![]() All audio assets are tagged with the following information that also appears in the advanced search box on the right: language, level ( Common European Framework of Reference A1-C2 ), gender, age (child, teenager, adult, senior citizen), and length (between 30 and longer than 180 seconds). Each audio asset is displayed in its own box with rich metadata (see Picture 2 left side column). Users commonly upload multiple audio assets. The audio recordings available as part of the database are mostly spontaneous monologues (though some may be scripted), and a few are interviews. The page displaying all search results in a language can seem a bit overwhelming at first with its multiple boxes of useful extra information and number of search results (see Picture 2 for English). To explore the database, the user may start by selecting one of the thirteen languages. The homepage gives direct access to mp3 audio files in all 13 languages, quick and advanced search options, the top 10 best-rated audio recordings from across all languages, and a box with the latest recordings. Exploring the Database: Topics or Languages as Starting Points Picture 1 – Screenshot of the website homepage The English interface language was used for exploring this resource. The site language can be changed to any of these 13 languages. Most of the audio files are in English (1500), then the site offers roughly the same number of files for Spanish, German, and French (around 1000 each). It includes almost 6500 audio files in 13 languages (at the time of writing) and new files are added on a continuous basis (about 500 new mp3s have been added in the last year, for example). The website’s origins go back to the Academic Delegation of Digital Education in the Académie of Versailles and was first published in 2007. The goal of the service is to improve spoken language comprehension by providing audio assets for teaching purposes. It is a resource that I recommended wholeheartedly.Īudio-Lingua, available at, is a collaborative repository/sound bank of native speaker audio files that users can listen to on the website, download, and use for personal or pedagogical use according to the terms and conditions specified. The website Audio-Lingua, however, does not bear any explicit connection to this approach. The name Audiolingua might immediately bring to many language teachers’ mind the once-popular but today largely shunned teaching method of the late 50s and 60s called Audiolingualism that favored dialogue drills and accuracy through memorization. By Adam Gacs, Instructor & Technology Specialist, Michigan State University
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