Free Online Magazine: VeinteMundos

Through the CASLS (Center for Applied Second Language Studies) newsletter I learned about a fairly new online magazine totally in Spanish called VeinteMundos. Here’s the information from their site:

Journalists from Spain and Latin America write interesting reports and articles about everyday life and culture in their homelands. Alongside, Latinos tell us about their experiences in Europe, and Europeans and Americans about their experiences and travels in Spain and Latin America –all in Spanish, of course.

The texts are accompanied by key vocabulary and are written in varying degrees of difficulty, so that you can practice and refresh your Spanish in an efficient and enjoyable way.

An issue is released every month, free of charge, which includes a PDF version of the magazine, an audio version and a vocabulary list. Also, there are resources for teachers such as teacher guides, vocabulary lists, mp3s and more.

Where to go:
VeinteMundos
VeinteMundos for Teachers
CASLS

Pocoyó with subtitles in English & Spanish

Browsing through my Facebook statuses, I saw a post by Transparent Spanish with a link to a Pocoyó episode with subtitles in English and Spanish.

Personally, I think I would rather have it with just Spanish subtitles or no subtitles, but for beginners, I think these videos would be helpful. After watching them a few times, you then could search for the episodes without any subtitles and see how much you understand.

Where to go:
YouTube channel with subtitled Pocoyó episodes
Transparent Spanish Facebook Page
Official Pocoyó Page

World Cup 2010/Copa Mundial de 2010

Doing a little tweeting this morning and just posted some helpful World Cup/soccer/football links I wanted to share with you:

To watch the game live in Spanish visit Univision’s World Cup page:  http://futbol.univision.com/fifacopamundial/partidos-en-vivo

But maybe before you start watching, you might want to look over this vocabulary list first: http://www.transparent.com/spanish/soccer-vocabulary-en-espanol/

You’ll find more vocabulary on the SSL4YOU Podcast – Español Segunda Lengua para Todos:
Locos por el fútbol  http://ssl4you.blogspot.com/

And to learn about the origins of fútbol read this article from MUY Interesante: http://www.muyinteresante.es/icual-es-el-origen-del-futbol?

Another interesting article:
http://www.curiosidadesenlared.com/9-curiosidades-sobre-el-mundial-de-sudafrica-2010/

Free Spanish homeschool/classroom lesson plans

Today the folks at the Foreign Language House posted a great resource on their Facebook page. Whistlefritz, which produces immersion-based, award-winning CDs and DVDs now have made lesson plans available for free on their website:

Whistlefritz® DVDs teach Spanish using a multi-sensory approach: children hear, see, speak, and move to, Spanish. As every parent and teacher knows, repetition is the key to learning a language. Our new Lesson Plans pick up where the DVDs leave off. The Lessons give children more opportunities to practice the words they are learning in our Spanish DVD programs.

Where to go:
Whistlefritz - homeschool lesson plans
Whistlefritz - About Us
Foreign Language House Facebook Page

Nature ebooks in Spanish with support materials

Well, this is a neat “discovery” and I didn’t find it through Twitter this time. Actually my younger son showed me the book, Baby Owl’s Rescue by Jennifer Keats Curtis. As we were looking through it I noticed that there were resources and teaching activities on the publisher’s site.

I visited the site and was very pleased to see support materials in both English and Spanish. For example if you visit the Baby Owl’s Rescue page and click on For Creative Minds (en Español), you’ll find Great Horned Owl fun facts, a matching activity, owl life sequencing activity and information about what to do if you find an injured bird.

You’ll also find ebook previews in English and Spanish – look over the books and listen as it is read aloud in either language. You’ll find just part of the text available, but you can listen to the entire book.

From what I gather from the site, the hardcovers and paperbacks are only available in English, but you can purchase ebooks – actually licenses for 1, 3, and 5 years or lifetime - in English or Spanish.

Where to go: 
Sylvan Dell Publishing
Ebooks in Spanish from Sylvan Dell Publishing

Foreign Language Teaching Methods

I picked this up from MisCositas.com’s Facebook page. It’s Foreign Language Teaching Methods from the University of Texas at Austin. From the site:

Foreign Language Teaching Methods focuses on 12 different aspects of language teaching, each taught by a different expert instructor. The site contains video footage from an actual methods course held at the University of Texas at Austin. This flexible resource is designed to be used by foreign language teachers as a component of a classroom methods course, a stand-alone course for independent learners, or as a means of obtaining professional development credits.

Where to go:
Foreign Language Teaching Methods
MisCositas.com Facebook page

Video: Book

I ran across this video this morning. I thought it was amusing.