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 Online

Iraqi Arabic Online Language Lessons

View Lesson 1 of the new Iraqi Arabic Online Language Lessons.

View Iraqi Arabic Online - Lesson 1

ALTD Letters

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.

The ALDT Listening Practice Website

Arabic alphabet

Practice identifying, speaking, and writing the Arabic alphabet.
Start learning the Arabic alphabet here

Arabic passage rating

Archived Passage Rating Series (Arabic)

Passage Ratings – Level 1 (Download L1)
Passage Ratings – Level 2 (Download L2)
Passage Ratings – Level 3 (Download L3)

DARI ONLINE RESOURCES

Dari lessons

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

Afghan culture course

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.

PERSIAN / FARSI ONLINE RESOURCES

Persian grammar

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. 

Iran culture

The Iran Online Culture Course

Cultural training with cross cultural competencies. Provides functional linguistics knowledge. 
Go to the Iran Online Culture course home page

SPANISH ONLINE RESOURCES

Spanish voces

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.

Go to Las Voces de las Mujeres

OTHER ONLINE RESOURCES

Kumeyaay online resources

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. 

*Note: Documents in Portable Document Format (PDF) require Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0 or higher to view. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader
*Note: Documents in Word format (DOC) require Microsoft Viewer. Download Microsoft Word Viewer 
*Note: Documents in Excel format (XLS) require Microsoft Viewer. Download Microsoft Excel Viewer
*Note: Documents in PowerPoint format (PPT) require a viewer to view. Download PowerPoint Viewer