ONLINE MATERIALS
TEACHING AND TESTING RESOURCES
Computer Assisted Screening Tool (CAST)
The purpose of the CAST diagnostic screening tool is to:
- Elicit an adequate speech sample from examinees to assure a reliable floor (or baseline) rating
- Provide feedback to the examinees on how their proficiency can be improved
- Estimate examinees likely score on the official ACTFL OPI
- Provides an excellent opportunity for positive washback in proficiency-based teaching programs. Through the “reviewer” interface, the CAST can be effectively used by instructors as a tool to rate their students’ oral production and to increase their own understanding of the criteria by which ACTFL ratings are given.
CAST tests advanced level speaking proficiency in nine languages, including Spanish, French, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino (Tagalog), Arabic (Modern Standard), Iraqi Dialect, Persian (Farsi), and English as a Second Language.
The Lesson Plan Generator (LPG)
LARC's Lesson Plan Generator (LPG) is an online curriculum development platform designed to support increased teacher reflection and effectiveness in lesson design and delivery.
The LPG guides users through the process of complete lesson design via Understanding by Design, or "beginning with the end in mind" (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998). Users align their students' performance objectives to ACTFL National Standards and, optionally, California State Standards. The LPG also prompts users to incorporate performance assessments, including interpretive, presentational, and interpersonal modes, and allows for the creation of assessment rubrics, use of 5-step Lesson Plan structure, and inclusion of attachments and multimedia.
The LPG is an ideal tool for language teaching methods courses, teacher professional development workshops, curriculum modification initiatives, and more.
ARABIC ONLINE RESOURCES
Iraqi Arabic Online Language Lessons
View Lesson 1 of the new Iraqi Arabic Online Language Lessons.
Audio Recording – Arabic Language Through Dialogue Series (ALTD)
This is the first edition of the “Arabic Language Through Dialogue” 1, 2 and 3 series, in addition to the Iraqi Dialect through Dialogue book. The series attempts to make learning of the Arabic language more accessible and enjoyable to non-native speakers of Arabic using dialogues and communicative exercises that relate to the dialogue in each lesson.
Practice identifying, speaking, and writing the Arabic alphabet.
Start learning the Arabic alphabet here
Archived Passage Rating Series (Arabic)
Passage Ratings – Level 1 (Download L1)
Passage Ratings – Level 2 (Download L2)
Passage Ratings – Level 3 (Download L3)
OTV Interview with Dr. Hanada Taha-Thomure
Dari Curriculum
The materials below are available to download and are protected under the Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license allows you to remix, tweak, and build upon the materials non-commercially, as long as you give credit to LARC at SDSU and you license the new creations under the identical terms.
If you are interested in the complete 5-week Intensive Dari curriculum please send an email to baziz@sdsu.edu. Please include your name and institution.
Sample: Week 1 Day 1
RICL Online Afghan Culture with Language Course
The RICL Afghan Culture with Language Course consists of 22 self-contained 60-minute narrated lessons produced for Reservist Marines throughout the country, but are also available to the general public. The lessons are available online at https://larc.sdsu.edu/afghan-culture-online/, and can also be downloaded on your computer or mobile device as a podcast. You can use this resource in its entirety or take segments from any lesson to fit your classroom needs.
The Persian Grammar Project
The grammar guides have been created with the aid and resources available at San Diego State University’s Language Acquisition Resource Center (LARC) in order to allow Persian language learners the opportunity to build on their learning experience through an interactive, comprehensive, and self-paced online resource, filled with descriptions, examples, audio, and activities.
Go to the Persian Grammar Project website
Use the Firefox browser and enable Adobe Flash to view the lessons.
The Persian Conversation Course
The online Persian/Farsi resources emphasize conversations in areas such as immediate family, colors, clothing, time, numbers, and the most common features of daily life.
Go to the Persian Online Conversation course home page
Use the Firefox browser and enable Adobe Flash to view the lessons.
The Iran Online Culture Course
Cultural training with cross cultural competencies. Provides functional linguistics knowledge.
Go to the Iran Online Culture course home page
Las Voces de las Mujeres
In this online resource, women from Morelia, Mexico; Xelaju, Guatamala; Donostia, Pais Vasco; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic are recorded answering the same 6 questions. The goal of Las Voces de las Mujeres is to increase Spanish listening comprehension and cultural understanding.
Literatura de Baja California
Este sitio se ha diseñado y desarrollado con información apta para estudiantes a niveles avanzados y superiores de lectura y análisis de textos auténticos que se originan en ambos estados de Baja California. El uso de los materiales tendrá un impacto en varias disciplinas incluyendo la enseñanza de la cultura fronteriza, la economía, historia y sociología. Servirá también como recurso para los cursos de online distance education (educación a distancia por internet) en estas mismas disciplinas. Los usuarios mejorarán sus habilidades de análisis crítico y explorarán el lenguaje en diferentes registros. Estos materiales se ofrecen gratuitamente, aunque para recibir crédito y obtener acceso al temario en Blackboard, el usuario tendrá que inscribirse en el curso por medio de San Diego State University.
Web-based Immersion Kumeyaay Language Lessons
This resource is a multimedia tool for assisting bilingual teachers of the Kumeyaay language in Baja California, Mexico. It consists of multimedia (audio and video) examples for ten immersion language lessons, originally created by the well-known linguist and language activist, Dr. Leanne Hinton, in English, which can be adapted for use in teaching any indigenous language. We translated these lessons into Spanish and distributed them to Baja teachers charged with teaching Kumeyaay, in 2012. At the teachers’ request, we created additional multimedia materials to accompany each lesson.
Use the Firefox browser and enable Adobe Flash to view the lessons.
Author
Margaret Field, Ph.D. (website)
SDSU American Indian Studies
Email: mfield@sdsu.edu
Russian Through Film
This online resources utilizes clips from Russian films to introduce and practice authentic language samples. View the Russian Through Film lessons here.
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