone conveys a sense of something coming alive, to how even ordinary things such as a towel (asciugamano) or handkerchief (fazzoletto) sound better in Italian. She invites readers to join her as she traces the evolution of Italian in the zesty graffiti on the walls of Pompeii, in Dante's incandescent cantos and in Boccaccio's bawdy Decameron. She portrays how social graces remain woven into the fabric of Italian: even the chipper ciao, which does double duty as and bye,reflects centuries of bella figura. And she exalts the glories of Italy's food and its rich and often uproarious gastronomic language: Italians deftly describe someone uptight as a baccala (dried cod), a busybody who noses into everything as a prezzemolo (parsley), a worthless or banal movie as a polpettone (large meatball). Like Dianne, readers of La Bella Lingua will find themselves innamorata, enchanted, by Italian, fascinated by its saga, tantalized by its adventures, addicted to its sound, and ever eager to spend more time in its company. Dianne Hales is a widely published journalist and health writer. She lives with her family in Marin County, California. You can find out more about Dianne at her website (www.becomingitalian.com or labellalingua.org) and on Facebook.
Call Number: PC1074.75 .H35 2009ISBN: 9780767927697Publication Date: 2009-05-12
Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language by
Deborah Fallows has spent a lot of her life learning languages and traveling around the world. But nothing prepared her for the surprises of learning Mandarin, China's most common language, or the intensity of living in Shanghai and Beijing. Over time, she realized that her struggles and triumphs in studying learning the language of her adopted home provided small clues to deciphering behavior and habits of its people, and its culture's conundrums. As her skill with Mandarin increased, bits of the language - a word, a phrase, an oddity of grammar - became windows into understanding romance, humor, protocol, relationships, and the overflowing humanity of modern China. Fallows learned, for example, that the abrupt, blunt way of speaking which Chinese people sometimes use isn't rudeness, but is, in fact a way to acknowledge and honor the closeness between two friends. She learned that English speakers' trouble with hearing or saying tones-the variations in inflection that can change a word's meaning-is matched by Chinese speakers' inability not to hear tones, or to even take a guess at understanding what might have been meant when foreigners misuse them. Dreaming in Chinese is the story of what Deborah Fallows discovered about the Chinese language, and how that helped her make sense of what had at first seemed like the chaos and contradiction of everyday life in China.
Call Number: DS779.43 .F36 2011xISBN: 9780802779144Publication Date: 2011-09-13
Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language by
An eye-opening and courageous memoir that explores what learning a new language can teach us about distant worlds and, ultimately, ourselves. After miraculously surviving a serious illness, Katherine Rich found herself at an impasse in her career as a magazine editor. She spontaneously accepted a freelance writing assignment to go to India, where she found herself thunderstruck by the place and the language, and before she knew it she was on her way to Udaipur, a city in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, in order to learn Hindi. Rich documents her experiences ranging from the bizarre, to the frightening, to the unexpectedly exhilarating. Using Hindi as the lens through which she is given a new perspective not only on India, but on the radical way the country and the language itself were changing her. Fascinated by the process, she went on to interview linguistics experts around the world, reporting back from the frontlines of the science wars on what happens in the brain when we learn a new language. She brings both of these experiences together seamlessly in Dreaming in Hindi, a remarkably unique and thoughtful account of self-discovery.
Call Number: DS414.2 .R53 2009ISBN: 9780618155453Publication Date: 2009-07-07
Flirting with French: How a Language Charmed Me, Seduced Me & Nearly Broke My Heart by
"A delightful and courageous tale and a romping good read. Voila!" --Mark Greenside, author of I'll Never Be French (No Matter What I Do) William Alexander is more than a Francophile. He wants to be French. There's one small obstacle though: he doesn't speak la langue française. In Flirting with French, Alexander sets out to conquer the language he loves. But will it love him back? Alexander eats, breathes, and sleeps French (even conjugating in his dreams). He travels to France, where mistranslations send him bicycling off in all sorts of wrong directions, and he nearly drowns in an immersion class in Provence, where, faced with the riddle of masculine breasts, feminine beards, and a turkey cutlet of uncertain gender, he starts to wonder whether he should've taken up golf instead of French. While playing hooky from grammar lessons and memory techniques, Alexander reports on the riotous workings of the Académie française, the four-hundred-year-old institution charged with keeping the language pure; explores the science of human communication, learning why it's harder for fifty-year-olds to learn a second language than it is for five-year-olds; and, frustrated with his progress, explores an IBM research lab, where he trades barbs with a futuristic hand-held translator. Does he succeed in becoming fluent? Readers will be as surprised as Alexander is to discover that, in a fascinating twist, studying French may have had a far greater impact on his life than actually learning to speak it ever would. "A blend of passion and neuroscience, this literary love affair offers surprise insights into the human brain and the benefits of learning a second language. Reading William Alexander's book is akin to having an MRI of the soul." --Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of Sleeping Arrangements "Alexander proves that learning a new language is an adventure of its own--with all the unexpected obstacles, surprising breakthroughs and moments of sublime pleasure traveling brings." --Julie Barlow, author of Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong
Call Number: PC2127.F7 A54 2014ISBN: 9781616200206Publication Date: 2014-09-16
French Lessons: A Memoir by
Brilliantly uniting the personal and the critical, "French Lessons" is a powerful autobiographical experiment. It tells the story of an American woman escaping into the French language and of a scholar and teacher coming to grips with her history of learning. Kaplan begins with a distinctly American quest for an imaginary France of the intelligence. But soon her infatuation with all things French comes up against the dark, unimagined recesses of French political and cultural life. The daughter of a Jewish lawyer who prosecuted Nazi war criminals at Nuremburg, Kaplan grew up in the 1960s in the Midwest. After her father's death when she was seven, French became her way of "leaving home" and finding herself in another language and culture. In spare, midwestern prose, by turns intimate and wry, Kaplan describes how, as a student in a Swiss boarding school and later in a junior year abroad in Bordeaux, she passionately sought the French "r," attentively honed her accent, and learned the idioms of her French lover. When, as a graduate student, her passion for French culture turned to the elegance and sophistication of its intellectual life, she found herself drawn to the language and style of the novelist Louis-Ferdinand Celine. At the same time she was repulsed by his anti-Semitism. At Yale in the late 70s, during the heyday of deconstruction she chose to transgress its apolitical purity and work on a subject "that made history impossible to ignore: " French fascist intellectuals. Kaplan's discussion of the "de Man affair" the discovery that her brilliant and charismatic Yale professor had written compromising articles for the pro-Nazi Belgian press and her personal account of the paradoxes of deconstruction are among the most compelling available on this subject. "French Lessons" belongs in the company of Sartre's "Words" and the memoirs of Nathalie Sarraute, Annie Ernaux, and Eva Hoffman. No book so engrossingly conveys both the excitement of learning and the moral dilemmas of the intellectual life."
Call Number: PC2064.K36 A3 1993ISBN: 9780226424187Publication Date: 1993-11-01
In Other Words by
From the best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize winner, a powerful nonfiction debut--an "honest, engaging, and very moving account of a writer searching for herself in words." --Kirkus Reviews (starred). In Other Words is a revelation. It is at heart a love story--of a long and sometimes difficult courtship, and a passion that verges on obsession: that of a writer for another language. For Jhumpa Lahiri, that love was for Italian, which first captivated and capsized her during a trip to Florence after college. Although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterward, true mastery always eluded her. Seeking full immersion, she decides to move to Rome with her family, for "a trial by fire, a sort of baptism" into a new language and world. There, she begins to read, and to write--initially in her journal--solely in Italian. In Other Words, an autobiographical work written in Italian, investigates the process of learning to express oneself in another language, and describes the journey of a writer seeking a new voice. Presented in a dual-language format, this is a wholly original book about exile, linguistic and otherwise, written with an intensity and clarity not seen since Vladimir Nabokov: a startling act of self-reflection and a provocative exploration of belonging and reinvention.
ISBN: 9781101875551Publication Date: 2016-02-09
When in French: Love in a Second Language by Call Number: PN4874.C646 A3 2016ISBN: 9781594206443Publication Date: 2016-09-13
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowCredo Reference is a giant online reference library that provides access to as many as 162 reference books, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, books of quotations, as well as a range of subject-specific titles all cross-referenced throughout the collection. In addition to foreign-language dictionaries, titles in the collection relevant to language learning and linguistics include:
- The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences
- The Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition
- Dictionary of Languages
- Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics
- Dictionary of Sociolinguistics
- Dictionary of Untranslatables
- E-Z American Sign Language
- Key Ideas in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language
- Key Thinkers in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language by
This new, thoroughly revised edition of the acclaimed Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language incorporates the major developments in language study which have taken place since the mid 1990s. Two main new areas have been added: the rise of electronic communication in all its current forms from email to texting, and the crisis affecting the world's languages, of which half are thought to be so seriously endangered that they will die out this century. All language statistics have been updated, and additional information provided about their linguistic affiliation. All topics involving technology have been revised to take account of recent developments, notably in phonetics, language disability, and computing. Maps have been revised to include new countries or country names. Special attention has been paid to fast-moving areas such as language teaching and learning. The text design has been completely updated with many new illustrations throughout
Call Number: REF P29 .C64 2010ISBN: 9780521736503Publication Date: 2010-06-03
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics by
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics is the most authoritative and up-to-date dictionary of linguistics available. Written by distinguished and highly respected scholar Peter Matthews, this handy reference contains over 3,000 concise and informative entries on everything from phonetics to formal semantics. Including world-wide coverage of languages and language families, the Concise provides grammatical terms in English as well as grammatical categories in other languages. Matthews also offers extensive coverage of the theory of language, language history, and important ideas and figures in linguistics. A directory of symbols is included for quick and easy reference. With entries ranging from epiglottal and morpheme to Austronesian and Navajo, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics is the ideal reference for anyone with an interest in language and its study.
Call Number: P29 .M34 1997ISBN: 9780192800084Publication Date: 1998-01-08
You can find articles about language, language learning, and teaching languages in these databases. If you would like to get some extra reading and comprehension practice in your target language as you research, try limiting your search to articles in that language.
- Gale Literature This link opens in a new windowAn integrated search for Literature Criticism Online, Literature Resource Center, and Modern Language Association (MLA) International Bibliography.
- ERIC This link opens in a new windowThe Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, provides access to some 14,000 documents and over 20,000 journal articles from Resources in Education (RIE) and Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE). In addition, ERIC provides coverage of conferences, meetings, government documents, theses, dissertations, reports, audiovisual media, bibliographies, directories, books and monographs. Coverage: 1966-present
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowFull-text access to over 850 core scholarly journals covering 44 specialized subject areas. Complete back runs of many titles are available. Coverage: spread out over the last 150 years but no current coverage for last 3-5 years.
- American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)The ACTFL "is dedicated to the improvement and expansion of the teaching and learning of all languages at all levels of instruction." You can access a list of national, regional, and state organizations for individual languages; check the ACTFL's standards for foreign language learning; and more on their website.
- CAL - Center for Applied LinguisticsA private, nonprofit organization committed to promoting "language learning and cultural understanding."
- CARLA - Center for Advanced Research on Language AcquisitionOne of the U.S. Department of Education's Language Resource Centers, CARLA's mission is to "study multilingualism and multiculturalism, to develop knowledge of second language acquisition, and to advance the quality of second language teaching, learning, and assessment." CARLA provides an extensive list of resources for language teachers.
- Coeril Center for Open Educational Resources & Language Learning (COERLL)One of the U.S. Department of Education's Learning Resource Centers, COERLL's specific mission is to "provide and disseminate Open Educational Resources for the Internet public."
- Language Resource CentersThe U.S. Department of Education funds Language Resource Centers (LRCs) at various universities throughout the United States. They conduct research on world language learning, create teaching and language-learning materials, and offer opportunities for professional development to educators. While all operate with the common purpose of promoting foreign language learning and teaching in the United States, each LRC has its own unique focus. Check out their online booklet for a quick overview of the LRC program and the individual LRCs.
- Linguistic Society of AmericaA membership organization for those involved in the scientific study of language.
- Modern Language Association (MLA)The MLA "promotes the study and teaching of languages and literatures through its programs, publications, annual convention, and advocacy work."
- National Capital Language Resource Center (NCLRC)NCLRC, the creation of a collaboration between The George Washington University, Georgetown University, and the Center for Applied Linguistics, has many resources for foreign language educators. NCLRC is one of a number of Language Resource Centers funded by the Department of Education,
- Annenberg LearnerAnnenberg Learner is part of the Annenberg Foundation. It provides multimedia resources for teachers, students, and adult learners. Foreign language learning resources include videos on learning French and Spanish, and workshops and lesson plans for teaching foreign languages, K-12.
- BBC - Languages of the WorldProvides the facts on the world's most spoken languages, discusses which are the hardest to learn, and more.
- Council of Europe - CEFRInformation on the Common European Framework of References for Languages, which tests foreign language proficency..
- FLTEACH: Foreign Language Teaching ForumAn online forum for foreign language teachers.
- How Language Works: The Cognitive Science of LinguisticsMichael Glasser, former professor at Indiana University, provides this free online book about the science of language.
- iLoveLanguagesA directory of Internet resources related to language and language learning.
- Language Resource Centers - Teaching and Learning MaterialsSearch the teaching and learning resources developed by all the Language Resource Centers here. The search can be limited to just show free material.
- Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to LinguisticsThis 6-week course by Leiden University introduces you to the study of languages. All materials needed are freely available online.
- Modern Language Association - Language MapUse the Modern Language Association's Language Map to find the location and numbers of speakers of thirty commonly-spoken languages in the United States, colleges and universities that provides classes in these languages, and information on over three hundred additional languages.
- OmniglotAn encyclopedic guide to the writing systems and languages of the world.
- Teaching World Languages: A Practical GuideThis online publication from the National Capital Language Resource Center covers the principles and practices of teaching world languages. Also available in Arabic and Chinese.
- UNESCO - Endangered LanguagesUNESCO's Endangered Languages Programme supports communities and governments in their attempts to protect endangered languages. Check out their Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger for information on individual languages.
- Verbix Linguistic MapsUse the Verbix maps to check where a language is spoken, see which areas of the world have the greatest language diversity, and more.
- The World in WordsA Public Radio International (PRI) podcast about language issues worldwide.