The Top 100 Language Blogs is probably the largest language blog competition hosted annually by bab.la and Lexiophiles. It is aimed at finding the best blogs related to languages and awarding language-loving bloggers. This year we had the most nominations ever, counting 495 blogs from all over the world. After our previous competitions in 2008 and 2009 we are proud to announce the 2010 winners. A big thank you to all participants for sharing their enthusiasm and knowledge with the world. Keep on blogging!

Learn Something New Every Day Interesting facts and things you never knew you wanted to know posted daily for your education and enjoyment!

The Internet is a great tool that entertains students, while providing subtly educating them requiring them to use a mixture of the four skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking. This article takes a look at some of the unique and creative activities that teachers can incorporate into their lesson plans while students build on their English skills using a complete range of multimedia available on the Internet.

There are different levels of fluency. At the very least, being “fluent” means being able to communicate well enough to take care of daily tasks, including shopping, ordering food, communicating with drivers, getting medical care, etc. That’s a lot different, for example, than being fluent in the business lingo of your target language. To keep focused, and motivated, define your fluency goals based on your own needs. Then, when you reach a fluency goal, congratulate yourself on a job well done. After that, if you so desire, make a new fluency goal. Doing this will give you motivational “victories” in what can otherwise seem like a never-ending conquest.

Cheat sheets have a bad rap as a way for students to succeed on tests without actually knowing the information, but now it’s time for them to have a more positive place in education. Cheat sheets can offer a succinct way for students to study their lessons and provide an excellent boost to what you are already teaching them in class. Cheat sheets can provide helpful information for teachers too. Browse through this selection to find cheat sheets for a variety of subjects.

Busy Teacher's Cafe is a K-6 resource site for busy teachers!  Here you will find resources, ideas, lessons, free printables, and more! Take a look around and enjoy your visit!

Are you studying Japanese, thinking of visiting Japan, interested in Japanese culture, people, products, etc.? If so, this site is for you. My name is Jeff Blum and I have been attempting to learn Japanese, off and on, for many years (my progress is very slow). During my studies (both independent and class-based) I have assembled notes summarizing key grammar constructs, word usage nuance, aspects of the language that regularly trip me up, etc. In fact, the name for this site (besides being, well, "welcoming") came from my desire to post my summary notes for the popular Yookoso! textbooks. I have also assembled a huge collection of links to the best sites on the Internet. All of these (well, actually I still haven't posted many of them yet), plus some of my favorite JPOP tunes and their lyrics I share with you here. If you have any feedback to offer, or especially if you want to contribute notes of your own or articles you have written, please do so at jmblum@yookoso.com.

italki.com is where you can find people and resources to help you learn a foreign language. Members come from 200+ countries and use 100+ languages. italki is free to join!

Join the italki community and get help from a global community of language learners and teachers.

Make friends around the world so you can practice your written and spoken language skills.

After handing back students’ first drafts of essays, it’s time to discuss what they can do for the second draft. The teacher can ask students, “So all you need to do is fix the grammar and spelling, and you’ll be through, correct?” This is likely to get many nods of heads. The teacher can then lead a discussion on how a second draft is much more than just fixing surface mistakes and give out a handout showing all the things that can be done in a second draft.

A system of symbols can be used: e.g., an addition sign =add development, analysis, details; a minus sign means take out repetition and irrelevancies; a multiplication sign means change the same old introduction or same old conclusion.

This is an effective lesson summary because it gives students direction for their second draft and a set of symbols to talk about revision strategies.

Listed as one of the Form 5 novels for the KBSM Literature Component, Catch us if You Can by Catherine MacPhail (Perlis,Kelantan,Kedah, Penang and Perak) is one interesting story about Rory and his grandfather, Granda. The story portrays how Rory acted as his grandpa’s carer and their journey (of escape) is full of surprise betrayals and unexpected friends. Here are some useful resources that teachers could use in teaching the novel.

5 reasons educators should start reading blogs

5 reasons educators should have their own blogs

A Lifelong Learner Shares Thoughts About Education

Over the last weeks, I have been attempting to learn German through various different interfaces. Some have been a huge improvement to how I learned previously, some can be helpful in particular ways, and some just aren’t for me at all. This post shares a little of my experience using both Busuu and LiveMocha. The reason I’m reviewing them together is that I find both their advantages and their disadvantages to be very broadly similar, even if the actual systems are very different and present different types of interfaces. I’ll start with how I think these can be useful and then say where I feel they fall short.

A few of the sites I came across were solely for finding teachers, some did not offer any or much free material, and a few were almost exactly what I was looking for. Another aspect of modern language learning that I was hoping to find on these sites was portability – if they offered downloads of audio and text so I did not have to sit at a computer with an internet connection in order to study.  For those of us who work all day long at a computer, the thought of only using a computer to study languages isn’t exactly enticing.  For these reasons, and the fact that I was focusing on German and Italian, my top three choices are Busuu.com, Livemocha.com and Lingq.com, while Hello-Hello.com gets an honorable mention (but mostly because they don’t currently offer German.)

Write in the language that you are learning.

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Resources for teachers to enhance classroom instruction and provide professional development.