Introduction
Books for Languages is an Open Second Languages Publishing Company.
We publish Open Educational Resources for learning different second languages (Digital Books with: audios, videos, exercises, activities…). Centered on the official languages of the EU we also offer other mainstream languages spoken in the world.
We propose an Integrated Foreign Language Curriculum where students of different languages share the same objectives and textual samples in target language. Developed based on a common standard with a functional-notional approach, each chapter has a different theme and each unit has a sub-theme of itself.
We follow the recommendations on language policy of the Council of Europe graduate courses at levels CEFR. We subdivide those levels to facilitate organization of students based on their knowledge of the language. It is adapted to the school calendar by offering a subdivision of 12 themes per level plus a theme 0 of introduction or revision, all of these allow possible subdivisions (2, 3, 4, 6 parts) for better synchronization with different school calendars.
We adapt the courses according to the language of the students by providing a version of the content in their native language for lower levels (A1-A2). It allows offering e-learning and b-learning classes and savings of up to 60% compared to traditional teaching.
The system is made for teachers and allows them to adapt the content to their specific and unique needs or to create it from scratch and complement it with our audios or images as if they were the original authors by providing a repository of material permissive licenses. We offer the course split in 4 components/books (Vocabulary, Grammar, Orthography and Cultural) for better personalisation/utilisation by teachers.
Teaching a minimal learning unit, which is both related to other materials of the course and makes sense when it is independent from the context, is offered based on Learning Objects (L.O.). Such granularity and grouping of the components (grammar, notional, textual-functional) allows for the development of Personal Learning Enviroments. Because the components of learning objects are self-contained, accessibility, reutilization and interoperability are possible through the process of development. Moreover, the metadata of L.O. provide information about its content and it allows to recognize the pedagogical intention.
Because the materials are Action-Oriented we enable the teaching of the four skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking) in a collaborative and cooperative manner.
