At Carleton
Web Resources
Language Training
Duolingo:Pros: Duolingo is free and just requires an email to sign up and create an account. It’s a good practice tool for starting spanish because of the daily motivational reminders it sends. Cons: An essential part of learning a language is conversational practice with another speaker. Due to this, duolingo is best to be used as a supplementary resource and not the only resource for learning spanish.
Babbel: This resource is similar to Duolingo. It provides segmented activities targeted toward learning specific vocabulary and grammar rules. The lessons are interactive and feature matching, multiple choice questions and matching translations. It’s ideal for people starting out a language to use as supplementary practice. Pros: The first lesson of each unit is free, but it just requires registration. The service is engaging for beginners who might need visual aids to help with learning. Cons: Payment is required, might be repetitive or slow for more advanced learners.
Conjuguemos: This website is easy to use and provides graded practices to learn verb conjugations and vocab. Students can choose to learn with flashcards, games or quizzes. Certain resources require a membership, but as long as the student signs up with their email the site is free and will save your progress. It’s best for beginning and early intermediate learners.
Grammar Resources
StudySpanish.com: This site offers a free student membership option that provides access to lessons, tests, and quizzes. It has basic conjugation tables appropriate for intro level spanish classes. Pros: Easy to access and navigate, most or all instructions on grammar and vocab resources available in english which would be useful for beginning spanish students. Cons: Full access to all the resources for intermediate and advanced levels require a paid membership and audio course.
Quia:A resource with quizzes made by spanish teachers at various high schools and colleges, which are similar to exercises you would find in a spanish textbook or module. Users have rated the quizzes and grammar exercises to indicate which ones are the most helpful. Pros: Quia is free and easy to use, helpful with basic AR/ER/IR conjugations for beginning spanish students and some intermediate students. Cons: Certain pages require an adobe flash player to use, which might not be possible for everyone to download.
Live Lingua Project: This site gives access to audios and textbooks Students can print out worksheets for free and try a free lesson with a tutor. Offers exam prep and specialized spanish for tourists, business or cooking. Pros: Worksheets and vocab lists are free and accessible. Site is designed well. Cons: Language tutoring requires a payment plan.
Ortografía: This is helpful with spelling and learning how to use accents correctly.
Dictionary/Vocab Resources
WordReference.com: This site offers a dictionary database as well as grammar resources like inflections and conjugations. It also offers three different dictionary that might differ slightly in translation. Pros: Offers much more reliable translation than something like google translate. Helpful with beginning and intermediate spanish for learning how to conjugate tricky verbs. Cons: Only works as well as you know how to use it, some confusing translations.
Notes in Spanish: It provides helpful cultural context for European Spanish (spoken in Spain). The site creators have a podcast that can help improve understanding and conversational skills because it is presented in a more casual format than a textbook or traditional grammar resource. Pros: Practical usage for study abroad in Spain and good way to learn new, more sophisticated vocab and grammar. Cons: Worksheets that go along with podcasts require payment.
Games: This site has interactive games in many aspects of language learning, such as grammar, vocab, numbers and phrases. It provides a nice change from standard textbook exercises and the graphics on the vocab games are very well drawn and engaging.
Surface Languages: Thousands of phrases and hours of audio spoken by native speakers along with flashcard, multiple choice and language learning games. Learn colors, numbers, basic phrases, food words, basic conversation phrases and build your vocabulary.Improve your fluency and confidence through learning many different sentences in your target language.
StudyBlue: This site offers online flashcards that have been posted for Carleton Spanish classes 101, 102, and 204 by multiple Carleton professors, and it offers a wide variety of flashcards on other subjects.
10FastFingers:Helps with typing speed and accuracy in spanish. A fun tool to use for practice every few weeks.
Reference Materials (Physical Resources)
Cassell’s Spanish English Dictionary
The Concise American Heritage Spanish Dictionary
Teach Yourself Complete Latin American Spanish
Teach Yourself Spanish
Tu diras! 3rd edition
Diccionario Basico Espanol Ingles
A Graduated Spanish Review Grammar
Berlitz Spanish for Travelers (3 copies)
Colloquial Spanish CD/book set
Colloquial Spanish of Latin America
The Random House Spanish Video Program (2 videos and instructor’s guide)
Newspapers and Cultural Readings
Curious About Spanish Study Abroad Programs?
Madrid: The Madrid program is also offered through Carleton College for students who have taken Spanish 205 or other upper level courses.
More Spanish Study Abroad Opportunites:There are multiple other programs to various Spanish-speaking countries such as Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador and many more.