Thomas' Work Space

1. Link:
2. Example of KWIC view result:
3. Based on Europarl, Wikicorpus (2006!), MultiUN. From their metadata page:

   Metadata for Corpus del Español Actual
   Corpus name	Corpus del Español Actual
   CQPweb’s short handles for this corpus	cea / CEA
   Total number of corpus texts	73,010
   Total words in all corpus texts	539,367,886
   Word types in the corpus	1,680,309
   Type:token ratio	0 types per token
   Text metadata and word-level annotation
   The database stores the following information for each text in the corpus:	There is no text-level metadata for this corpus.
   The primary classification of texts is based on:	A primary classification scheme for texts has not been set.
   Words in this corpus are annotated with:	Lemma (Lemma)
   	Part-Of-Speech (POS)
   	WStart (WStart)
   The primary tagging scheme is:	Part-Of-Speech
   Further information about this corpus is available on the web at:	http://sfn.uab.es:9080/SFN/tools/cea/english

4. To use, “consult the IMS’s brief description of the regular-expression syntax used by the CQP and their list of sample queries. If you wish to define your query in terms of grammatical and inflectional categories, you can use the part-of-speech tags listed on the CEA’s Corpus Tags page.”
5. Also provides frequency data (based on word forms or lemmas, and others  – up to a 1000):
6. Examples of a frequency query result (click for full-size image. Note that a lemmatized list was requested here which links all inflected forms back to the lemma, and vice versa, upon clicking the lemma, displays a KWIC view containing all forms subsumed under that lemma, see picture above):

1.  Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries. A librarian’s write-up that can also be very useful for Learning Centers that handle learning material media (but would it be possible to run this through MS-Word to “down-design” and add a table of contents instead?).
2. Notable:
1. “It is fair use to make digital copies of collection items that are likely to deteriorate, or that exist only in difficult-to-access formats, for purposes of preservation, and to make those copies available as surrogates for fragile or otherwise inaccessible materials. LIMITATIONS: Preservation copies should not be made when a fully equivalent digital copy is commercially available at a reasonable cost.  Libraries should not provide access to or circulate original and preservation copies simultaneously”.

An inititative of an expert from the UK LLAS,  Yazik Open has the potential to become a welcome addition to our SLA research search options, especially if you do not want to run into a pay wall after finding an interesting abstract.

The currently sole contributor seems to be admin – same problem I had when I started a language learning resource links database in 1998, when will this change?

The keyword list looks somewhat rudimentary – when I worked with LLAS on a language learning resource metadata schema, complexity led to a grinding halt.

So the need to bring some of the advances in technologically fostered collaboration and information exchange to domain-specific fields like SLA certainly remains to be felt here.

A popular and free Grammar for Learners of English.

The Sciweavers Team announces http://www.i2speak.com: “an online Smart IPA Keyboard that lets you quickly type IPA phonetics without the need to memorize any symbol code. For every Roman character you type, a popup menu displays a group of phonetic symbols that share the same sound or shape beneath typed character. Use arrow keys to select the proper symbol then hit the Enter button. I2Speak also supports the following features:

1. The Sampa English Keyboard lets you type English phonetics using Roman characters according to SAMPA (Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet) rules.

2. The IPA English Keyboard provides you with a full English phonetics keyboard. Press the symbol of interest using a suitable input device.

3. You can type directly on your physical keyboard or on the virtual on-screen keyboard using a suitable input device such as mouse or touch screen device.

4. You can change the keyboard symbols by selecting another layout from the list box located above the virtual keyboard.

5. For every keyboard layout, more symbols can be displayed by pressing the CAPS Lock.

6. When you hover the mouse over an English phonetic button, a slick tooltip will show some example English words.

7. You can save typed phonetics as an MS-Word file by clicking the Save button, copy them to clipboard using the Copy button, or post them to Twitter, Facebook, etc. by clicking the desired button.”

http://www.call4all.us///home/index2.php

1. Here you can haz dictionaries. And if you use them in the Language Resource Center, you even have the chance to  run into someone who can show you how to use them well.
2. http://linguistlist.org/sp/GetWRListings.cfm?WRAbbrev=Dict
3. http://lexicall.widged.com/repository/listing.php?category=words

On popular request: Deutschland Radio still does live streaming, but their on demand archive is also very good. Unlike Deutsche Welle  which has discontinued    live streaming geared neither  towards  expats, nor language learners  though.

1. This first-year German textbook comes with a Companion Website with free online exercises, organized by chapter, on the publisher’s website (different from the Quia.com –based workbook and lab manual exercises).
2. From the instructor guide: “The Companion Website is a robust online resource designed to give students a chance to practice and further explore the vocabulary, structures, and cultural themes introduced in the text. For each chapter, students will find self-grading practice exercises on vocabulary and grammar topics as well as Web-based reading and writing activities. Web links to carefully selected sites in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, and South Tyrol (Italy), accompanied by interesting activities, provide additional interaction with the cultures of these German-speaking areas of Europe. Also available on the Website are the audio components of the Student Text and the SAM, as well as an interactive vocabulary flashcards tool. ”
3. These exercises include vocabulary practice, even flash cards.
4. The auto-correction feature provides:
1. some useful feedback for further study,  
2. summary grades
3. and an email to teacher function that should facilitate Syllabus integration of this useful resource: