In this post, we’re going to take a look at COERLL (Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning), a Center located at the University of Texas in Austin; and more specifically, at the materials made available on their website.

The unique focus at COERLL, as the acronym suggests, is “open educational resources;” essentially, providing language teaching and learning materials for free.  This could mean:

• online foreign language videos
• lesson materials
• print on demand textbooks
• and more

These materials are made available under Creative Commons licensing and can be used by anyone at no cost.

COERLL hosts a variety of foreign language projects on their website.  For instance:

• Arabic Voices
• Brazilpod
• Pitch Perfect Pinyin
• and more

There are also a number of interesting collections of Cultural Interviews with professionals from China, Japan, Brazil, and Germany.  These videos each include:

• video
• transcript
• translated transcript

Lastly, for students and teachers with an interest in Spanish, the Spin TX (Spanish in Texas) is a collection of interviews with people who live in Texas and speak Spanish.

In addition to the videos, the site also contains transcripts, translations, and special grammar options to support online learning and the creation of offline exercises.  If you have an interest in corpus linguistics, this is a “must-see.”

While nobody knows for sure what day Confucius was born, his birthday is traditionally celebrated on September 28.

• Confucius’ Biography
• How is Confucius’ birthday celebrated?

• Chinese Yabla
• Pinyin Practice
• Pitch Perfect Pinyin