The Language Teacher Helpmate
A LANGUAGES EDUCATION RESOURCE BLOG
TEACHING RESOURCES
Here you'll find links for handbooks & introductory texts; Languages pedagogy blogs & websites; planning for Languages programs & advocacy; materials for Languages teaching; CLIL; museums & language resource centres; general teaching materials; image banks; and intercultural understanding and Asia literacy.
Teacher handbooks and introductory texts
The following are Languages teaching and general teaching handbooks published in recent years that might be helpful.
Learning to Teach Foreign Languages in the Secondary School
CLIL activities with CD-Rom. A Resource for Subject and Language Teachers
100+ Ideas for Teaching Languages
100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers
100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers. Managing Behaviour
Introducing Second Language Acquisition. Perspectives and Practices
Muriel Saville-Troike: Introducing Seconds language Acquisition
An Introduction to Multilingualism
An Introduction to Applied Sociolinguistics
Introducing Multilingualism. A Social approach
Multilingualism. A Critical Perspective
Blogs & websites - Languages pedagogy
The Language Gym is a blog by a Languages education academic on various debates and topics about all things Languages teaching.
Teaching and Learning languages – A Guide is a national initiative that aims to provide a set of resources to support the improvement of the teaching and learning of languages in Australian schools. The Guide is available as a printed document, and also in PDF format to download from this website.
The TES blog is a site featuring themed resource picks, featured authors and classroom ideas for seasonal events relevant to teachers in Australia and New Zealand.
The Language Teacher Toolkit is a regularly updated blog featuring news, views and reviews about language teaching.
We are teachers is an online community for teachers featuring practical teaching ideas, giveaways and teacher-to-teacher advice. They describe themselves as "your virtual teacher’s lounge where you can find support and encouragement from your colleagues, a great idea for your next reading or math lesson, and a laugh when you need it."
Petite Pipelette is a blog collating news, articles and ideas about languages teaching. Although it hasn't been updated since 2015, the articles are still useful.
Cult of Pedagogy is an online magazine for "anyone who teaches anything". The author, former teacher Jennifer Gonzales, describes the site with the following: "Because you’re busy teaching, you don’t have time to study the craft as carefully as you’d like, to try out new tech tools, read books on methodology, stay on top of current research, or explore opportunities for professional development. I dig through those things for you, weed out the crap, and show you the good stuff — resources and information that will help you do your job better."
Edutopia is a foundation started by filmmaker George Lucas to "identify and spread innovative, replicable and evidence-based approaches to helping K-12 students learn better." The site features a range of useful resources.
The Musicuentos Black Box Resource Collection "is a collection of resources designed to communicate second language acquisition research in a way that teachers can understand and put to use in the classroom. This project has undergone a huge transformation and is now a project of four world language educators, co-sponsored by Musicuentos and Indwelling Language.
Lindsay Does Languages is a site "offering coaching packages and online courses both for language learners and online language tutors."
The VCAA and ACER have developed a range of language assessments for different languages (Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Modern Greek and Spanish).
OzLangEd, now on Twitter, collates language learning resources.
Warmers and Fillers is a British Council resource of classroom activities.
Planning for Languages programs & advocacy
Teaching and Learning Languages – A Guide is a national initiative that aims to provide a set of resources to support the improvement of the teaching and learning of languages in Australian schools. The Guide is available as a printed document, and also in PDF format to download from this website.
The Department of Education and Training (DET) Victoria "supports and provides a range of learning and development opportunities for Victorian children, young people and adults." Their website's Languages section provides a range of resources designed to support teachers.
Languages NSW "provides leadership and policy advice on matters relating to languages education in NSW public schools." They also
"develop support materials for languages teachers and
provide professional learning opportunities to networks and communities of schools."
The website provides many resources, including information on upcoming teaching posts and competitions, all separated by language.
Promoting Languages Learning is a government-run website which provides links to "languages video testimonials, web pages, online articles, posters, pamphlets and brochures (which) provide information schools can use to promote learning a language in both school and community settings."
Lead With Languages is a site managed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, and it provides many languages advocacy resources.
Languages Resources is "a website with resources and games for French, German and Spanish teachers."
Creative Language Class is a blog run by two Spanish teachers. It features resources divided into useful categories such as professional development, planning, activities, and traditional themes. The site is very user-friendly and easy to navigate.
Everyday MFL is a blog that the creator claims was made to provide "something that MFL teachers can use." Its main focus is on teaching ideas.
neiljones.org is a blog focused on collating "resources and ideas for teaching Modern Foreign Languages." While the majority of the articles focus on Spanish, the author asserts that "the ideas can be adapted in some cases to other languages."
TES is a website of "resources and ideas for languages, written by teachers to support teaching and learning." It has portals for preschool, primary, secondary and special needs education, as well as for 32 individual languages. Many of the resources, however, require payment.
The Rachel Hawkes Language Learning Website "contains resources, ideas and strategies for promoting, teaching and learning languages. It is hoped that they will support Heads of Languages and teachers of Spanish, German and French."
Smart board resources focuses on providing assistance for teachers using smart board technology in the classroom.
AEF Asian Languages curriculum resources "Asia Education Foundation (AEF) provides school leaders, teachers and schools with curriculum resources, professional learning, innovative programs and networks to develop Asia capability for Foundation to Year 12 students in Australian schools." This site includes "generic and language-specific Australian Curriculum information, links and resources to support teachers and school leaders."
Scootle is "a national repository that provides Australian schools with more than 20,000 digital resources aligned to the Australian Curriculum."
The Language Learning Space "provides learning resources and services for students of Chinese, Japanese and Indonesian languages and for teachers of these languages."
Language Perfect is a subscription-based website designed to help language learners with pronunciation and vocab. It uses videos and recordings to help students learn and retain information. Currently, it has resources for Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Indonesian and Spanish.
Languages Online is a collection of free resources, including worksheets and interactive games that allow students to practice their language skills.
Languages Online UK aims to "provide an interactive format through which pupils can practise the language we are teaching them in a variety of exercise styles."
Teachitlanguages "is a growing collection of tried and tested resources for French, German and Spanish, created and shared by teachers." All their resources are checked by native speakers, and teaching notes are also provided.
Audio-Lingua is "a collaborative bank of authentic audio resources, recorded by native speakers, for a freely pedagogical or personal use." You can listen to the files online or download them. Native speakers are invited to contribute their own recordings to the resource bank.
Language on Screen "is an exciting new educational resource that puts French, German, Spanish and Italian - and soon Gaelic - short films online for free download and use in schools". Once you request a login, you will be granted access to a library of short films.
Sprachheld.de "is a practice-oriented blog by a real language expert." The hyperlink provided here redirects you to an overview of the 60 best YouTube channels for learning a wide range of commonly and less frequently taught languages. The site language is German but you'll find it quite self-explanatory. Just click on a specific language to access the reviewed YouTube channels.
BBC Languages is a now-archived offshoot of the BBC website that provides free online lessons for 40 different languages.
Bilingual Planet is a site focusing on the sale of physical resources for dual-language classrooms.
Lightbulb Languages is a resources site for teachers of Languages.
Duolingo is a useful app to engage students with different
languages. It utilises the four macro language skills, and can be a great tool at the start of class to help students ‘tune in’.
The Sock Puppet App is a useful tool which could be used for speaking assessments. It's quite fun for students.
Forvo is a useful website to assist in listening and
pronunciation. Type in a word (or even several – e.g. a verb and pronoun) and recorded
examples spoken by different individuals around the world. It can also be useful to compare
accents and different pronunciations geographically.
Teaching World Language? Practice Storytelling with Animated Shorts! is an article about using animation to help teach Languages.
iSL Collective offers printable worksheets, powerpoint presentations and video lessons for French, German, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese.
Learn a New Language while Watching Netflix via Lifehacker.
The Film in Language Teaching Association (FILTA) "is an association of language teachers, film educators and researchers." While it is a network based in the UK, it is it possible to connect all over the world. Study guides for popular films in several languages are available here as well.
Teaching Guides for Making Short Films via Creative Multilingualism.
Edutopia offers a rundown of activities for teaching speaking, and a list of language classroom activities.
5 Smart Ways to Learn a Language by watching TV and Film.
Lingro translates entire webpages into different languages. You simply paste the link, pick the translation you want and hit the button. Then, the website gets translated into the target language. If a student is uncertain of a word, they just click on it and a definition will pop up in a box.
Creative Multilingualism: Creative Poetry Activities.
Practical EdTech offers a range of free tools for designing and printing posters.
Here is a list of apps to aid language learning. Here is another.
Lastly, here is a blog post directing you to other useful blogs.
The adventures of Bernard the Bear is a wordless animated series perfect for imaginative language role-plays and activities!
Multilingual music has a variety of music in different languages.
Open Language: Online Portal for Community Languages NSW - includes a wide range of materials for community languages
The National Centre for Excellence in Language Pedagogy Resource Portal
Incredible range of audio listening resources available from Audio Lingua in a dozen different languages, including French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and more!
Materials for Languages teaching
Museums & Language resource centres
Some states have dedicated Languages resource centres with teaching materials for a wide range of languages. Local council libraries often also have a dedicated Languages section with books and multimedia in languages that are widely spoken in their community. Museums also often run Language and Culture programs, and provide resources for teachers on their websites.
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Victoria
The Languages and Multicultural Education Resource Centre (LMERC) is a specialist resource centre for schools across all sectors. The centre lets people borrow "books, posters, CDs, DVDs, policy documents and realia (cultural artefacts)" free of charge. It is located at the Statewide Resources Centre on Palmerston Street, Carlton.
The Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages (VACL) "was established in 1994 to address the issues of language loss and is the state body responsible for coordinating Community Language Programs throughout Victoria." It is located on Hanover Street, Fitzroy.
The Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre "tells the story of survival against the odds and celebrate our vibrant cultures through performances, storytelling, artwork and more." Located in the Melbourne Museum, the centre is open daily from 10am–5pm.
The Koorie Heritage Trust "offers a range of programs and services including the only public collection in Victoria dedicated solely to Koorie art and culture comprising artefacts, pictures and photographs as well as an Oral History Program and a Reference Library; a cultural education service that includes guided walking tours, cultural competency training and programs developed specifically for schools and educators; an annual exhibition program with an emphasis on showcasing young and emerging Victorian Aboriginal art and artists; a Koorie Family History Service; and a retail shop dedicated exclusively to showcasing the uniqueness of Victorian Aboriginal art and design." The Trust is located at Federation Square.
The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) offers film screenings, materials, and a film competition.
The Olympic Museum has great teaching resources.
Other museums & galleries Museum Victoria | National Gallery of Victoria | Chinese Museum Melbourne | Immigration Museum Melbourne
Europe
Located in the Latin Quarter in Paris, Mundolingua is a museum dedicated to language. Spanning three floors, it covers a range of topics including linguistics, language, learning, cinema and "fun with language".
Asia
Kyoto has a dedicated museum for Kanji.
Image banks/pools
The State Library of Victoria Digital Image Pool is a collection of out of copyright pictures that "see the story of Victoria's history brought to life in almost 200,000 (and growing) amazing historical images."
The MET "creates, organizes, and disseminates a broad range of digital images documenting the rich history of the Museum, its collection, exhibitions, events, people, and activities. Many of these images are available for personal enjoyment, study, educational purposes, and scholarly publication".
British Library Images Online is "the picture library of the British Library, the national library of the United Kingdom. Bringing together expert knowledge of British Library curators and professional picture researchers we can provide research and advice to assist your picture buying needs."
The Getty " makes available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose. No permission is required."
If you and/or your students are looking for icons to spice up presentations, prompt cards or worksheets, the free directory of Flaticon is worth a visit. To use the images, you are required to add an attribution link to show where the original image came from.
General teaching materials
ABC Splash is a website run by the ABC featuring "high-quality digital educational content from across the ABC and around the world." Some of their resources could be adapted for the Languages classroom and/or for use in a CLIL unit.
TES is a website of "resources and ideas for languages, written by teachers to support teaching and learning." It has portals for preschool, primary, secondary and special needs education, as well as for 32 individual languages. Many of the resources, however, require payment.
Podcast: The Motivated Classroom
Podcast: Step into Mondays!
Resources that address issues of race, diversity and social justice from ACTFL Central.
Diversity resources from CERCLL.
Great advice and insights into diversifying the classroom book collection or library.
Developing queer materials and pedagogy: Trans-affirming queer inquiry-based pedagogies.
Miscellaneous
Localingual "presents you with an interactive and colourful world map, which can be used to select the country which you want to check out for local accents." Here is a guide to using the resource.
Brilliant Maps is a blog that employs maps to focus on different topics. Recent posts have included a map of countries the US considers its allies, a map of Africa made up of the faces of its heads of state, and a map of the most irritating phrases for each country in Europe.
Intercultural understanding and Asia literacy
Making Multicultural Australia is "one of Australia's leading sources of quality educational resources on multiculturalism." It provides "more than 3500 pages of articles, research, teacher guides, lesson plans, audio interviews, video clips, Australian multicultural artworks."
Our Asian Stories aims to "support primary and secondary teachers in understanding the importance of teaching about Asia; developing the skills required to successfully interact with people from other cultures; infusing studies of Asia across the curriculum; and teaching the languages of China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Korea." It is an initiative of the NSW Department of Education and Communities.
Plurimobil is a teaching tool that offers activities and materials to support the plurilingual and intercultural learning of students for the phases before, during and after a mobility activity. This tool can be adapted to multiple mobility projects across all educational levels.
Intercultural Cities via the Council of Europe.
SBS First Contact is the site for SBS's groundbreaking reality television show. "It documents the journey of six European Australians who are challenged over a period of 28 days about their pre-existing perceptions of Indigenous Australians."
Where in the World? is a great series on iView ABC that explores the similarities and differences between cultures through the lives of children.
UNESCO has a wealth of content to promote and encourage intercultural dialogue.
A stunning adaption of Nam Le's The Boat