How to Select Topics and Materials

How to Select a Topic

Select one of the methods below to choose your topic. If you already have a topic you are strongly interested in, you can move on to finding materials.

Follow one of these sample course outlines
- Current Events (Dari) (Word doc)
- Literature (Romanian) (Word doc)
Use lists & keywords
Use Concept Mapping
Consult with a Librarian or Writing Center
- A librarian can also help you find materials about your topic and further research related to it.
- Libraries: Ask a librarian or make a research appointment with librarian:
- Make a Writing Center appointment:

Finding Materials

There are many resources available online and through your campus library. Here are some options for where to find resources that fit your topic.

Library Resources:
- Search the Library:
  - Library Catalogs:
- Search Library resource/research guides for the target language, region, country, topic of study:
- Ask a librarian or make a research appointment with librarian:
  - Share your topic and interest in finding resources in your target language
    - A research librarian can also help with your topic selection
    - Amherst College
    - Hampshire College
    - Mount Holyoke College
    - Smith College
    - UMass
Language-specific resource documents:
- Arabic (MSA and dialects) (Word document)
- Cantonese
- Danish
- Dutch
- Filipino
- Hindi (Word document)
- Irish
- Norwegian
- Turkish (Word document)
- Urdu (Word document)
- We are updating and adding languages; if you don’t see the language you’re studying listed, ask us for any resources we do have.
  - If you have resources to add, please share them with us. You can email your course organizer, put it in your self-assessment, or tell us in the course evaluation at the end of the semester.
CultureTalk
GLOSS - Global Language Online Support System
Language Courses
- Many of these have language basics; some have more extensive resources for some languages
- Beelinguapp
- HeadStart2
- Live Lingua Project (public domain courses)
- MyLanguages
- Omniglot (look at the resource lists at bottom)
- Open Culture
News/Radio
- BBC News (scroll over title to see language name in URL)
- Media Landscapes
- 4 International Media & Newspapers
- Learning through online news sources
- All You Can Read
Podcasts
- Depending on the app you are using, you can try the following:
  - Search for the name of the language
  - Change the language setting or add a preferred language
  - Change the country location
Tedx
- Search for the target language
- Search YouTube as a whole ‘Tedx’ AND a location where the language is spoken (major cities work best, but try also: country, region, universities)
  - E.g. Tedx Beirut ; Tedx Bangkok ; Tedx Oslo
YouTube
- Change your country location to see trending videos
- Change your language setting
- Search for the language or country or a specific region, city or university
- Search using the term in the target language
- Use a language captioning service:
  - Language Reactor
Streaming services (such as Netflix, Hulu, Mubi, Magnolia)
- Rakuten Viki: Asian TV shows
- Use a language captioning service:
  - Language Reactor
Encyclopedia/Wikipedia in other languages
- Select your language from the Wikipedia homepage.
- Find a topically relevant article and click the Languages drop down to see if your language is present.
- Compare and contrast the English and target language articles.
- Follow references or external links for additional information.