Language Learning Resources

Online Resources

Powerspeak Languages: Learn Spanish, French, Mandarin, German, or English for Spanish speakers. Use this APL database remotely with your library card or visit any library location.

Duolingo: Duolingo is a free, interactive language learning tool with lessons in Spanish, English, French, German, Portuguese, and Italian. You can create an account using your email address or facebook account and Duolingo will track your progress through their lessons. The service also gives you the option to test out of skills you feel you have already mastered. 

Foreign Service Institute Language Courses: 34 languages available. Courses developed by the U.S. government that are in the public domain. 

BBC Languages: Lessons in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Greek, and additional languages. Also, see the Learning English site.

ESLgold: English teaching and learning resources.

ESL Party: Resources for students and teachers of English as a second language.

Annenberg Media Foreign Language Courses: View video programs online with a broadband connection. Languages include English, Spanish, and French.

Visual Link Languages: Basic vocabulary, verbs, phrases, dictionaries and facts about culture. Also includes blog, forum, and videos. Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, German, Chinese, Russian, and English. 

Verbling: Verbling is a web-service that allows users to pair up with native speakers to practice speaking new languages on live video.

NoComprendo Language Services: Free online Spanish course including texts, grammar, exercises, tests, and cultural information.

¡Y qué me cuentas! The goal of this blog is to help Spanish students improve their reading comprehension using Latin American Short stories.

Online Translators

Online translators do not offer the best quality translations, but they can be helpful for translating single words and for giving a general idea of what is being said.

• Bab.la Language Portal
• Bing Translator
• Google Translate
• Humanitas-International: List of online translators
• World Lingo
• Yahoo Babel Fish

To find a translator or interpreter in the Austin area, please see the Austin Area Translators and Interpreters Association page.

Searching the Catalog

To find language instruction materials in BiblioCommons, try these steps:

Type the following phrase in the Quick Search screen and choose Subject from the drop-down menu:

________ language instruction

Example: Spanish language instruction

You can also limit your search by library location or format by changing the option on the left-hand side. For example, under Format you can select “Books” and then choose between “book” and “ebook” or you can select “Audiobooks” and choose between “Audiobook CD” and “Downloadable Audiobook.”

The following alternative search terms may help to limit your search to specific types of instructional materials.

________ language grammar

________ language glossaries

________ language conversation and phrase books

________ language dictionaries

________ language study and teaching

________ language idioms

________ language vocabulary

One other phrase to try is ‘parallel text and _________’ Choose keyword instead of subject from the drop-down menu.  

Interactive Software

Rosetta Stone - The Rosetta Stone company no longer sells subscriptions to libraries. The Library does have Rosetta Stone CD-ROMs available for check out to use on your home computer. Rosetta Stone is available for the following languages:

Hebrew    Japanese     English     Indonesian     Thai

We also have Rosetta Stone for learning English at the New Immigrants Centers. These can only be used while at the library.
 

Tell Me More Performance Spanish - by Auralog is award-winning software that offers ten levels of instruction, from Complete Beginner to Expert, that cover all the skill areas needed to learn a language. Speech recognition technology allows users to practice and assess their pronunciation. Tell Me More Performance Spanish is provided on a PC-compatible DVD-ROM. To get the full benefit of the program, computer speakers or headset and a microphone are needed.
 

Transparent Language - courses consists of lessons designed to take users from beginner to intermediate-level proficiency. The software is provided on a USB drive that acts as a “key.” Users can access the program only when the drive is inserted into their PC or Mac. In addition to software for Spanish and English for Spanish speakers, the Library has Transparent Language programs for learning the following languages:

Finding Books Written in Other Languages

We have a list of Books Written in World Languages that will link you to titles in the catalog.

You can also type the following phrase in the Quick Search screen and choose Subject from the drop-down menu:

'________ language materials'
Example: 'french language materials'

The Advanced Search screen provides menus for limiting your search to age levels, material types, and library locations. You can also limit your search to fiction or non-fiction.

Fiction only:

1. Go to the Advanced Search screen.
2. Choose subject from the first menu on the left.
3. Type '_________ language materials' in the first search box.
4. Make sure AND appears to the right of the search box.
5. On the second line, choose subject from the menu.
6. Type fiction.
7. Click Search.

Non-fiction only: Repeat the steps above, except choose NOT instead of AND between the two search lines.

1. Go to the Advanced Search screen.
2. Choose subject from the first menu on the left.
3. Type '_________ language materials' in the first search box.
4. Make sure NOT appears to the right of the search box.
5. On the second line, choose subject from the menu.
6. Type fiction.
7. Click Search.

Finding Foreign Films

1. Try one of these three options for locating foreign films. Most languages or countries will work; France and French are used as examples.
   • Type foreign films and france and select subject from the drop-down menu.
   • Type 'french with english subtitles' in single quotation marks and select search everything from the drop-down menu.
   • Type 'french dialogue' in single quotes and select search everything from the drop-down menu.
      
2. Choose Videorecording on DVD (or VHS) from the material format drop-down menu.
    
3. Click the Search button.