There’s a lot of debate about how much to use an English Language Learner’s native language in studying English. Certainly, a straight translation methodology all of the time is not the way to go.

However, I’ve found that, particularly with newcomers, providing them with access to an Internet resource that provides some native-language support can be a real confidence-booster. Pretty quickly, though, they often move away from those sites of their own accord.

There are quite a few newer “learn-a-language” sites that provide multilingual support from a social network. There are others that offer translation help for a smaller number of languages.

My intent behind creating this latest “The Best…” list was to identify sites that provide teacher-created content; do not require any registration; are free; and, except in one instance (where I identify what my students and I are think is the best bilingual English/Spanish site), provide resources in many languages, including ones that are not widely-used.

You can also find links to the sites on this list, as well as to many others, on the Bilingual Exercises page on my website.

Unlike some of my other lists, I am not identifying them in order of preference. I think they’re all pretty equal.

Here are my choices for The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Learning English:

Bilingual Quizzes From Activities For ESL Students is a project of the Internet TESL Journal. You can find a ton of quizzes using multiple multiple languages here.

Foreign Languages For Travelers has a narrower set of quizzes, but a wider selection of languages.

Goethe Tests covers vocabulary and language tests in twenty-five different languages.

For an English/Spanish site, there’s no question that Pumarosa, created by teacher Paul Rogers, is by far the best resource for Spanish speakers.

The Cultural Orientation Resource Center has put their extraordinary collection of refugee phrasebooks online and free for download.

Here’s how they describe this incredibly useful resource:

These phrasebooks are designed to supply refugees with the appropriate English phrases and supplementary vocabulary for use in the daily activities of American life (rather than simply word-to-word translations, as in a dictionary). Phrases contained in the books have been selected for their directness, brevity and relevance to the needs of newly arrived residents of the United States. Among the nineteen units included are sections on “Giving Information About Yourself,” “Recognizing Signs,” “Dealing With Money,” “Health,” “Food,” “Clothing,” “Housing,” and “Jobs.”

Each phrasebook is approximately 140 pages and can be downloaded for free.

They are available in these languages: Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Cantonese, Czech, Farsi, Haitian Creole, Hmong, Hungarian, Khmer, Lao, Polish, Russian, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

The St. Paul’s Public Schools produces some great bilingual materials in English and in Khmer (Cambodia), Hmong, Oromo, Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese. They’re not online, and you have to purchase them, but the prices are very reasonable. I’ve used their materials for years.

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