Items of Interest

Spring 2026 SDLC 105 Syllabus

Spring 2026 SDLC 105 Calendar of Activities, Assignments, and Deadlines

Spring 2026 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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Notes

Finding Books in Your Language

Posted by Global Studio on February 17, 2011 at 1:46pm

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…

Read more…
Tags:

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.

Forum

Latest Activity

Julie Strickland replied to Michael Marsh-Soloway's discussion Due by 5pm on Sunday, October 6: Discussion Post #5 on the Ning
"This is really interesting! I love how you connected Korean language and culture to historical roots of nearby countries. That really goes to show how so many languages are connected– through common culture of the past. That also makes sense as to why there are so many cognates and similar sounding words within and across language families. "
1 hour ago
Julie Strickland replied to Michael Marsh-Soloway's discussion Due by 5pm on Sunday, October 6: Discussion Post #5 on the Ning
"Russian culture is particularly interesting to me due to its high level of sociolinguistic competence. 
Russian culture highly values genuinity and emotional control, especially when it comes to strangers. This results in a general attribute of being reserved and sometimes even cold to others as compared to other countries. 
In turn, much of American small talk (such as “How are you?”) or frequent compliments would not be common in Russian culture. Instead Russians would, in response to small…"
1 hour ago
Sydney Vermeeren posted a discussion
Discussion Post 02/22
As I entered this class, I had (and still do have) a very broad interest in learning everything I can about Chinese culture. I was also a complete beginner when it came to language learning, so my focus in learning vocabulary has been fairly general as well. I am realizing that I may need to create a little more structure in my learning plan (especially on my own) to prepare for the project. At the same time, I have noticed that I have learned several words describing food or related details…
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4 hours ago
Sydney Vermeeren posted a discussion
Language Journal Post 2
I have now had about five weeks of instruction in Mandarin. I have been following the plan set out in my syllabus, and tutoring meetings have been regular every week. I have also created something of a pattern to follow – for the first part of the week, I watch some television and review vocabulary by rewriting and practicing pronunciation for the characters I learned recently, and for the second part, I learn new vocabulary and practice forming sentences and speaking more quickly and…
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4 hours ago
Gisselle Gonzalez posted a discussion
Discussion Post #5
Korean Culture has honorifics and hierarchy. It is used at the end of the sentences to show respect based on age and social position. There are levels at which you speak to people. If they are older, you speak formally. (Age) If they are your boss, you speak to them with respect. (Status) If they are younger, you may speak to them casually. (Relationship) The word “nim” is used out of respect for elders and positions above oneself. Honorific verbs are when speaking to someone you respect. For…
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yesterday
Myanna Hightower posted a discussion
Discussion Post #5
The most interesting thing about learning ASL and about deaf/hard-of-hearing (HOH) culture to me is that like spoken languages, ASL has various dialects that vary across country and region. One of these dialects is the result of historical audism and discrimination that resulted in the combination of ASL with English grammar rules. This form of ASL is majorily used among the older generations. An adiditional dialect presents itself in the form of Black ASL (BASL) which emerged as a direct…
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yesterday
Kaylee Wyrick posted a discussion
Discussion Post #4
Bahasa Indonesia has a rich phonetic inventory that is very similar to that of English. Both Bahasa Indonesia and English have twenty-six letters, but most Indonesian letters have only one pronunciation. Most consonants (except most notably C and R) sound the same in Bahasa Indonesia and English. In Indonesian, the letter C sounds like a “ch” or [t͡ʃ] sound in English. For example, “cepat” (fast) is pronounced  [t͡ʃ], [ɛ], [p], [a], [t]. The letter R in Bahasa Indonesia has no equivalent in…
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Wednesday
Lila Taylor posted a discussion
Discussion Post #4
There are both sounds in Spanish that don’t exist in American English and letters that sound differently in Spanish than they do in English. An example of a word that uses a sound that exists in English, however, uses a letter formation we do not have, is the word “lleno” (full). In the word “lleno” the double ll is pronounced the same way the y is in English (in words like “yes”), and the double ll does not exist at the beginning of words in this way in English. Examples of sounds that exist…
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Tuesday
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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

Photos

Diigo: SDLAP at UR

Diigo: Learning LOTE

Members