I’m often asked for suggestions of good places online where people can learn and practice Spanish for free. In fact, I’ve been asked enough times to make me develop this short “The Best…” list of my recommendations.
Many of these sites also offer lessons in other languages, including English.
Feel free to offer additional suggestions.
I personally have found that going to a language school in a Spanish-speaking country (I went to ones in Mexico and Guatemala) and living with a family to be by far the best way to learn Spanish, but these sites can provide good initial exposure and be helpful for later development and practice.
Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning Spanish Online (not in order of preference):
BBC Languages Mi Vida Loca
The BBC also has several other sites for learning Spanish.
Panfu (a virtual world for kids where they can learn Spanish)
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.
November 26, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Thanks for your resources. Here are a few others I have found for my student site.
http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_es.htm
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2spanish.html
http://www.fodors.com/language/spanish/
Widget for word of the day and games
http://www.transparent.com/languagepages/spanish/spanish.htm
November 28, 2009 at 9:21 am
A great, free too to help students learn Spanish, and ESL students learn English, is the “”On This Day” history feature from Dulcinea Media, offered in both English and Spanish, with the latter being a loose, conversational transliteration, rather than a machine-like literal translation:
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news.topic__ss_categories_ss_on-this-day.html
http://www.encontrandodulcinea.com/articulos.html?topic=/categorias/Hoy-en-la-Historia
November 28, 2009 at 10:55 am
Awesome list.
One to add is my website Lenguajero – http://www.lenguajero.com
It’s a community for English-Spanish conversation exchanges and has a daily writing club where native speakers correct others writing.
December 13, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Natalie – thanks for lenguajero link – do you screen members? I just took a quick look & some member photos were too sexy for me to recommend the site to my 9th gr. students die to likley family concerns…
December 22, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Hi Mr. Louis,
Thanks for the comment and question. The answer to your question is that no, we do not screen our members.
That said, we completely understand your concerns, and do not think that Lenguajero is ready for use in a highschool classroom (unless the students have been given a lesson in internet safety).
We are currently working on a Classroom Edition for colleges and universities, that would allow teachers to monitor what their students are doing on the site (who they are talking to, what they are writing, etc.). This is the first step we are taking to build a classroom only tool for Lenguajero, and will be the framework for a highschool classroom version that will come a little later on.
You can check out the current classroom version here – http://www.lenguajero.com/classroom
December 1, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Really vaulable list, Larry! Just missing our own free site – Spanish Newsbites – http://www.spanishnewsbites.com – where you can hear the Spanish news and learn the language as you listen. Thanks!
December 13, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Thanks for the suggestions. My Spanish graduate students have been collected some resources too. Check our list: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/sparesources
April 10, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Yuly – I visited the wallwisher – but all one gets is a preview of the resource. The URL is not given nor do I see a way to get one. Do you have all those sites bookmarked on delicious that you could share? por favor?
January 4, 2010 at 11:36 am
Thanks for the list. I would also like to add LingQ.com to the list. Spanish is one of the 10 languages offered at LingQ. There is a vast library of Spanish content with audio and transcript available free of charge and a range of learning opportunities with the members of the community.
January 4, 2010 at 5:27 pm
As a language teacher I have searched a lot of language learning sites on the net. By far the best I have found in concept and execution is
http://www.lingq.com
I works for Spanish and ten other languages. Check the site’s Help or the site’s wiki
http://lingq.pbworks.com/
for details.
January 4, 2010 at 8:59 pm
I’m not affiliated with the site in any way (other than being a user), but I would also recommend LingQ. They’re library of content is pretty impressive and constantly growing.
January 21, 2010 at 9:17 am
Thanks for these recommendations!
I’m using LiveMocha right now to learn Dutch and it’s absolutely wonderful. I love the user-generated and -supported aspect of it. Also, as a teacher I enjoy helping non-native speakers learn English. I’m planning to brush up on my Spanish once I’m done studying Dutch so intensely.
April 9, 2010 at 9:14 am
One site that I have used with both my Spanish students as well as my own kids at home is http://wordchamp.com
You can create sets of flash cards that you can require them to go through in many different ways. You can have the words read out-loud and then they have to write the English word or the Spanish word. You can have the Spanish word written and they have the write the English word (or vice versa). You can even add a picture to it (I haven’t played with that type yet).
I’ve used it with my own kids for their spelling words as well.
The cool thing about it is that if they get the flash card wrong they will have to do it three more times. I love using this site.
September 20, 2010 at 1:11 am
I have also found the resources on http://www.languagenut.com very useful. There are karaoke songs and stories, with supporting games. Well worth a look.
August 26, 2011 at 4:10 am
I have found a great website to learn spanish free, lenguage exchange, podcasts, spanish forum ….
http://www.lengalia.com/en
November 22, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Hello,
My name is Andrew Lawton and I am a Spanish teacher in Austin, TX. I have a free Spanish website for students to practice grammar at: http://spanishgrammarlessons.com. Please add it to your site if you think your users would find it useful. Thanks!
Andrew Lawton
November 22, 2011 at 8:53 pm
For some wonderful Spanish lessons for all levels, check out IDEL by Berta from Madrid and Albert from Barcelona.
These are original, witty, and come with audio and text.
http://spanish-lingq.blogspot.com/p/beginners-a1-a2.html
http://spanish-lingq.blogspot.com/p/intermediate-b1-b2.html
http://spanish-lingq.blogspot.com/p/advanced-c1-c2.html
These are also integrated with the LingQ system.
Steve
January 8, 2012 at 9:02 pm
I like to introduce my own site also: http://www.e-learn-spanish.com
Here you can practice on verbs, por/para, ser/estar, numbers, time, idiomatic, ….
and many more to be added soon.
The site is for those who know the grammar (or partial) and want to practice on it.
It is not a site for those who want to start learning Spanish.
kind regards,
SETKI