Please find here free examples of online teaching and learning materials for the forthcoming period of university closure due to the coronavirus outbreak. Please feel free to use and share, ensuring that you acknowledge the originator and source where requested.

If you have any suggestions for additional material that might be of use to the community, please contact James Illingworth, UCFL Project Coordinator, at ji60@le.ac.uk

General Approaches to Online Learning

  • 10 tips for working at home, compiled by Cardiff University AHSS HR.
  • Google Doc co-curated by Jacqueline Wernimont (Dartmouth, USA), Cathy N. Davidson (CUNY Grad Center, USA) containing a number of useful pointers for online teaching.
  • Women in French have compiled a similar list of online teaching guidance, and have suggested a questionnaire to give to students to assess their online capabilities/needs.

Modern Languages Resources

  • We are Multilingual: A suite of secondary school language teaching materials, created by researchers involved in the AHRC OWRI Multilingualism: Empowering Individuals, Transforming Societies project. WAM is a series of classroom materials, designed alongside language teachers and  based on research in schools. It aims to inspire language learners and help change attitudes towards language learning. The project has also produced a series of online taster classes in Portuguese, Persian, and Nepali.
  • Creative Multilingualism Resources: A variety of articles, videos, teaching guides and resources created as part of the AHRC OWRI Creative Multilingualism research project.  Here you’ll find helpful options to teach languages creatively and to celebrate multilingualism in school.
  • Film in Language Teaching Association (FILTA): The FILTA community site holds over 100 study guides and resources covering films in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Italian,  German, Spanish and Urdu. Most of the study guides are based on feature films, but in the last year new study guides based on short films have been incorporated. The resources are designed to aid language learners in analysing a specific film or short film. The activities help students to develop critical thinking skills (predict, infer, ask questions) and creative media competences. Other benefits include opportunities to establish connections across curriculum areas and reflect on cultural experiences, thereby improving students’ intercultural competence. Members are invited to share their own materials via the specific groups, the blog, and/or the forum areas. There are areas dedicated to sharing research resources in each of languages and other specialist groups.
  • FRENCH: Emmanuelle Labeau (Aston) has started a Youtube channel aimed at providing online French tuition in light of school closures.
  • FRENCH: Didier FLE have made their various French learning workbooks freely available for the duration of the outbreak.
  • FRENCH: These two sites offer learning and emotional support online: https://educarte.arte.tv/# & https://www.lumni.fr
  • FRENCH: Every Sunday, FranceCulture will put on a special 2-hour broadcast aimed at education during confinement. FranceCulture has also curated a ‘Nation apprenante‘ section, compiling broadcasts of particular use during this period of social isolation.
  • SPANISH: Zsuzsanna Bárkányi (The Open University) and Antonio Infante (The University of York) have created a short online course aimed at teachers of Spanish working in the United Kingdom who wish to extend their theoretical and practical knowledge on teaching Spanish pronunciation. The course has been possible thanks to the AHRC-funded project Language Acts and Worldmaking (www.languageacts.org). The course offers ideas and practical skills that can be used in the virtual or face-to-face classroom. It is freely available and can be accessed via OpenLearnCreate.
  • SPANISH, RUSSIAN and MALAY: TeaBreakTasters an initiative created by the Multilingual Manchester research unit. Short, simple lessons with no tests or targets, encouraging a practical introduction to these languages.
  • CHINESE: The Confucius Institute at UCL has collated a list of online resources for Chinese teaching.
  • CHINESE: The following site is extremely useful for helping with Chinese reading ability, especially reading newspapers: https://www.thechairmansbao.com/ Although much of the site is behind a paywall, there are free elements.
  • CHINESE: Donghua University offers free resources for teachers Chinese language instructors that can be found here.
  • ITALIAN: the Society for Italian Studies has created a dedicated section of their website to support Erasmus students in Italy. These resources will be updated regularly.
  • TRANSLATION STUDIES: Cardiff University has compiled a list of resources for online working in Translation Studies.
  • TRANSLATION STUDIES: Sign-up to the MOOC ‘Working with Translation’ has been extended until 23:59 on 21 June. Upon sign-up, you will have 6 weeks of free access. After, the 6 week free period you have to pay to upgrade for unlimited access. Sign up here.
  • TRANSLATION STUDIES: Hannah Silvester (Cork, hannah.silvester@ucc.ie) has established a Slack workspace for Translation Studies/Audiovisual Translation/Interpreting Studies. Participants are asked to share their research interests and goals in this Google Doc. The Slack workspace allows for themed or goal-based discussion threads, so that researchers can connect with others working on related topics, or working towards similar goals. Those who wish to join the workspace should contact Hannah directly.
  • The Literary Encyclopedia, a compendium of short articles penned by academics on a wide range of texts and authors belonging to literary traditions from across the globe, is offering free subscriptions to FE and HE institutions until the end of June 2020. These articles are written primarily with undergraduates in mind and are peer-reviewed by editorial teams, so are citable in ways many free-for-all reference resources such as Wikipedia are not.
  • The IMLR has created an Online Resources page, which includes podcasts/recordings of IMLR events, blog posts, and links to Open Access IMLR publications.
  • Resources for online teaching, compiled by the MLA. This now includes a sub-section that encourages us to think about how our curricula can combat racism.
  • Repository of Humanities-specific (including Languages) teaching resources: http://humbox.ac.uk
  • H-Net has compiled a repository of online resources for Humanities and Social Sciences teaching: https://networks.h-net.org/teaching-online-resources
  • H-Net has also created a space for sharing papers from cancelled conferences: https://networks.h-net.org/canceled-conference-presentation-repository
  • Google doc curated by Rachel Lucas listing Modern Languages online teaching resources.
  • Sanako, an online learning platform that specialises in language teaching, is offering free subscriptions: http://www.sanako.com/connect-free/
  • During the outbreak Cambridge Assessment are offering Resource Plus to all Cambridge International schools free of charge.

Events/Webinars

  • InnoConf2020: ‘Facilitating Transition’: Newcastle University School of Modern Languages will host the 10th annual Conference in the Innovative Language Teaching and Learning at University series on Friday 18th September 2020 via Zoom.  For more details, including the call for papers (deadline 20 July) see here.
  • Lancaster University has hosted/is hosting digital taster sessions in French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Italian, and Translation & Interpreting. Details of the events can be found here, and Youtube recordings of past sessions can be found here.
  • The MLA have made their webinar on creating a works-cited list freely available.
  • The next instalment of the University of Kent’s Modern Languages Teaching Forum will focus on “Distance Learning in Modern Languages” and will take place on 27 May 2020. More details can be found here.
  • Mathew Hillier (University of Queensland) is hosting 2 free webinars on transforming assessment:
    • 25 March 2020: Implementing remotely invigilated online exams at scale (Further info + register (free) at http://taw.fi/25mar2020)
    • 26 March 2020: the KISS approach to teaching online in the time of COVID19 (Further info + register (free) at http://taw.fi/26mar2020)
  • Epigeum has made 2 of its online programmes freely available until the end of May (‘Teaching Online’ and ‘Blended Learning’). More details including how to access the course can be found here.
  • Online education professionals in the UK have contributed to a course aimed at helping staff move their teaching online – it’s free and starts on Monday 23 March: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/teach-online

From the Twittersphere