Spanish Language

Search Engines and Web Directories for Latin American and Iberian Sites, in Spanish

Search Engine Colossus and Search Engine Guide are comprehensive global master directories of local search engines for regional, country, or language-specific searches. Yahoo! provides country-specific, regional, and official government site search options. Google offers a comprehensive Language Tools Page to search in specific languages or countries, translate text, change language interfaces, or link to country-specific Google sites. Many Spanish language Internet broadcasts are accessible through the International Radio and Television Broadcasts page of this WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources.

Other Sites

• Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes-- "La Biblioteca de las culturas hispánicas." Major virtual library of  Spanish-language classic works of literature available free online, with commentary and analysis of the authors and their works, supported by many Spanish and foreign entities. Also has a collection of links to academic centers, digitalization projects, libraries, publishers, and bookstores, especially of the Spanish-speaking world, and more.

• Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish-- "A video instructional series in Spanish for college and high school classrooms and adult learners; 52 half-hour video programs, audiocassettes, music CD, video and audio scripts, and coordinated books." Produced by WGBH Boston.  Entire series is viewable online with free registration.

• Dictionary of Spanish-- Online English/Spanish/English dictionary with tens of thousands of entries, plus audio pronunciations for many of them.

• E-Spanish-- This free educational site includes online grammar tests, interactive vocabulary practice, games, song lyrics, audio with transcripts, a database of several hundred Spanish-speaking webradio links, and more.

• Iberian Studies Web-- From the West European Specialists Section, Association of College and Research Libraries, selected and evaluated links for access to scholarly resources in Iberian Studies (Spain, Portugal, and Andorra).

• Learn Spanish-- Excellent free online tutorial to help you learn Spanish through interactive grammar, verb, and vocabulary exercises with a large selection of audio. Also has a premium level, but the free level is quite comprehensive.

• Lenguaje.com-- "El sitio de la ingeniería del lenguaje," excellent site about Spanish language generally, with online essays, expert linguist consultants, thesaurus, synonym and antonym dictionary, verb conjugator, spell checker, hyphenator, other helps, links to Spanish language search engines and sites about the language.

• Liceus.com-- Fine academic portal site pulling together a large compendium of high-quality and full-text Spanish-language contributions to many fields of the humanities for cost-free access online.

• Loquella's Learn Spanish-- Free online Spanish language course for students at any level, based on materials originally created by the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of State. Lessons focus on proper pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, through listening and repeating audio and reading the corresponding sentences in English and Spanish.

• Mansion Spanish-- Free online basic Spanish course with other useful educational resources for teachers and students, accessible without registration.

• Oye!-- Interactive Activities for Spanish Teachers and Learners-- Many beginning, intermediate, and advanced free online exercises (reading, writing, and listening) and tests to learn Spanish, with audio samples of native Spanish speakers and exercises for interactive whiteboards. Requires free registration for certain times. Very useful.

• Página del Idioma Español-- Interesting notes on Spanish language usage and role in world, plus links to Spanish dictionaries, culture sites, radio stations, periodicals, search engines.

• Prensa Escrita-- Links to newspapers throughout the Spanish-speaking world.

• Real Academia Española-- Website of the Academy that sets standards for the Spanish language, featuring an authoritative online dictionary; orthographic, usage and verb conjugation guidelines; and an online service for linguistic consultations.

• Sí, España-- Information on Spain's current affairs, and its historical, linguistic, and cultural development, done by a team of volunteers, in several languages.

• Spanish Language-- About.com's colorful and helpful guide to things Spanish.

• Spanish Proverbs and Sayings, with Their English Equivalents-- Hundreds of idiomatic proverbs and sayings, compiled by Berta Alicia Chen and posted by the University of California, Los Angeles.

• Spanish-test.net-- "Created according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages... [so] it provides a reliable method to determine your Spanish skills." Helpful interactive usage and grammar tests provide scores, correct answers, and re-tests with new questions at levels A1 to B2.

• Tomísimo-- "English-Spanish, Spanish-English Dictionary that makes finding words easy by automatically searching in both languages... aims to provide an unabridged, bilingual dictionary for the English and Spanish languages."

•  Listen to the haunting music of the Andes from the Peruvian group Wayanay Inka, portraying in song the peoples, customs, ways of life, and images of the Andean cultures. Also try the collection of Bolivian music offered by Llajta, the Bolivian educational and cultural network. Reception of Real Audio format requires the RealPlayer.