Hi Lisa,
Many of the less commonly taught languages don't have a strong online component or platform to complement the textbook. I suspect the market isn't lucrative enough for sustained development for most publishers. I've found myself in your shoes multiple times looking for Arabic, Hindi, Polish, and Serbo-Croatian online resources. Even when a suitable book is identified, it can be a challenge to find quality online materials.
However, if you want to supplement existing printed resources with web-based speaking/listening activities, I'd encourage you to check out our University's project -iSpraak for Chrome- you can find some explainer videos at www.ispraak.com/about.html
An instructor can select a short sentence from a textbook, enter it into iSpraak, and have students get realtime feedback on pronunciation and listen to the target language via text-to-speech synthesis. The platform only requires Google Chrome (Mac/PC) and supports 26 languages.
We've largely addressed our LCTL needs with existing textbooks, quizlet, h5p exercises, and iSpraak activities. I'm the developer of iSpraak, so let my bias be known, and hopefully some others can weigh in on their own approaches for the kind of software support you're seeking.
Cheers, and happy end of semester all around!
Dan
Dan Nickolai, Ph.D.
Director of the Language Resource Center
Assistant Professor of French
Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Saint Louis University
(314) 977-3644
http://www.slu.edu/x49831.xml
________________________________
From: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Katzenstein, Lisa <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2017 2:54:11 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Language Learning Software
Hi Everybody:
I am a Tutor Coordinator in ESOL who also works with world language students in the language lab at Richland College. I have been asked to find language learning programssuch as Mango, Pronunciator, and Rosetta Stone (all of which we already have used) that could be used when a foreign language textbook does NOT have an online component. This happens the most often with the lesser taught languages like Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Italian. If you have any suggestions plus vendor contact info, I would be most grateful. Many thanks ahead for your response.
Best,
Lisa Katzenstein
Tutor Coordinator
ESOL Corner
World Languages, Cultures, and Communications
Richland College
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