Useful Links
Tisch von oben mit Laptop, Tablet und Smartphone

Useful Links

for learning languages

Summer semester 2024

GermanOpen areaClose area

Daniela Schultz & Adrian Stiglbauer- German as Foreign Language

Following TH-Wildau Moodle Course is open to all German learners, there you can find many exercises, videos and tips for learning German.

Here you can find different tests with answers for German at different levels : Daf Netzwerk.

The Deutsche Welle (DW) offers many audios, texts, videos, exercises etc. for learning German.

 The Language Center of the FU Berlin offers a nice collection of materials for learning many languages, including German.

EnglishOpen areaClose area

Maryla Skiba- English

Because I teach English in a range of specialised areas of technology, business and other academic areas, I find the Beolingus website, a TU Chemnitz project, very helpful. It includes a lot of specialised vocabulary from different areas of engineering, business, law and even chemistry in addition to the general dictionary content. Additionally to having German-English English-German dictionaries, it offers Spanish and Portuguese dictionaries.

I also find the BBC Learning English website a good recommendation for students. There is a wonderful ‘6-minute English’ site on which learners can find themed podcasts with supporting listening, vocabulary and comprehension activities. On the ‘6-minute grammar’ page learners can choose an element of grammar and listen, following a transcript if needed, and find written explanations of the grammar they wish to revise. As many people find grammar difficult or boring, 6 minutes is not a long time to ‘suffer’ a grammar revision.

Wiktoria Allan- English

My favorite dictionary for individual words is LEO. It specifies which terms are industry-specific and it even has forums for "unofficial" words. The LEO app is also one of the most-used on my phone.

At the risk of sounding like a complete nerd, I love the Oxford Collocation Dictionary. Here you can find which words often go together. For example, if you type in the word "problem", you will find that "small problem" is not an appropriate collocation. Instead, you could say "minor problem", for example.

 

Greg Bond- Head of Language Centre

The online German-English / English-German dictionary I use most when translating is dict.cc. It is very comprehensive and presents a very useful list of syonyms for each word you enter. It may be possible to do further research to see how these terms are used, but it offers a great start. It contains many other language combinations too.

John O'Donoghue- Business English Teacher

I would recommend the British Council website that provides users with general English topics and specifically business-related ones. For those of you who are interested in legal English I can also recommend the free MOOC course offered by the University of London. It contains short lectures, videos and questions.

 

FrenchOpen areaClose area

Marie-Noelle Demarchi- French

I recommend the website TV5MONDE - Apprendre le français. Learning could be easier with videos and interactive exercises offered in the learning platform of the French-speaking broadcaster. There you will find a wide spectrum of information about the francophone world.

And the website of RFI (Radio France Internationale is the foreign service of public radio in France). You can listen to the news as Journal in français facile to encourage listening comprehension.

SpanishOpen areaClose area

Veronica Bertinotti- Spanish

There are many interesting online offers for practicing and learning Spanish, these are for example:

1) Spanisch.de Here you will find tutorial videos, exercises, etc.

2) AVE Global Online courses from Instituto Cervantes. Some of the content is free. There you can also find placement tests.

3) Ecos: Sprachmagazin available as subscription online or as printed copy.

4) Phase6- Vokabeltrainer available as subscription.

5) Radio broadcasts from Spain and Latin America.

6) Series, documentaries and films in Spanish language

- Radio y Television Española (free)

- Also on Netflix, series and films from Spain and Latin America such as:

Serie “El Vecino” (comedia española). Película “Perfectos Desconocidos” y “Diecisiete”.

- Amazon Prime:

Series “Pequeñas Coincidencias”  and “Señoras del Hampa”. Películas “Dolor y Gloria”, de Almodovar con Penélope Cruz y Antonio Banderas, “Campeones”, de Javier Fesser, “ Padre no hay más que uno”.

7) Podcasts in Spanisch: https://www.newsinslowspanish.com/  and  19 besten kostenfreien Spanisch Podcasts zum Spanisch lernen (letsspeakspanish.com).