The Best Sites For Learning Spanish Online

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Nov 26 2009

Posted at 3:04 pm under best of the year

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)

Study Spanish

Hello World Spanish

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11 responses so far

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11 Responses to “The Best Sites For Learning Spanish Online”

Sally Booneon 26 Nov 2009 at 7:44 pm 1

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

[Reply]
Markon 28 Nov 2009 at 9:21 am 2

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

[Reply]
Natalie Gordonon 28 Nov 2009 at 10:55 am 3

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.

[Reply]
Mr. Louis Reply:
December 13th, 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…

[Reply]
Natalie Gordon Reply:
December 22nd, 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

[Reply]
Freddy Riverson 01 Dec 2009 at 4:30 pm 4

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!

[Reply]
Yulyon 13 Dec 2009 at 12:35 pm 5

Thanks for the suggestions. My Spanish graduate students have been collected some resources too. Check our list: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/sparesources

[Reply]
Steve Kaufmannon 04 Jan 2010 at 11:36 am 6

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.

[Reply]
Edon 04 Jan 2010 at 5:27 pm 7

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.

[Reply]
Chrison 04 Jan 2010 at 8:59 pm 8

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.

[Reply]
Maryon 21 Jan 2010 at 9:17 am 9

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.

[Reply]