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"Listen or download audio of 100 characters of text in many different languages. Perfect for language students engaged in self-directed study."

"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."

I shudder, thinking back to my differentiation for EAL students at the start. I Google translated the whole PowerPoint, brimming with pride at my achievement. It was sadly, as the kids would say, an epic fail. It didn't make sense. The students were…

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.

The BBC Primary Mandarin site is a wonderful place to begin learning Mandarin Chinese with videos and other resources. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

This is a wonderfully designed site to learn Mandarin Chinese. It uses a huge collection of Chinese TV programmes and movie clips with interactive and dual-language subtitles. Click on a Chinese character is see the translation and hear the pronunciation. You can set your ability level and also what sort of media you are interested in. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Mandarin+%26+Chinese+culture

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

An amazing language learning site which helps learners of MFL remember words for over 200 languages by associating them with visual clues/mnemonics and score points by showing you remember the language in a variety of ways. You can listen to audio of the words you are learning. The site tracks your progress and analyses where you need improvement and it will adjust the words you are shown accordingly. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Languages%2C+Culture+%26+International+Projects

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