This guide is designed to help you think creatively about language learning resources. International and Area Studies Librarians are happy to help you explore a comprehensive set of resources by language. Be in touch!
Find and watch streaming video of documentary and social issues films. Includes the Docuseek Complete Collection, Pragda Complete Film Collection, Good Docs, Icarus Films, Women Make Movies, and Collective Eye films.
Find and view streaming video. Includes thousands of award-winning documentaries, training films and theatrical releases across diverse subjects and disciplines
Projectr presents a curated and ever-expanding collection of acclaimed movies, archival restorations, award-winning documentaries and artist-made works from around the world. Distributors include Grasshopper Film, Women Make Movies, Distrib Films, MTV Documentary Films, and Canyon Cinema.
Duke University provides access to LinkedIn courses. Log into LinkedIn here. The courses are provided by InnovativeLanguage.com and HarperCollins.
The Durham County Library also provides LinkedIn resources to the community: https://www.linkedin.com/learning-login/go/durhamcountylibrary.
Start with the Ebooks search at Duke eBooks (free to Duke users):
Find free audiobooks for fiction in a foreign language; these are mostly novels in the public domain, published before 1924:
Contact an IAS Subject Librarian for resources in your language.
Many recognizable brands (Collins, Oxford, Duden, Grand Robert) have free Internet sites, including Apps – in addition to the subscriptions to online dictionaries we have at Duke Libraries. Duke Libraries subscribe to dictionaries for every purpose (current use, etymology, historical dictionary, etc.); contact an IAS librarian for more information.
Here are a few examples of popular, free online dictionaries
Duke Libary guides are a good starting point for finding dictionaries, and the guides include contact information for specialist librarians:
An effective search string in the Duke Catalog is (use the language you need with this pattern):
Most Apps for language learning have a free component and a subscription component; personal subscriptions cost between 5 and 15 dollars a month. There are many language learning Apps, and the Libraries are not endorsing a specific App; we suggest you search for reviews of Apps in connection with the language you are learning.
Find (free to Duke users) reviews of language learning Apps in the Duke All search.
DeepL offers machine translation for over 30 languages. The free version has a limit 1500 characters per translation.
Google Lens Search What You See: an App for your phone; point your phone at a sign, and get a translation!
"Slow News" is a techinal term for a resource; when you combine that term with a language or a country (slow news Germany) in an Internet search, you will find relevant sites.
The sites let you pick your language level and offer current topics in culture and politics.
Examples
International news aggregators like Nexis Uni and Factive provide foreign news in plain text; this allows you to copy/paste plain text into a translator like DeepL translator.
Search for news, business, legal, medical, and congressional information. Note: formerly named Lexis Nexis Academic.
Search for global news and information content, including Dow Jones, Reuters Newswires, and The Wall Street Journal. Text & data mining prohibited by license. See the "more" link for details.
IAS librarians are avid consumers of TV and Radio in the countries and languages they work with. The media landscape is complex, but we will be happy to make recommendations. TV stations offer a mix of free content, and content only available in the country, still there is a significant amount of free content on every site.
Examples for French
Examples for German
International and Area Studies Librarians are experts in identifying Open Educational Resources and Open Access content from the regions and languages they specialize in. Here are some examples to illustrate. Contact us!
Russian Language and Culture Through Cartoons – clips, vocabulary, transcript, and comprehension questions for selected Soviet and Russian productions - essential viewing for all students hoping to fully understand Russian culture.
Russian Language and Culture Through Film: integrates film clips, full transcript, embedded dictionary, and live, online exercises to teach language and culture to advanced-level students.
Polish Culture and Language Through Film: multimedia Polish language and culture materials designed to test and expand intermediate and advanced students’ knowledge through famous Polish films. Each movie clip is accompanied by a transcript, extensive glossary, and computer-generated listening comprehension questions. The project includes clips and tasks from eight films spanning the Communist period and post-1989 cinema.
Learn Turkish via a Graphic Novel! — Ralph Jaeckel and Mehmet Süreyya Er:
Check out Modern Standard Arabic Readers
Check out Persian Grammar and Resources
Read Ganjoor, Persian Poetry
Search Open Educational Resources Portals for language learning resources, like easy readers:
Search the Duke Catalog with the following keywords, then look on the left hand menu for results by language
Duke Libraries does not collect dual language editions comprehensively, contact an IAS librarian for identifying and requesting dual language books.
Find platforms that connect you with a live tutor or conversation partner in the country/language you are studying.
Barbara Alvarez at the University of Michigan Library researches and evaluates Conversation Partner Platforms. Users should investigate reviews before signing up for these “for fee” tutoring services. Here are the names of a few platforms to help you find reviews:
Duke Resources for English Language Learning at the Thompson Writing Program website.
Encyclopedias and Dictionaries online at Duke.
