Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

This site features a video collection for second language learners. It allows you to select short videos on a wide variety of subjects for classroom use. There are also pre-written quizzes -- or you can prepare your own quiz about the video. Students can view, test, and receive the results of their quizzes from any computer; results appear immediately. Videos and quizzes are available at four levels. The same type of offering can be used in French, Spanish, German, and other languages. You can simply set up a class group and students can use a log in to access the videos and quizzes. You can also add your own video selections and quizzes to the site. The parameters ask that videos be rated up to PG-13 only. Registration is free. You can make comments on the videos and quizzes. Other offerings of the site include transcripts of the videos and culture notes with relevant information, as well as grammar, vocabulary, slang, and pronunciation help.
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tag(s): listening (92), vocabulary (238), vocabulary development (90)

Looking for review materials for a variety of classes? Use for a wide range of curriculum topics. (A "learning object" is any kind of interactive activity, animation, video, audio file, etc, that can be used for learning.) This site is great for introductory, reinforcement, or review materials. Find most of the relevant topics by using the search bar. Choose from many subjects such as biology, biochemistry, chemistry, math, sociology, world languages, and written communication, among others. Gifted students or those who learn well independently can study Chinese and other topics not easily available in their school using WISC-Onkine.

tag(s): animals (288), business (51), cells (83), chinese (44), grammar (134), grammar review (32), life cycles (21), microscopes (10), plants (148), psychology (67), sentences (22), sociology (24), speech (68)

Type characters and accents in any foreign language simply by clicking them on screen using TypeIt. Especially handy for those of us who do not know the keyboard shortcuts (or ASCI codes) for accents and unlauts, this handy tool lets you compose in a text box, then simply copy/paste the text into your "destination." Now you can write text to include in the many online tools reviewed by the TeachersFirst Edge and include the accurate accents and diacritical markings vitally important to language learning. Simply keep TypeIt open in one tab and your tool of choice open in another. Prepare the text in TypeIt and copy/paste to text boxes in any tool or even in PowerPoint, Word, or interactive whiteboard software. Type It is easier to use than "insert character" in most word processing programs, as well!

tag(s): french (75), german (47), spanish (106), spelling (98)

Need to translate words or phrases into another language? Use this free and easy to use site for translations in various languages (Spanish, Chinese, Turkish, Russian, Romanian, Portuguese, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Hindi, German, and French). View dictionaries that exist between languages, hear audio of the translations, take quizzes, or try language games. Students can play language activities such as hangman, scrambled words, memorize, or match it, as well. Customize each game by clicking "change" next to the "settings." Choose different languages, ease of play, and categories of words.

tag(s): chinese (44), italian (29), japan (56), japanese (47), korea (20), portuguese (22), russia (35), russian (25)

This series of free translating dictionaries allows students to search to/from English in these languages: French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and German. Once a definition comes up in English, there are links to other dictionary pages where the word appears in a sentence. You can click on the audio button to hear the word spoken in both languages. This feature is only available in more commonly used words There are also immediate clicks to other languages, so a student could check the same word in Spanish and French very easily. In addition to the translation dictionaries, there are also "English Dictionaries" (non-interactive) available in Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Czech, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic (coming soon). Many of the foreign language dictionaries will increase in volume as the site developers add more vocabulary. Be aware: this site does include minor advertisements. There is a link to Language Forums. It is probably best to advise students to stay away from the forums.

tag(s): chinese (44), dictionaries (48), italian (29), japan (56), japanese (47), korea (20), portuguese (22), russia (35), russian (25)

Here you will find advice, lists, and links for helping students to practice pronunciation in English through minimal pairs. An example of a minimal pair is "alive and arrive," You'll also find ideas for teaching mouth positioning.

tag(s): pronunciation (33)

This website provides numerous teacher-created PowerPoints. Some of the presentations are excellent, while others are just mediocre. The range of topics goes from astronomy, to history, to French and much, much more! There is something good here for every classroom. You MUST have PowerPoint software (not free) to be able to download and edit the shows.