Short Description:
This open textbook is designed for those who are learning Chinese as a second/foreign language in their first semester. It has eight chapters, covering topics including a brief introduction about the Chinese language, greetings, and self-introduction, hobbies, nationalities, family members and occupations, inviting friends to dinner, talking about food and beverage, making phone calls, and talking about classes and exams.

Long Description:
This open textbook is designed for beginners learning Chinese as a second/foreign language. This book aims to introduce learners to standard Chinese pronunciation, character knowledge, basic conversational phrases, grammar and vocabulary use, and cultural knowledge. Throughout the eight chapters, learners will explore: greetings and self-introduction, hobbies, nationalities, family members and occupations, inviting friends to dinner, talking about food and beverage, making phone calls, and talking about classes and exams. Learning activities include audio recordings so students can listen to the pronunciation of vocabulary words and observe dialogue between speakers. The book also includes videos with captions, allowing learners to listen, watch, and read. Original interactive activities have been created by the author to facilitate the practice of target vocabulary and dialogues.

Word Count: 19508

ISBN: 978-1-62610-115-9

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Students begin this unit by exploring the themes of humanity and community as they discuss  the many factors that influence the development of personal identities. They unpack together how we show versus hide different parts of ourselves, and how our identities can be both fixed and ever-changing. Then, students listen to oral histories by Vietnamese Americans in Washington to learn how displacement and resettlement have impacted them personally and shaped their outlook on helping others. Using evidence from these firsthand accounts, students answer the question: What can the experiences of displaced people teach us about community, resilience, and humanity? Throughout this unit, students work in teams to create a podcast where they reflect on their collective responsibility to stand in solidarity with displaced people.

This course is designed to provide teachers with the skills and competencies needed to both incorporate information and communications technology (ICT) in their teaching as well as to use it for their professional development.

The course covers a wide range of thematic areas, from basic computer use and maintenance (including hardware, software, applications and troubleshooting) through to internet, email, and social media in the educational context. Through the course, teachers will develop the skills to understand, evaluate and operationalize ICT within the context of related national educational policies, integrate ICT in education from a pedagogical perspective, manage learners’ project-based learning (PBL) activities in a technology-enhanced environment and even integrate ICT into the curriculum.

Conversation Activities | The Pathways Project

Short Description:
Let’s Chat! ASL features a collection of over 160 interpersonal activities for novice and intermediate learners. Touching on a range of thematic topics such as free time activities, resolving conflicts, daily routines, health, the environment, holidays and so much more, ASL teachers are sure to find an activity to use in their courses. These activities may be used as is or can easily be revised and remixed to fit the unique needs of individual classrooms.

Long Description:
Let’s Chat! ASL features a collection of over 160 interpersonal activities for novice and intermediate learners. Touching on a range of thematic topics such as free time activities, resolving conflicts, daily routines, health, the environment, holidays and so much more, ASL teachers are sure to find an activity to use in their courses. These activities may be used as is or can easily be revised and remixed to fit the unique needs of individual classrooms.

Are you a language instructor using Pathways Project Activities? We would love to hear from you. CLICK HERE to provide your feedback and share back activities you revised with the Pathways Community.

The Pathways Project, an initiative from the Department of World Languages at Boise State University, is a collaborative network of open educational resources (OER) including instructional language teaching materials and professional development created by and uniquely for Idaho’s K-16 language teachers and students.

Teachers and students participating in the Pathways Project come from different fields of study and schools across Idaho to create open (i.e., free), digital activities that support the teaching and learning of foreign languages and promote intercultural competence. We hope to impact the opportunities learners have to connect to the global world!

Visit the Pathways Project Website to learn more.

Word Count: 132240

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

10-lesson third grade unit to build classroom culture focused on identity, diversity and community.

Children and young people play an important role in migratory processes because they may act as links between their families, local communities and their school. Schooling and linguistic immersion in the host society can help young people learn the official language(s) of their new country faster than their parents or other adults. When they broker in a school context, they bring linguistic diversity to the school and display truly multilingual and multicultural skills that are part of their daily life. This Teacher's Book aims to help you and your students explore some of the complexity involved in young people taking on such roles in modern societies. Therefore, the aim of this Teacher's Book is twofold: (a) to celebrate multilingualism and raise awareness of young people translating and interpreting in schools, an activity also known as child language brokering; and (b) to provide a resource containing background information and interactive activities aimed at giving teachers tools for a deeper understanding of what language brokering by young people usually entails, so that you can then pass it on to your students. European Union $f 2019-1-ES01-KA201-064417.

A first-year curriculum that emphasizes the diversity of the Spanish-speaking world, Trayectos includes authentic digital media as well as a two-volume textbook.
Each instructional module in Trayectos offers cultural and linguistic information, and ample opportunities to use Spanish in three modes of communication: Interpersonal (oral interactions with other speakers), interpretive (reading and listening comprehension), and presentational (writing/oral presentations). Also, material will help you make connections between grammatical forms and the social contexts in which you use them.

Do you need to translate for a Canadian audience? We’ve got you covered! This ebook briefly introduces the concepts of translation and localization and then presents a range of free online tools and resources, including term banks, bilingual concordancers, tools for comparing language varieties, machine translation tools, ChatGPT, and language portals. In each case, the tools and resources that are presented have a distinctly Canadian flavour to help translators to localize texts into Canadian English and Canadian French. For each tool or resource, there is a short practical exercise to get you started. What are you waiting for, eh? (This version supersedes version 1.0: https://oercommons.org/courses/translating-for-canada-eh)

Short Description:
This open textbook is designed for those who are learning Chinese as a second/foreign language in their second semester. It has six chapters, covering topics including describing school life, shopping in stores and online, transportation means, reporting weather and climates, ordering foods, and asking and giving directions.

Long Description:
Elementary Chinese II is aimed at those who have learned Chinese as a second/foreign language for one semester, using the OER textbook “Elementary Chinese I“.

This open textbook contains six main lessons, including topics such as school life, shopping, transportation, weather, eating out, and asking and giving directions. They are organized in a straightforward and well-structured manner that are easy to follow. Within each lesson, there are a set of two dialogues or a set of one dialogue plus one narration. The texts of the dialogues or narrations are created to provide real-life Chinese language to beginning learners. After the texts, vocabulary words are listed for them to study and review. Grammatical points are explained in English and example sentences are provided for students to understand. Each dialogue or narration ends with culture notes where learners can read and better understand the target text.

Word Count: 20224

ISBN: 978-1-62610-116-6

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

On completion of this unit participants should:

Investigate and source digital versions of the Zambian curricula documents.
Determine what role for ICT has been envisaged by the national education authority as expressed within the official curriculum
Identify sixteen 21st century skills as defined by the World Economic Forum
Integrate at least two 21st century skills into their teaching and learning.

In the Oregon State Guide to Grammar, our professors define grammar terms, explain grammatical conventions, identify parts of speech and constructions, and help students toward a better awareness of their own linguistic intuition. The video series is designed to be a free, online, creative commons (CC BY) resource for high school and college English teachers and students, offering them tools to engage meaningfully with challenging grammatical issues. To see the videos, please click on the "View Resource" above.

Short Description:
This supplementary first-year physics textbook explores the role of language, alongside figures and mathematical symbols, in solving physics problems. The aim of this textbook is to help students gain extended, practical awareness of the roles of language in solutions to a range of first-year physics problems. The learning is guided mainly by comparing how language is used in formal, written solutions and in students' problem-solving dialogues. With new awareness how and why language is used in these two central forms of university physics practice, students can more effectively communicate solutions and guide their development as physicists and users of scientific English. After introducing problem-solving strategies and foundational aspects of language, the textbook guides students in the three primary functions of language in solutions: to represent concepts and phenomena, organize messages to facilitate their interpretation, and evaluate knowledge claims. Learning is largely task-based, emerging from completing the textbook tasks and reviewing feedback. The textbook is recommended for use alongside first-year physics instruction in self-guided study or instructor-facilitated contexts such as physics tutorials and English for physics courses.

Long Description:
This textbook combines the perspectives of physics and language to help you solve first-year physics problems and communicate your problem-solving choices more consciously and effectively. From the view of physics, the units present physics problems linked to the set of physics concepts typically taught in first year, focusing on how students with various physics competencies solve problems in dialogue and report their solutions in writing. By exploring the various competencies involved in solving physics problems and illustrating these competencies in solutions produced by students with different strengths and weaknesses, this textbook aims to help you understand and develop your own competencies.

A language perspective on learning first-year physics

The perspective of language complements the learning in physics because language systems are a key resource for thinking through and solving physics word problems. Language use in specialized activities such as solving physics problems tends to form identifiable patterns, implying that some language choices are more effective than others. Working through this textbook, you will observe the systems of language choices available for solving physics problems and develop capacities to use language more mindfully and effectively in your physics work.

Physics knowledge is produced, exchanged, and assessed in two main forms in first year courses, in speech and writing. In each textbook unit, a problem is introduced that requires application of one or more focal physics concepts, exploring spoken and written solutions to this problem to help you improve the effectiveness of solutions in both forms. Each unit also focuses on a specific function or sub-function of language, such as how concepts are represented or how solutions are organized, which is explored by comparing the spoken and written modes of communicating physics.

Across the 14 units, the textbook describes and explains the functional scope of the English language in shaping valued physics knowledge. For example, we explore the use of particular functional structures of English that physicists typically use when a problem requires us to re-interpret the concrete, physical world in terms of abstract concepts, such as when modelling a running person (concrete) as a point mass (concept).

The language perspective helps us answer questions such as these: What are the functions of language in solving physics problems? How does language help us to shift perspectives between a problem’s dynamic, physical situation and the stable, theoretical concepts involved? What are the roles of visual figures and mathematical symbolism relative to language in solving physics problems? What language choices are involved in effectively solving a physics problem in group dialogue and writing? Can we distinguish between reporting and explaining our solution? If so, how? What does it mean for a solution to be effectively communicated?

The knowledge and experiences you build in this course about the role of language in physics will help you to meet your expectations for solving physics problems and those of your peers and instructors. This aim is achieved in combination with the increased awareness and development of your competencies in solving physics problems. The guiding aim of this textbook is for you to apply the knowledge and experiences you gain towards your personal and professional development according to your interests in physics and science.

The organization of the textbook

The roles of language in solving physics problems are explored in increasing detail across the textbook units. Unit 1 provides the foundational perspectives on physics and language. The focus for learning is on strategies for solving word problems and the units and scales of language use in communicating the solutions.

Units 2 to 14 focus on physics concepts typically covered in first year, from motion along a straight line to fluid dynamics. Each unit introduces a problem developed to apply the unit’s focal concept and explores with you the solutions to these in spoken and written forms. A second problem is then introduced in the unit as an opportunity to apply, assess, and reflect on what you’ve learned.

Ways to use the textbook

The focus of this textbook is on improving your use of language, problem-solving strategies, and physics concepts in solving problems. As such, this book is not intended to replace a physics first-year textbook. Rather, this textbook is designed to be used in combination with a standard first-year physics textbook or course, where the methods and concepts are covered in detail.

This textbook is designed for first-year Science or Applied Science programs, where it would be used in (1) the tutorial section of the physics course focusing on problem-solving competencies and communicating solutions or in (2) a linked content-and-language syllabus such as an English for First-Year Physics course. This textbook will also find good use in (3) advanced placement high-school science programs, (4) pre-sessional university preparation programs, and (5) refresher courses for first-year physics. The book was designed especially for multilingual students of physics; however, it is expected to interest any physics enthusiasts with an interest in explicit understanding and extended practice of the language of physics.

The course is designed to be used in self-guided learning, peer study groups, or instructor-led classes. Whatever approach you take, learning through this textbook happens through your active engagement with the tasks. The task-based design involves a cycle of pre-task preparation, task activity, and post-task checking of responses and reflection. The post-task checking of your responses is crucial as this is typically where the effectiveness of your task performance is explained, that is, where the teaching emerges in dialogue with your input.

This course also includes optional features for deeper engagement and community-building around the language of solving physics problems. Chief among these features is the sharing of physics problems and solutions produced by you, the textbook users. As a user of the online textbook, you are invited to submit your solutions to the collection and compare these in terms of language features against our analyses of how language is used across all submissions. Users are also encouraged to design and share unique problems that reflect their particular interests and curiosities within and beyond physics. As the collection grows, so will the analyses, opportunities for engagement, and the learning community.

Word Count: 6443

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

21G.301/351 offers an introduction to the French language and culture with an emphasis on the acquisition of vocabulary and grammatical concepts through active communication. The course is conducted entirely in French, and students interact in French with their classmates from the very beginning. They also receive exposure to the language via a variety of authentic sources such as the Internet, audio, video and printed materials which help them develop cultural awareness as well as linguistic proficiency. There is a coordinated language lab program.
This course is taught in rotation by the following instructors: Laura Ceia-Minjares, Cathy Culot, Gilberte Furstenberg, and Johann Sadock.

The Role of Equity and Diversity in Early Childhood Education. Explores the impact of personal experiences and social identity on teaching effectiveness and objectivity when working with young children and families.

This book includes the Learning Outcome: explain and recognize stages and milestones in physical, social, emotional, sensory, linguistic, and cognitive development for infants from birth to 15 months old. The objective meets the NAEYC Standard 1a [Knowing and understanding young children’s characteristics and needs, from birth through age 8] for educator preparation and the MA Core Competency 1.A.1 and 1.G.15 at the initial level. You will experience how an infant develops at an individual rate and has a personal approach to learning.

ASLCORE is a Deaf-centric project which honors and celebrates Deaf culture and American Sign Language. The suggested signs you see in each ASLCORE branch are developed according to ASL linguistic principles by fluent Deaf ASL signers. Our goal is to provide descriptive signs which may serve to complement other initialized or English-influenced sign choices. These signs are presented for your consideration, modification, and adoption if they function well in your work as students, professionals, teachers, or interpreters! Copyrighted -link out or conduct a Fair Use Analysis.

This course examines the ways humans experience sound and how perceptions and technologies of sound emerge from cultural, economic, and historical worlds. It considers how the sound/noise/music boundaries have been imagined, created, and modeled across sociocultural and historical contexts. Students will learn how environmental, linguistic, and musical sounds are construed cross-culturally as well as the rise of telephony, architectural acoustics, sound recording, multi-channel and spatial mix performance, and the globalized travel of these technologies. Questions of sound ownership, property, authorship, remix, and copyright in the digital age are also addressed.

The Open Educational Resource Reader and Workbook for Interpreters

Short Description:
This Open Educational Resource (OER) on interpreting offers authors and readers free and open access to current, relevant, easy-to-access, and free materials. The editors have created a space where emerging scholars in the field of signed language interpreting make contributions with the ability to revise as the interpreting studies discipline and the scholars, themselves, develop and change. This OER provides faculty and students readings and practical application experiences that connect program specific coursework and concepts across the interpreter education curriculum emphasizing the holistic nature of the field of interpreting.

Long Description:
The purpose of this OER project is to develop current materials targeting newer scholars as authors who have conducted current research, but have not had an opportunity to publish. In this project, each of the five editors will develop and/or compile a collection of reading and ancillary materials on a specific content area. Contributions will be made in written English or digitally recorded American Sign Language (ASL). All contributors retain rights to their own work and may reuse in traditional and transformative ways as OER approaches continue to advance. As authors continue to grow, they are encouraged to remix (create new content over time) and redistribute materials they have developed.

The goal of this OER is to offer faculty and students readings and practical application experiences that connect program specific coursework and concepts across the interpreter education curriculum emphasizing the holistic nature of the field of interpreting.

Additionally, there are different needs for those students who are native English speakers and those who are native/primary users of ASL. We also envision other interpreter educators using the materials. Thus, we expect that the readings and activities will be revised (adapted) as needed.

Courses and topics for this project include interpreter mindset, pre-interpreting skills and knowledge, technical skills, reflective practice, linguistics, cultural intelligence, multicultural competencies, meaning transfer, and coaching.

Word Count: 38589

ISBN: 978-1-63635-025-7

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

This paper points out three different ways that language is involved in the standards: language requirements in the content standards, English language arts standards, and language-convention-specific standards. It calls for a thoughtful integration of these three dimensions.The authors also frame language in the context of the Common Core, focusing on what students can accomplish using language rather than on whether or how students use specific language features. This broader definition encourages the development of cognitive, linguistic, and affective strengths in ELLs and gives students the opportunity to take valuable actions toward academic success.

This course forms the intermediate level of what constitutes a four-term foundation in Mandarin. Upon completion of Chinese III and IV, students should be able to speak Chinese with fluency on everyday topics, reach a literacy level of 700 characters (approximately 2000 common words written in both traditional and simplified characters), read materials in simple standard written Chinese, and produce both orally and in writing short compositions on everyday topics. Throughout the course we will address issues of how cultural differences inform and are informed by different linguistic contexts and practices.