Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Let's Chat! German
Amber Hoye; Kelly Arispe · Boise State University · 2022
Let’s Chat! German features a collection of over 100 classroom-ready interpersonal speaking activities for novice and intermediate learners. Touching on a range of thematic topics such as free time activities, travel, daily routines, health, the environment, art and so much more, German teachers are sure to find an activity to use in their courses. These activities may be used as is or can easily be revised and remixed to fit the unique needs of individual classrooms.
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Let's Chat! French
Amber Hoye; Kelly Arispe · Boise State University · 2022
Let’s Chat! French features a collection of nearly 100 classroom-ready interpersonal speaking activities for novice and intermediate learners. Touching on a range of thematic topics such as free time activities, food, daily routines, health, the environment, art and so much more, French teachers are sure to find an activity to use in their courses. These activities may be used as is or can easily be revised and remixed to fit the unique needs of individual classrooms.
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Let's Chat! American Sign Language (ASL)
Amber Hoye; Kelly Arispe; Thaïs Lacar · Boise State University · 2023
Let’s Chat! ASL features a collection of over 160 interpersonal activities for novice and intermediate learners. Touching on a range of thematic topics such as free time activities, resolving conflicts, daily routines, health, the environment, holidays and so much more, ASL teachers are sure to find an activity to use in their courses. These activities may be used as is or can easily be revised and remixed to fit the unique needs of individual classrooms.
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Exploring Public Speaking
Barbara Tucker; Matthew LeHew; Amy Burger; Chad Daniel · University System of Georgia · 2023
Exploring Public Speaking is a usable, zero-cost textbook for basic public speaking courses or courses that include basic public speaking skills as one of their primary learning outcomes. The free, open nature of the text means that instructors are able to use all or part of it, and add their own materials. Standout features include coverage of PowerPoint, audience analysis and responsiveness, ethics in public speaking, persuasion, special occasion speeches, and structure of speeches. Because it was written by communication professors with decades of experience in the classroom, Exploring Public Speaking is made to fit the needs of basic public speaking students.
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Communication Across Cultures
Heejin Chang; Scott Windeatt; Esther Stockwell · University of Southern Queensland · 2024
These resources will prepare culturally and linguistically diverse students for academic study in situations involving intercultural communication.
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Creative Translation for Real-World Contexts: English ↔ Spanish
Remy Attig · Bowling Green State University Libraries · 2024
Creative Translation for Real-World Contexts is one of the first translation textbooks designed for Spanish/English speakers at an intermediate-high (B2) level. This book introduces students to the basic ideas of translation while addressing frequent pain points that recur when working bidirectionally. Additionally, a focus is placed on fostering metacognitive skills by encouraging creative translation from real-world environments such as narration, business, advertising, specialized contexts (including inclusive and queer language), and in situations when there are no clear translations available, such as sci-fi and fantasy works. Chapters alternate between Spanish and English as the languages of discussion, thus providing an equitable challenge for native speakers of both languages.
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#OnYGo
Géraldine Blattner; Amanda Dalola; Stéphanie Roulon · G. Blattner, A. Dalola, and S. Roulon · 2023
#OnYGo is an innovative first-year French language e-textbook, designed as Open Educational Resource (OER), for learning beginning French (equivalent to one year at an American university). It is inspired by a remix of task-based, multiliteracies and communicative approaches, which provides students with opportunities to engage with French language and culture in a variety of contexts and situations, across a range of modalities. Through a wide range of activities, students develop and practice their language skills, and reflect on their cross-cultural knowledge and positionality in their understanding of the vast francophone landscape. #OnYGo is a first-year textbook that takes a DEI-forward approach to the depiction of people, contexts, and concepts. It views language learners, instructors and a wide range of individuals interacting in French as belonging to a large multilingual and francophone community. It recognizes multilingualism and multiculturalism in all its forms, and showcases French speakers with a variety of backgrounds and relationships to the French language. The cultural and pedagogical materials in this collection have been selected for their authenticity and diverse representation of French speakers on the five continents, and are thus purposely inclusive of gender, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity.
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German 350
Rebecca Linam · University of North Alabama · 2023
This book focuses on conversation. It contains several prompts that can be adapted to different levels of difficulty or turned into classroom discussions. They can also serve as a grammar review if needed. A review of pronunciation is included.
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German 102
Rebecca Linam · University of North Alabama · 2022
This book is a continuation of GR 101. It features easy-to-read explanations of grammar, up-to-date videos, extra practice, and interactive exercises, as well as reading selections.
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German 202
Rebecca Linam · University of North Alabama · 2023
This book is a continuation of GR 201. It focuses on grammar found most often in literary selections and essays as well as several reading selections to reinforce grammar.
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German 201
Rebecca Linam · University of North Alabama · 2023
This book is a continuation of GR 102. It features review from GR 101-102, explanations of grammar, videos to reteach concepts, extra practice, and several reading selections to reinforce grammar.
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Comunidades
Yuriko Ikeda; Julia Baumgardt · PALNI · 2024
This is a textbook for first-semester Spanish with a focus on the cultural products, practices and perspectives of Spanish-speaking communities in the world today. This text is designed to build students’ cultural and communicative proficiency at the novice level through interaction with authentic resources and real-life video conversations featuring native Spanish speakers living in the American Midwest. Each chapter includes interactive activities focused on each of the three modes of communication (interpretive, interpersonal and presentational), at least one Integrated Performance Assessment, exercises with automated feedback and prompts that promote cross-cultural comparisons through research and reflection.
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Language Encounters on the French Colonial Mississippi
Linda Jones · University of Arkansas · 2024
Are you using this textbook in your class? Let me know!
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¡Voy en camino!
Constanza Rojas-Primus; Ana Robles · Kwantlen Polytechnic University · 2023
¡Voy en camino! means “I’m on my way” in Spanish. Since learning an additional language and the culture is a journey in itself, ¡Voy en camino! captures the voyage to get there. ¡Voy en camino! has been created to serve the first two introductory Spanish language courses at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) and to solidify our commitment to Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC). All units of study are designed to be interactive with embedded audio, videos and links for learners to practice the material along the way. Learners can self-pace and self-test their knowledge both individually and with the assistance of an instructor. ¡Voy en camino! has plenty of opportunities to practice writing and speaking with downloadable capabilities becoming a Spanish teaching and learning tool that promotes and supports sustainable renewable learning. With its digital format and open publication ¡Voy en camino! is also meant to join the Spanish teaching open education community and provide access to learning to interested users along the way.
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Trayectos 2: Más sobre mí
Gabriela Zapata · Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning (COERLL) · 2022
Trayectos is an open curriculum for beginning second language (L2) learners of Spanish. The textbook offers the following features to L2 Spanish students and instructors: Learner-centered fresh, multimodal content, based on Learning by Design, a pedagogy inspired by the Multiliteracies movement (Kalantzis et al., 2005, 2016, 2019; Zapata, 2022). The four modules in Volume I connect the life worlds of learners with the life worlds of diverse Spanish speakers. Instruction incorporating the following features: Multimodal texts (e.g., readings, videos, posters) based on a variety of textual genres that contextualize topics about the lives of real university students; Communicative activities that bind language form to cultural meaning within real-life contexts, and offer students opportunities to discover how to use new Spanish vocabulary and grammar in diverse sociocultural situations; Critical thinking and language awareness tasks that showcase different varieties of Spanish, including those spoken in the United States, and help learners explore the Spanish-speaking world, including local Hispanic/Latinx communities; and Culminating tasks that oblige learners to synthesize their new linguistic and cultural knowledge into a personal, multimodal text. Supplementary digital resources that provide students with opportunities to practice the content learned through self-correcting activities (Práctica individual) and to use Spanish to broaden their knowledge of and critically analyze issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Spanish-speaking world (Voces de nuestro mundo; available at http://bit.ly/VocesMundo). An open copyright license (Creative Commons license) that gives all users the right to adapt the textbook and to share their new content with others, and digital how-to sections for instructors to answer their students’ unique needs.
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Trayectos 1: Mi vida en la universidad
Gabriela Zapata · Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning (COERLL) · 2021
Trayectos is an open curriculum for beginning second language (L2) learners of Spanish. The textbook offers the following features to L2 Spanish students and instructors: Learner-centered fresh, multimodal content, based on Learning by Design, a pedagogy inspired by the Multiliteracies movement (Kalantzis et al., 2005, 2016, 2019; Zapata, 2022). The four modules in Volume I connect the life worlds of learners with the life worlds of diverse Spanish speakers. Instruction incorporating the following features: Multimodal texts (e.g., readings, videos, posters) based on a variety of textual genres that contextualize topics about the lives of real university students; Communicative activities that bind language form to cultural meaning within real-life contexts, and offer students opportunities to discover how to use new Spanish vocabulary and grammar in diverse sociocultural situations; Critical thinking and language awareness tasks that showcase different varieties of Spanish, including those spoken in the United States, and help learners explore the Spanish-speaking world, including local Hispanic/Latinx communities; and Culminating tasks that oblige learners to synthesize their new linguistic and cultural knowledge into a personal, multimodal text. Supplementary digital resources that provide students with opportunities to practice the content learned through self-correcting activities (Práctica individual) and to use Spanish to broaden their knowledge of and critically analyze issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Spanish-speaking world (Voces de nuestro mundo; available at http://bit.ly/VocesMundo). An open copyright license (Creative Commons license) that gives all users the right to adapt the textbook and to share their new content with others, and digital how-to sections for instructors to answer their students’ unique needs.
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Conversaciones Corrientes: Temas de Cultura y Sociedad
Laurie Massery; María Bordera; Pedro Larrea-Rubio · Laurie Massery
This book is designed to facilitate conversation in Spanish among intermediate and post-intermediate learners of Spanish. The following online textbook allows students to read about, review and discuss interesting, entertaining and relevant topics that will undoubtedly elicit conversation and friendly debate among classmates. Topics including spirituality, family design, life choices, social norms and even history and its impact on Generation Z, are discussed.
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Libro Libre: An Introduction to Spanish I
Erin Huebener; Handy Cuellar; Yelani Feldman · LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network
Welcome to Elementary Spanish! This textbook was designed in cooperation with the Louisiana Board of Regents Open Educational Textbook Pilot program. Designed by Elementary Instructors as a cooperative effort across Louisiana, this textbook will introduce you to the basic elements of the Spanish language through the use of self directed and active learning. This book is an adaptation of the open textbook “¡LIBRO LIBRE!: A free textbook for introductory Spanish” (which can be found at http://librolibre.net/) and was written by Erin Huebener. We have adapted Libro Libre: A Free Textbook for Introductory Spanish, originally released in 2018, to better fit a traditional 16-week semester schedule. “Libro Libre: A Free Textbook for Introductory Spanish” is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. This textbook was created as part of the Interactive OER for Dual Enrollment project, facilitated by LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network and funded by a $2 million Open Textbooks Pilot Program grant from the Department of Education. This project supports the extension of access to high-quality post-secondary opportunities to high school students across Louisiana and beyond. This project features a collaboration between educational systems in Louisiana, the library community, Pressbooks technology partner, and workforce representatives. It will enable and enhance the delivery of open educational resources (OER) and interactive quiz and assessment elements for priority dual enrollment courses in Louisiana and nationally. Developed OER course materials will be released under a license that permits their free use, reuse, modification and sharing with others.The target audience for this project and this textbook are dual enrollment students. Dual enrollment is the opportunity for a student to be enrolled in high school and college at the same time. A dual enrollment student receives credit on both their high school and college transcripts for the same course.
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Hujambo! A Standards-Based Approach to Introductory Kiswahili
Brenda Wawire · Open Language Resource Center at the University of Kansas · 2022
Hujambo! provides a complete curriculum for introductory Kiswahili that chronicles the adventures of two American students studying abroad in Tanzania for an academic year. It is designed for an introductory Kiswahili course at the college level with approximately 150 contact hours of instruction (5 hours a week for two 15-week semesters, or 5 hours a week for three 10-week quarters). It provides a foundational understanding of Kiswahili and the cultures of those who share it as a common language. Students will acquire the basics of Kiswahili grammar and build a core vocabulary of approximately 1,000 words, including the most common words for everyday interactions and the individual vocabulary they need to speak about their own academic and personal lives.
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Elementary Chinese II
Wenying Zhou · Michigan State University · 2022
Elementary Chinese II is aimed at those who have learned Chinese as a second/foreign language for one semester, using the OER textbook “Elementary Chinese I“. This open textbook contains six main lessons, including topics such as school life, shopping, transportation, weather, eating out, and asking and giving directions. They are organized in a straightforward and well-structured manner that are easy to follow. Within each lesson, there are a set of two dialogues or a set of one dialogue plus one narration. The texts of the dialogues or narrations are created to provide real-life Chinese language to beginning learners. After the texts, vocabulary words are listed for them to study and review. Grammatical points are explained in English and example sentences are provided for students to understand. Each dialogue or narration ends with culture notes where learners can read and better understand the target text.