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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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

Elizabeth Jonas posted a discussion
Discussion Post #5
One part that interests me about Portuguese is mainly the fact that it is very comparable to Spanish. I feel like that also means it will be easier to learn than other languages because of my strong base in Spanish, and, hopefully, I'll be able to acquire it quicker!As for the culture part of the question, my interests are both in Portuguese and Brazilian culture. They both have such a strong (and different!) cultural identity, from their clothing, celebrations, food, and more. I think the…
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Monday
Kevin Retana posted a discussion
Discussion Post #8
So far I have begun writing short sentences on my notebook in Korean and also trying to trace words to get a feel for it. But I have also been typing with a Hangul keyboard (Still trying to get used to it). So far typing helps me focus on structure and vocabulary rather than that of handwriting speed. As I write more, I’ve started noticing patterns in sentence structures, such as the Subject–Object–Verb (SOV) order and the frequent use of particles like 이/가 and 을/를 to mark grammatical roles.…
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Nov 8
Ariana Kamiya posted a discussion
Discussion Post #7
My learning is going well so far. I have been watching lecture videos on Talk to Me in Korean along with reading comic books, and my language partner Jason also asked me if I would want to start using textbooks during our future meetings. The discussion that we had on language structures and learning strategies definitely is helping me understand the Korean language and culture more. I am really interested in how different language families evolved and grew so I have been looking into the…
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Nov 7
Elizabeth Jonas posted a discussion
Discussion Post #4
Spelling is the written form of a word while sound is a spoken component to a word. This is also an important distinction since the sound and spelling of a word might not necessarily match up. (The word enough, for example). You can't rely on the sounds to put down the correct spelling. A main difference in the phonetic inventory of English and Portuguese is the heavy use of the nasals and something called flaps/trills.There are many sounds in Portuguese that don't exist in English. For…
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Nov 3
Jeremy Um posted a status
SDLC 111 - Learning Journal #2

As I’ve come to reflect on my second learning journal, here were some key takeaways that I was able to make:
The primary focus this month was differentiating between using native or sino counting system in day to day activities (when to use 하나,둘, 셋 and 일,이,삼). This was a topic that I had previously communicated to my language partner of hoping to work on which was the primary focus. I was assigned a worksheet along with a slideshow to supplement my learning. In…
Oct 26
Kevin Retana posted a discussion
Discussion Post #7
After rewatching my presentation of my Korean learning plan, I can see how much I’ve grown since then. At first, my plan focused mostly on structure—daily vocabulary, listening, and pronunciation practice. While I haven’t yet attended the Korean church I mentioned, I have been working consistently with my language partner and tutor (Shoutout to Jason). These sessions have helped me apply what I learned in my own time to real conversations, and I’ve started noticing patterns in how Korean…
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Oct 20
Elizabeth Jonas posted a discussion
Discussion Post #3
I couldn't access the diagram, but based on other research and inference, combining different disciplinary perspectives to formulate a more holistic understanding of my target language would undoubtedly help in studying language. By combining different aspects, you find what parts works best for yourself in studying a language. Per my online research of language disciplinary approaches, I think sociolinguistics makes the most sense. It focuses on language and society, and obviously a very…
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Oct 20
Ariana Kamiya posted a discussion
Discussion Post #6
My target language, Korean, belongs to the Koreanic family, which consists of the Korean and Jeju language. Although some have also grouped the Korean language into the Altaic family. Many aspects of the Korean language stems from Chinese (culturally contact throughout history), where about 60% of the modern Korean vocabulary is Chinese loanwords. Similar to Korea, Japan also had a long history of cultural contact with China, which resulted in the two cultures sharing words that are pronounced…
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Oct 18
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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