Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

"This is a fab HTML5 language learning site which tests your language skills through a series of games with 1500 words. The site collects stats on your performance. The current 21 languages include English, Spanish, German, French, Chinese, Japan, Italian, Russian, Polish and many more."

"As I stood in the school hall, during an assembly on National Languages Day, I felt such pride, but equally astonishment at how the children had embraced the task of saying hello in as many languages as possible. I watched in amazement as the 34th child stood up in front of the school to share his knowledge of yet another greeting from a different country. I don't know whether it was the sheer volume of children or their confidence whilst standing in front of the school and speak a different language that struck me most, but whatever it was, made me reflect on how I had come to be in this moment."

"It is often claimed that people who are bilingual are better than monolinguals at learning languages. Now, the first study to examine bilingual and monolingual brains as they learn an additional language offers new evidence that supports this hypothesis, researchers say. The study, conducted at Georgetown University Medical Center and published in the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, suggests that early bilingualism helps with learning languages later in life."

An intriguing site which has split the whole world into 3 metre by 3 metre squares and assigned 3 words to label that coordinate, giving addresses to millions around the world who don't have an official address, or making a meeting point more accuracy than a postcode. For educators, there are lots of geographic and literacy possibilities - geocaching with spelling, or writing short stories or descriptions about a real location including the words. The site can be viewed in many different European languages meaning there are MFL possibilities too."

Guide to getting started with languages with younger pupils.

Languages Special

A great site for learning Mandarin with fun games. Some of the instructions are in Chinese.

A superb app for any one looking at learning basic Mandarin Chinese. Play the game to listen and see the language. There are many different types of questions, but most are multiple choice or click and drag from a selection of choices. Questions start out easy and there is support and 'hint' buttons to help you. You can download each lesson as you reach it, or download everything if you plan to use it offline. All the language you have met is stored in a word bank and use your microphone to compare your pronunciation to the recordings.

Lots of great ideas on how to be creative in the classroom

This is a superb site for finding downloadable podcast for kids to learn Mandarin. Not all the resources are free, but there are lots of really useful resource that are, including over a hundred audio files lessons and for learning pinyin. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

This site offers an easy way to create your own virtual flashcard to study anything. You can also use other users' cards or share your own to help students. It supports many non-European typing scripts, like simplified Chinese and Japanese to help learn languages. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

A fabulous language site with sections for French, Spanish, German and Chinese. Learn language topics and play quizzes to test what you have learnt. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Languages%2C+Culture+%26+International+Projects

A useful and fun set of cross-curriculum photo slide shows for maths, English, science, history and more. They are arranged by age and range from kindergarten Secondary school. A great resource for introducing topics. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Video%2C+animation%2C+film+%26+Webcams

A useful site that allows users to dictate and generate text. A great resource for children with writing difficulties to get their ideas written quickly. It works with a range of languages including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and more. For mistakes, the site offers alternative words with similar pronunciation. Only works with Chrome. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

Ensure your French pronunciation is 'parfait' with this comprehensive French language learning site that has embedded audio files to listen to. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Languages%2C+Culture+%26+International+Projects

A well made Mandarin resource for kids. Choose a topic page then hover over the objects to see the characters and pinyin and hear the pronunciation. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

A collection of cross curricular videos for teachers to use in class. The videos are sourced from many sites, including YouTube, Teacher.tv and many more. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Video%2C+animation%2C+film+%26+Webcams

Find hundreds of audio files to listen and download language files in English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, and Mandarin. Record sentences in your own language and upload to this useful project. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Languages%2C+Culture+%26+International+Projects

A useful Mandarin resource. This Pinyin chart has audio so you can listen to each pronunciation with different tones. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture