Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Languages and Worldview
Manon Allard-Kropp · University of Missouri–St. Louis
In the contents: 3.02: Lexical Differences Among Languages
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Languages and Worldview
Manon Allard-Kropp · University of Missouri - St. Louis · 2020
Asking and answering questions about what culture entails and examines the fundamental properties and intertwining nature of language and culture. This text explores linguistic relativity, lexical differences among languages and intercultural communication, including high and low contexts. Changes to a variety of OER works were made by Manon Allard-Kropp in the Department of Language and Cultural Studies to tailor the text to fit the needs of the Languages and World View course at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Materials from the original sources have been combined, reorganized, and added to by the current author, and any conceptual or typographical errors are the responsibility of the current author.
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Programming Languages: Application and Interpretation
Shriram Krishnamurthi · Brown University · 2007
Unlike some other textbooks, this one does not follow a top-down narrative. Rather it has the flow of a conversation, with backtracking. We will often build up programs incrementally, just as a pair of programmers would. We will include mistakes, not because I don't know the answer, but because this is the best way for you to learn. Including mistakes makes it impossible for you to read passively: you must instead engage with the material, because you can never be sure of the veracity of what you're reading. At the end, you'll always get to the right answer. However, this non-linear path is more frustrating in the short term (you will often be tempted to say, “Just tell me the answer, already!”), and it makes the book a poor reference guide (you can't open up to a random page and be sure what it says is correct). However, that feeling of frustration is the sensation of learning. I don't know of a way around it. At various points you will encounter this: ExerciseThis is an exercise. Do try it. This is a traditional textbook exercise. It's something you need to do on your own. If you're using this book as part of a course, this may very well have been assigned as homework. In contrast, you will also find exercise-like questions that look like this: Do Now!There's an activity here! Do you see it? When you get to one of these, stop. Read, think, and formulate an answer before you proceed. You must do this because this is actually an exercise, but the answer is already in the book—most often in the text immediately following (i.e., in the part you're reading right now)—or is something you can determine for yourself by running a program. If you just read on, you'll see the answer without having thought about it (or not see it at all, if the instructions are to run a program), so you will get to neither (a) test your knowledge, nor (b) improve your intuitions. In other words, these are additional, explicit attempts to encourage active learning. Ultimately, however, I can o
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Mathematics for Game Developers
Denny Burzynski · College of Southern Nevada
In this book, we focus on a few of the mathematical instruments used in programming languages such as C# and C++. Programming languages have libraries of commands that you can use to write programs, and their commands come from mathematical instruments. In Mathematics for Game Developers, we explore the basic ideas of how mathematical instruments control action and motion in the games you develop. And we introduce technology that performs all the mathematical calculations you might need.
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Programming Fundamentals - A Modular Structured Approach, 2ed.
Kenneth Leroy Busbee and Dave Braunschweig · LibreTexts
The goal for this text is to make it programming-language neutral, so that it may serve as an introductory programming textbook for students using any of a variety of programming languages, including C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python, and Swift. Programming concepts are introduced generically, with logic demonstrated in pseudocode and flowchart form, followed by examples for different programming languages. Emphasis is placed on a modular, structured approaches.
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Intercultural Communication
Talita Pruett · Bakersfield College
In the contents: 4.03: Languages of the World · 4.04: Moving Between Languages
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Voci: Corso elementare di lingua e culture italiane I
Daria Bozzato, Chiara Benetollo, and Metello Mugnai · Haverford College
Voci is a communicative, approach-based textbook that aims to foster students’ comprehension, production, and interaction in Italian by keeping in mind different ways of learning. Every unit of Voci offers one or more cultural sections, “Cultura”. Given the level, these sections are gradually presented in Italian, since the main goal is not to exercise the reading and comprehension skills, instead to refine students’ intercultural competency.
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Fingerspelling - A Mindful Approach
Karla Johnston · Lake Tahoe Community College
This text shows us how to build a foundation of mindfulness and then ways of consciously and intentionally building our fingerspelling skills for the improvement of our ASL communication. We will tap into our innate desire and answer the question—how do we take a nuance of language, like fingerspelling, and with gentle persistent attention, strive toward clarity and understanding?
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A Survey of American Sign Language
Jessica Bentley-Sassaman and Rebecca Minor · Community College of Baltimore Country
Interpreting takes place in many contexts and settings and no two interpreted appointments are the same. Interpreting work is fluid and challenging for all interpreters, particularly for novice interpreters. Our goal in compiling this text was to provide a one-stop-shop, extensive detailing of the variety of settings and populations novice interpreters will experience in the interpreting field.
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Elementary Chinese II
Wenying Zhou · Michigan State University
This open textbook is designed for those who are learning Chinese as a second/foreign language in their second semester. It has six chapters, covering topics including describing school life, shopping in stores and online, transportation means, reporting weather and climates, ordering foods, and asking and giving directions.
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CHN101: Elementary Mandarin I
Carl Polley · Kapi'olani_Community_College
This OER textbook can be used for self-study, as part of an online course, or as a traditional college course. This text is used for the course CHN102: Elementary Mandarin II, taught at Kapi'olani Community College in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Cover image: "Calligraphy Lesson" c. 1920 by Thang Tran Phenh (Vietnam, 1890-1972)
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Español y cultura en perspectiva
Sonia Balasch, Alexia D. Vikis, Lisa M. Rabin, & Colleen A. Sweet · Albuquerque Public Schools & George Mason University
Las lecciones de Español y cultura en perspectiva ya han sido exitosamente ensayadas en dos cursos de español intermedio (Spanish in Context I y Spanish in Context II) dictados en George Mason University, en su sede de Fairfax, estado de Virginia (Estados Unidos). Para estos cursos, las lecciones se organizaron en dos grupos, como se especifica a continuación.
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Integrated and Open Interpreter Education
Elisa Maroney, Amanda Smith, Sarah Hewlett, Erin Trine, & Vicki Darden · Western Oregon University
The goal of this OER is to offer faculty and students readings and practical application experiences that connect program specific coursework and concepts across the interpreter education curriculum emphasizing the holistic nature of the field of interpreting. Additionally, there are different needs for those students who are native English speakers and those who are native/primary users of ASL. We also envision other interpreter educators using the materials.
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D'accordo! - Intermediate Italian
Cinzia Blum and Lucia Gemmani · Iowa State University
D’accordo! is an intermediate Italian textbook authored by the Italian faculty of The University of Iowa. A no-cost, user-friendly e-textbook, which may be fully integrated with educational platforms, D’Accordo! will support students’ acquisition of the grammar and vocabulary necessary for meaningful communication, enhance students’ familiarity with Italian culture through a variety of cultural artifacts, and, for majors and minors, create a bridge to upper-level courses.
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Ancient Greek I: A 21st Century Approach
Philip S. Peek · Bowling Green State University
The text is built on three pillars: memory, analysis, and logic. Readers memorize the top 250 most frequently occurring ancient Greek words, the essential word endings, the eight parts of speech, and the grammatical concepts they will most frequently encounter when reading authentic ancient texts. Analysis and logic exercises enable the translation and parsing of genuine ancient Greek sentences, with compelling reading selections offering starting points for contemplation, debate, and reflection
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The Missing Link - An Introduction to Web Development
Michael Mendez · SUNY Fredonia
In the contents: 2.01: Markup Languages
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Avant-Première: Advanced French Through Films
Caren Barnezet Parrish and Aurélie Chevant-Aksoy · Chabot College and Santa Monica College
This text is designed for the fourth semester of French. This advanced level course is a study of the French language and French-speaking cultures, with emphasis on the development of communicative skills and basic structures. The course combines in-class instruction and practice with self-paced study in the Language Laboratory.
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Basic Urdu
Rajiv Ranjan · Michigan State University
Basic Urdu is a theme-based, interactive open-source online textbook for the true novice learners of the Urdu language. The book uses mixed pedagogical approaches to language teaching to match diverse teaching and learning styles. It aims to help learners achieve intermediate low to mid-proficiency levels set by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).
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Decoding the 1920s: A Reader for Advanced Learners of Russian
Nila Friedberg · Portland State University
Literature of the 1920s is a major part of the Russian canon, but is notoriously difficult for learners of Russian to read in the original, due both to its stylistic complexity and the relative obscurity of its historical, political, and cultural references. And yet, this decade is crucial for understanding Russia – not only in the Soviet period, but also today.
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Building Academic Writing Skills
Lin Cui · Harper College
“Building Academic Writing Skills” provides carefully targeted and sequenced instructions in academic writing and editing for intermediate level English as a Second Language (ESL) students.