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.”

• Click here to learn more about what a podcast is.

Basically, podcasts are collections of audio clips (some long some short) that people and companies make and upload to the web for free.  These could be on pretty much any topic from investment ideas to what’s hot in hiphop.  Find a podcast you like in the target language that you’re learning.  Subscribe to it (at no cost) using the subscribe button and you will receive a new audio file whenever they create a new one.  And you can listen to the files on your computer, laptop, or portable audio device.

Podcasts are probably more useful for intermediate and upper intermediate students, but let us know what you think in the comments section.

Here are a few that you may find useful if you’re learning Spanish.

• Spanish Podcast
• Buenas Dias America (Voice of America in Spanish)
• Coffee Break Spanish

1. they allow you to carry around examples of the language you are trying to learn (target language) on your portable audio player or cellphone and listen to them over and over again

Click here if you don’t know what a podcast is.

2. you can choose podcasts in the target language that are not specifically designed for “language learners” but that will help you become accustomed to the rhythum, pacing and intonation of native speakers
3. also, in the case of (2), if you are already interested in the topic they are talking about, you may be able to decipher the meanings of particular words from the context (e.g. news programs are an excellent example of this)

Another good thing about podcasts is that they are usually free.  And while many individuals and organizations do offer paid subscription options that provide you with access to transcripts, lesson plans, and more, you can actually benefit quite a lot from the audio alone.

However, as is so often the case with the Internet, for every excellent website, game or podcast there are 99 terrible ones.  And it is not always easy to spot the difference.

With this in mind, we will be posting podcast recommendations here on the site.  To see if we have made recommendations in the language you are studying, click on the “Podcasts” tag below.  And, of course, if you have podcasts you would recommend, please post them in the “Comments” section.

• Chinese Yabla
• Pinyin Practice
• Pitch Perfect Pinyin