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American Sign Language Although American Sign Language (ASL) includes signs that capture specific words or phrases, ASL also allows its users to spell out words letter by letter. This online guide to ASL fingerspelling, created by computer programmer and ASL hobbyist Scott Gaertner, will introduce you to the signs for each letter of the alphabet. The ASL Fingerspelling Converter allows you to look up the fingerspellings for specific words. Once you've mastered the art of fingerspelling, by sure to try the quiz to see how much you've really absorbed. |
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American Sign Language Browser If you're struggling to communicate with a deaf friend or family member or simply new to the world of American Sign Language (ASL), this site should prove immensely helpful. Thousands of words and phrases are arranged here in alphabetical order. Click on the entry of interest and you will access a brief video showing how to render that word or phrase in ASL. Maintained by the Communication Technology Laboratory at Michigan State University, the site is graphics intense and may be slow to load. |
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ASLinfo.com Created by a Tampa, Florida, interpreter who facilitates communication between deaf and hearing people, ASLinfo.com is valuable not only for its information about American Sign Language (ASL) and interpreting, but also for the insight it offers into deaf culture in the United States. You will learn the importance attached to ASL and the skillful storytelling by members of the deaf community, one that is extremely tightly knit. Particularly valuable for anyone interested in ASL and interpreting are the links to other resources, online and off. |
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Lesson Tutor: American Sign Language/Signed English Home Page Part of the Lesson Tutor network, this site provides a wealth of resources helpful to students of American Sigh Language (ASL) and those who may be interested in learning more about this complex visual language. > The main feature of the site is its three series of ASL lessons, which allows beginners to advance to a more fluent grasp of sign language. The site also features a back-to-school warm-up series, printable crossword and word search puzzles, and religious signs. |
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SignWriting Site This site was established in support of the Sign Writing Literacy Project, which develops specially designed materials for teaching literacy to those who were born deaf or profoundly bearing impaired. Valerie Sutton, inventor of the process, explains that Sign Writing "Captures on paper the visual subtleties of any signed language in the world, because it records body movement." This site offers a thorough explanation of Sing Writing, as well as an introduction to its basic symbols. |
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YLC: American Sign Language Thanks to this resource form the Yamada Language Center at the University of Oregon, you now can download the American Sign Language (ASL) in a variety of attractive fonts for use in printed communications with the deaf or other fluent in ASL. The ASL alphabet symbols are available in the following fonts: Amslan, Gallauder, Gallauder True Type, and Handsign True Type. |
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AATF: American Association of Teachers of French With nearly 10,000 members, the American Association of Teachers of French, founded in 1927, is the world's largest national association of French teachers. Its site is loaded with news of the accociation's activities, surveys, and its annual national French contest for K to 12 students, along with updates on professional development opportunities for teachers. The site also features links to French teaching resources and French cultural and educational institutions. |
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About: French Language: French for Part of the About.com family of sites, this Web site offers a blend of original content and a gateway to French language resources elsewhere on the Internet. The centerpiece of the site's original content is its French-language tutorial for beginning students, which offers a sound introduction to the fundamentals of the language. In addition to covering such basics as the French alphabet, rules of grammar and pronunciation, and vocabulary, the tutorial includes articles on the influence of French on English and advice on how to type French accents. |
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ClicNet: Françasis Langue Étrangère et Langue Seconde http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/ clicnet/fle.html ClicNet, a gateway site based at Swarthmore college, features many links to sites of interest to students of French. They are organized into three main categories and several subcategories and are ranked by level (beginner, intermediate to advanced, and fluently bilingual). Topics include French vocabulary, grammar, verb conjugation, dictionaries, oral and written expression, and literary and linguistic activities. Beginning French speakers may need assistance navigating the site, which is written completely in French, by teachers and more advanced French students will find valuable resources here. |
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E-Learning @Foreign Language Centre Test your knowledge of French using these exercises created by the Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore. Interactive quizzes cover conjugation; use of articles, adjectives, and pronouns; numbers; telling the time; and various syntax challenges. There also are crosswords to solve. Take the time to learn how to make accents on your keyboard as your answers will be counted as wrong if the accent is not recognized. Multimedia plug-ins may be required to hear audio lessons. |
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First Year French @ UT Austin From the University of Texas at Austin comes this activity-rich site created especially for first-year French students. Entertaining Web activities, such as visiting the recipes pages of Elle magazine (dossier 7) and planning a dream vacation (dossier 12), make learning and using your French fun. In addition to these Web exercises, you can practice and test your skills in the site's interactive grammar section, which features the epic love story of Texan armadillos Tex and Tammy. |
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Momes.net French language students of all ages will enjoy this all-French site intended for children. Special sections are featured on the homepage, while multiple sections can be accessed from the frame on the left side of the page. In the Histories section, you'll find many illustrated stories. Try the stories of Belinda la petite baleine or Le petit dinosaure vert qui avait mangé trop de bonbons rouges. The Comptines area brings you hundreds of poems and songs divided into specific categories (elephants, farm animals, water, and more). There are special sections for parents and educators. |
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Parlez-Vous Français? This gateway to French language and culture resources is the creation of Suzy Seraphine-Kimel, a language teacher at Astronaut High School in Titusville, Florida. This impressive collection of links is divided into separate categories that cover France, Paris, monuments, artists, Francophone nations, pen pals/writing, language resources, dining, and teacher resources. |
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Tennessee Bob's Famous French Links Bob Peckham, professor of French at the University of Tennessee at Martin, developed this impressive gateway to online resources related to French language and culture. An ongoing project, Peckham's gateway now provides links to more than 10,000 Web sites. The links are divided into the following categories: finding New Francophone Sites; Books and Literature; Art, Music, Film, and General Culture; History of France and the French-Speaking world; Virtual Francophone Tourism; French Language; Press, Radio/TV, Telephone; Education in French-Speaking Schools; and French Across the Curriculum. |
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Japanese-Online.com Created by language utility software developer Pacific software Publishing, this site offers many resources for students interested in learning Japanese. The centerpiece of the site is its package of 16 online lessons, which covers not only the basics of Japanese, but cultural information about Japan, as well. The lessons include vocabulary words and sample Japanese conversations. Other features of the site include a dictionary and a message board. Although early lessons use the Roman alphabet to spell Japanese words, some of the later lessons require Japanese-language software. To fully enjoy the site's multimedia features, you'll also need the Quick Time plug-in. |
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The Japanese Writing Tutor Learning to write Japanese characters may be a challenge to many students. Blake Sterzinger, a serious student of the Japanese language, has created this useful tutorial to help you learn to write Japanese. This site introduces you to the four main scripts used in writing modern Japanese --hiragana, kanji, katakana, and romaji -- in easy-to-use online tutorials. Of these four scripts, the least complicated is hiragana, the first character set taught to Japanese children. Animations show how various characters are formed. |
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Japster 2000! Part of the ThinkQuest library of student-created Web sites, Japster 2000 is designed to help students learn the Japanese language. The tutorial has 20 lessons that each include conversation, vocabulary, grammar rules, and practice questions. The site also offers an introduction to writing Japanese and a small Japanese-English dictionary. Because the Japanese characters at this site are presented as graphics,, no special character software is required. |
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Language Room Part of Kid's Japan, a site created by McGill University of Tokyo professor Charles Hirst to teach young students about Japan, this site introduces not only the basics of Japanese, but also familiarized students with the Japanese katakana and hiragana character sets., To help beginning Japanese students perfect their pronunciation, the site offers audio clip;s of words and phrases spoken by native Japanese speakers. You also can learn how to write Japanese characters. No special software is required to view the Japanese characters. |
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Supplemenmts for Your Japanese Presented by the Association for Japanese-Language Teaching and based on the book, Japanese for Busy People, this site offers an excellent introduction to basic Japanese for elementary school students. Attractively designed with eye-catching graphics, the site covers parts of speech, including verbs and adjectives, as well as words and phrases related to dates, time, money, the telephone, and family. You'll also find sections devoted to numbers and counting. |
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Learn Spanish: A Free Online tutorial Maintained by spanish Learning Resources of Alaska, this Web site is a wonderful resource for anyone who wishes to learn Spanish. There are more than 40 lessons, starting with basic information on gender, numbers, and plural forms, and progressing to comparisons, superlatives, and irregular verbs. Audio clips give pronunciation of the important words in each tutorial. Additional lessons are under construction. YOu can test yourself after each tutorial, and the site will grade lessons for free. Cultural notes five background on such topics as Dali, El Greco, Madrid, paella, Lima, and the Yucatan. Vocabulary lists are divided into subject areas. Within each list, you'll find four games to test your knowledge -- flashcards, matching words, a word search, and concentration. |
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Spanish Grammar Exerciese This virtual primer on Spanish grammar, created by Colby College professor Barbara Kuczun Nelson, covers nearly every conceivable aspect of the Spanish language. One may browse through the grammar exercises by category or link directly to those most requested. New exercises are added regularly. The site also offers audio and video resources, interactive exercises, and verb conjugation charts, as well as links to other online Spanish-language resources. |
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Spanish Language Exercises Hosted by Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, this site provides Spanish language learners with online language exercises. These exercises are divided into those you can check yourself and those that require the participation of instructors. You can e-mail your completed exercises to the author of the site, Professor Juan Ramón de Arana, or to any other person who's been selected to review the answers. The exercises are entertaining and, in some cases, involve Web research. |
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Tecla Intermediate and advanced students of Spanish can sharpen their reading and comprehension skills with the online version of Tecla, a text magazine for Spanish students and teachers. Published weekly by the Consejería de Educación en Reino Unido e Irlanda during the British school year, Tecla contains two or more Spanish essays in each issue. The text is followed by exercises that test your comprehension of the material. Issues are archived back to 1994 and can be accessed by them. Articles cover a wide range of topics, including agriculture, commerce, film, photography, gastronomy, health politics, society, and women's issues. The site is written predominantly in Spanish. |
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X-pro Diccionarios.com Students of Spanish, as well as those planning to travel to Spanish-speaking countries, will find a wealth of helpful reference tools at this site. Hosted by Spes Editorial, the site's resources include a dictionary of the Spanish language and a dictionary of Spanish synonyms and antonyms. Other dictionaries translate English, French, and Catalan to Spanish. |
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Vietnam Adventures This site is a combination of educational and commercial information. It offers lessons in basic Vietnamese as well as such features as This Month's Adventure that provides the viewer with a glimpse of a certain aspect of Vietnamese culture. Destinations provides information on the major cities of Vietnam as well as providing commercial information such as hotels, how to get there, and how to get around the town. |
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Vietnamese Language and Culture The core of this site from the Center for Southeast Asian Studies and Northern Illinois University, is a series of 20 lessons for teaching spoken Vietnamese. A guide of pronunciation is an interactive resource throughout the site that lets the listener hear all of the sounds of the language. There are also sections on Vietnamese culture, travel, foods, fruits, and news. |
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Vietnamese Language Homepage This Web site is maintained by Lê Phạm Thúy-Kim and sponsored by Arizona State University provides information and links for you to find information and resources on Vietnam and to understand its language, culture, customs, history, art, and people. Some lesson plans are provided. |
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Vietnamese From the University of Oregon's Yamada Language Center this site provides numerous downloads for Vietnamese fonts. Additional links direct the viewer to information on Vietnamese culture, educational software, and Vietnamese for travelers. |
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Vietnamese A collaborative project of Monash University and The Australian National University, this site provides course materials in a series of lessons and exercises for a first year university Vietnamese language course. An interactive guide throughout the site helps students with the correct pronunciation. |
| From: Web Feet©: Guide to Search Tools, Search Engines, Directories, and Tutorials, Thomson Gale, 2004. |
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