Items of Interest

Fall 2025 SDLC 105 Syllabus

Fall 2025 SDLC 105 Calendar of Activities, Assignments, and Deadlines

Fall 2025 SDLC 110, 111, 112, 113 General Syllabus

Weekly log for language partners

Global Studio Catalog of Learning Materials and Resources

 

Self-Directed Language Acquisition Program

Sept. 3- Recorded Presentation by Derek Miller, UR Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, Guidelines and Resources for Community-Based Language Learning

Sept. 3- Bonner Guidelines for Community-Based Language Learning, PPT.

 

Benny Lewis: TEDx Talk on Rapid Language Hacking

https://youtu.be/HZqUeWshwMs

 

ACTFL Inverted Pyramid Proficiency Scale

 

New Electronic Catalog of Global Studio Language-Learning Materials

Over the last few weeks, our fantastic team of Global Studio Fellows have been creating an electronic catalog of language learning materials on reserve in INTC 226. There are interesting resources for Korean, Turkish, Hindi, Hebrew, and Portuguese See the ongoing collection, here. Use the tag list to focus your search.

 

Vocaroo for sharing audio files with language partners

Vocaroo is a great free tool to share audio recording files with your language partners. Check it out! https://vocaroo.com/

 

Open-Source Repository of Grammar Reference Textbooks

In internet searches, I came across an open-source repository of grammar reference books pertaining to a wide variety of different languages. Feel free to peruse the collection, here

 

Lang-8 and HiNative Communities for Native Speaker Feedback

This is a great free resource to get free feedback from native speakers of your target language. On the site, you can receive commentary on submit writing samples, or address questions of grammar and usage to an active online community. You can access the site, here. **Note: Lang-8 stopped accepting new members, but you can still access similar networking resources for writing feedback on their new site, HiNative

 

WikiTongues

Library of recordings from endangered languages.

https://www.youtube.com/user/WikiTongues

https://wikitongues.org/

 

International News Resources

Check out this curated list on interesting foreign-language news resources!

 

World Atlas of Language Structures

http://wals.info/

 

Endangered Languages Project

http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/

 

Which languages are the hardest to learn?

Here's a chart! What is difficult about the language you're learning?

 

Try Mango Languages 

Just starting a language?  The University now provides Mango Languages, which offers beginning or 'survival' language lessons in many languages.  To try Mango, go the Boatwright Library web, click Research Databases > M, and look for Mango Languages.  Once you have created an account through the Library site, you can download the Mango Languages app and use it on your mobile device.

 

Infographic on word etymologies and historical trade routes

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapping-words-along-trade-routes/?fbclid=IwAR2IQRiSW3KqaFGi_kjkrSbkjXUri_PZI7tAMEB4iKH5W0DPrp_yQj1OzuE

 

 

Articulatory Phonetics Memes

https://goo.gl/bzVfCL

 

Preserving Regional German Dialects

This article from Deutsche Welle discusses what is lost when regional variants of a language are lost. It also discusses the difference between a language and a dialect and why 'dialects' are losing ground in Germany.

 

Radio Segment on North Koreans on South Korean TV

On Sunday, January 31, 2016, NPR had a radio feature on the appearance of North Koreans on South Korean reality TV.  You can listen to the segment here: http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/01/31/464798910/south-koreas-newest-tv-stars-are-north-korean-defectors .

 

An Interview with Linguist K. David Harrison on When Languages Die

 

 

Slate article:  Photos of Women Who Could Go to Prison for Singing for Men


A series of photographs and a very brief discussion of things women in Iran are forbidden to do, including singing for me and studying English literature.

 

The 'Halal Internet'


A Deutsche Welle article about the 'Halal Internet' coming to Iran has been posted as a discussion item in the Persian group.  Join the discussion!

 

The Free Dictionaries Project


Looking for a free dictionary?  Check out the Free Dictionaries Project!  Especially interesting are the picture dictionaries.

  

Alphabet Blocks for Hebrew, Korean, and Arabic

The Global Studio now has alphabet blocks for Hebrew, Korean, and Arabic.  (The Arabic may be useful for the Persian learners.)  There are also magnetic letters for Hebrew.

What can you do with alphabet blocks and magnetic letters?  Quiz yourself on the letters, put them together to form words, and learn the names of the animals pictured on one side of the blocks.  The Korean blocks seem to have a puzzle, too.  Want to try?  Ask at the Global Studio desk!

 

Visit the Conflict Kitchen, a take-out restaurant that serves food from countries with which the US is in conflict.

 

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Finding Books in Your Language


A number of people have asked about finding children's books, 'easy readers', and popular fiction in the SDLAP languages.  The Global Studio has children's books in Swahili and Turkish (thanks to Professor Grove), and I'm willing to buy more.  However, I prefer to buy books that are culturally authentic, i.e., not translated from English.

 

I have found the following online bookstores that seem to have a good selection.  Please send me (Prof. Scinicariello) a list of things you…

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What is Social Bookmarking? (That's Diigo)

Wikipedia: A Short Explanation

YouTube: Social Bookmarking in Plain English--This is about Delicious, but the theory is the same.

YouTube: Diigo V.3--This video has information about Diigo groups.

Latest Activity

Ariana Kamiya posted a discussion
As the semester comes to an end, this week I focused on reflecting on the progress I’ve made and what kind of learning methods would work best for me in the future. I looked back at the tasks I completed, the strategies I experimented with, and the moments where I felt either confident or stuck in my Korean. One of the main things I noticed is that I learn best when I am actively engaged, like when I can handwrite sentences and short paragraphs, speaking out loud, and connecting language to…
Dec 14, 2025
Charlie Fisher replied to Elizabeth Jonas's discussion Reflective Essay #2
"The nasalization of vowels are so hard--- I agree! Recently I have been questioning if I am making the sounds correctly. When I listen to Brazilian funk songs, I always repeat the nasal sounds out loud when I hear them. I think that this is when music can be especially helpful because Portuguese has so many different sounds. "
Dec 14, 2025
Charlie Fisher replied to Ariana Kamiya's discussion Discussion Post #10
"I really like your linguistic research topic idea. Korean seems like a very globalized language in the media, especially among younger generations. People seem to admire and have a lot of interest in the culture and language. I think that pragmatics play a huge role in understanding generational differences. I would be interested to read one of your studies ! ;)"
Dec 14, 2025
Charlie Fisher replied to Kevin Retana's discussion Reflective Essay #1
"I really liked reading about your perspective with language-learning as an auditory learner! I am a visual learner so it helps me to see what the word looks like. Auditory learning is always something that I have struggled with because I feel like I have to hear everything several times. I definitely agree with you though on building a relationship with the language. This keeps things fun and personalizes your language-learning journey. "
Dec 14, 2025
Charlie Fisher replied to Ariana Kamiya's discussion Learning Journal #2
"I am so intrigued by the concept of a coin machine karaoke. That's so cool! 
I didn't know that Korean had two number systems. Telling time in another language is already difficult in my opinion. Adding a whole other number system would really throw me off. At the same time thought, it's reflective of how other countries and languages perceive time differently than we do in English and in the Western world. "
Dec 14, 2025
Charlie Fisher replied to Elizabeth Jonas's discussion Discussion Post #7
"I so agree on how culture can affect language patterns! I think that European Portuguese is harder to understand than Brazilian Portuguese. At least in my experiences with Brazilian Portuguese, the language feels more informal. I wonder if the African and Indigenous connections have something to do with that. "
Dec 14, 2025
Charlie Fisher posted a discussion
 This image above was a part of a Funk exhibition in the Contemporary Art Museum of Rio de Janeiro. I went to see the Funk exhibit on the second to last day that it was available in Rio in March, 2025. I was stunned by this exhibit. I had a feeling that I would love it, but I didn’t think that I would love it that much! There was so much to take in. The artifacts above are two images that were a part of four image collections. In the background of each image you can see favelas. Both of the…
Dec 13, 2025
Ariana Kamiya replied to Elizabeth Jonas's discussion Discussion Post #5
"Hi Libby, your plan and motivations here are so thoughtful, and it is very clear that your strong Spanish background is going to help you, especially since Portuguese and Spanish share a lot of grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure. The way you are already thinking ahead about mapping mutual intelligibility and the subtle differences between Brazilian and European Portuguese feels already so professional, and it matches what researchers note about how accent, rhythm, and regional…"
Dec 13, 2025
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A network of participants in and friends of Richmond's Self-Directed Language Acquisition Program.

Diigo: Modern Hebrew

Diigo: Persian Learners

Diigo: Turkish Learners

Diigo: Asian Language Learners