Centers within UCLA’s International Institute have been producing innovative language teaching and reference materials for several decades. Here we offer a sample of Middle Eastern language-learning resources from UCLA’s Center for Near Eastern Studies, Center for World Languages, and other language resource centers across the nation.
CNES also has a new funding opportunity available for UCLA faculty who teach Middle East and North African (MENA) language courses.
Travel grants are available for conferences, workshops, training, and research activities that will enhance language instruction. For more information and how to apply, click HERE.
Listen to Learn
An interactive multimedia resource for introducing Arabic (Lebanese, Egyptian, Iraqi, Moroccan,and Modern Standard), Persian, Turkish and Urdu languages to middle and high school students. The lessons are built on video clips of high school heritage speakers introducing themselves and talking about activities, food, and proverbs. Produced by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies and the UCLA International Institute.
UCLA Language Materials Project
A comprehensive bibliographic database of teaching resources for 150 less commonly taught languages, along with a K-12 portal that provides free tools and lesson plans for developing an entire year’s course. Produced by UCLA's Center for World Languages. The site is currently offline due to reduced funding, but it offers a survey where users can indicate their interest in having the site available on the web again.
Teaching Heritage Languages
A free online workshop for language teachers seeking differentiated instruction for students who grew up speaking the language at home. Produced by UCLA's National Heritage Language Resource Center.
National Middle East Language Resource Center
Tools for professional development, program evaluation, and student assessment in teaching Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish. From Brigham Young University.
LangMedia
Downloadable video clips of authentic conversations with people of different ages and walks of life who speak less commonly taught languages, including colloquial Arabic (Egyptian, Levantine, North African, Western Saharan, and Yemeni), Persian, and Turkish. Topics include family, food, school, work, sports, and customs. From the Five College Center for the Study of World Languages.
Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning
Free language learning materials for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish. From the University of Texas, Austin.
Today's Front Pages
Produced by the Newseum in Washington, DC, this resource displays current front pages of over 800 newspapers from around the world in many languages. Each listing includes the newspaper’s web address for further reading. Use the “Sort by Region” box to select a world region. Newspapers within each region are displayed in alphabetical order of the country names.
Digital Dialects
Online vocabulary building activities for learning alphabets and beginner vocabulary such as numbers, colors, days and months. Includes Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, and many other languages.
Hebrew@Stanford
A database of listening materials in Hebrew, including videos from television shows. Also provides online exercises and reading assignments. From Stanford University.
Persian Online
An online reference grammar of Persian for use as a supplemental resource for teachers and students. Additional features include a history of the language, instructions for writing and typing Persian, cultural videos, audio vocabulary lists, and multiple choice quizzes.
Turkish Tutor
An innovative self-paced online program that enables students to learn colloquial Turkish through lessons based on culturally nuanced vignettes from the popular Turkish television program Bizimkiler, produced by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies and the UCLA International Institute.
Turkic Language Learning and Teaching Resources
A comprehensive list of materials for learning and teaching Turkic languages including Modern Turkish, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Turkmen, Uygur, and Uzbek, as well as a list of newspapers and dictionaries for Modern Turkish. From the American Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages.
Deep Approach to Turkish Teaching and Learning
Twenty-nine intermediate and advances Turkish language learning modules focusing on culture, supported by videos, for intermediate and advanced levels. Produced at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, with collaboration from other universities in the US and Turkey.
Turkish class
136 Turkish lessons via podcasts that are 10-15 minutes long.
An Annotated Bibliography of Online Turkish Sources
A 2016 compilation of resources for Turkish teachers and students of Turkish, from the UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.