OER

iSpraak is a free and open source online pronunciation platform designed for second language educators. This tool empowers learners to work on their pronunciation in 36 different languages by coupling rich audio models with real-time corrective feedback. This webinar will present a tour of the platform and offer some guidance for attendees wanting to create their own speech activities. This project is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the SLU Research Institute.

This presentation describes the development of an e-textbook for first-year Portuguese classes. This pedagogical initiative strives to provide an inclusionary and open textbook for Portuguese, including the collaboration and feedback from Portuguese speakers of several economic and cultural backgrounds. In this context, “openness” means listening to the language of a given community and the commitment to reproduce it in a textbook format. Inclusion of minority groups in the textbook is perceived not as “curiosities,” but as an integral part of the cultures being represented so that a wider range of communities and language registers (from formal to informal) is portrayed. ...