Spanish Language Resources

Introduction
Contact Information
Language Tools
Translators
News/Noticias
Commercial Search Engines
Academic Search Engines
Electronic Journal Indexes

See also Libraries, the Internet and the Web: English and Spanish/Bibliotecas, La Red y la Web: Inglés y Español and Subject Guide for Spanish and Latin American Literature.

Introduction

The Internet/Web and SDSU Library's electronic databases provide excellent tools to assist students in learning Spanish or improving Spanish language skills. Several of the best resources have been selected here, though many more exist. SDSU Library also has a substantial collection of printed reference books and other resources to support Spanish language learning. Be sure to ask a librarian for further assistance.

Contact Information

Martha McPhail, Bibliographer for Spanish Language and Literature
mmcphail@mail.sdsu.edu
594-6736

Cecilia Puerto, Bibliographer for Latin American Studies and Mexican American Studies
cpuerto@mail.sdsu.edu
594-6736

Patrick Sullivan, Bibliographer for Business Administration
sullivan@mail.sdsu.edu
594-6736

Language Tools

Dictionaries/Diccionarios: Online general, specialized, and technical dictionaries, either Spanish only or English-Spanish or multilingual. Site maintained by La Página del Idioma Español. SDSU Library holds many excellent dictionaries in General Reference or Science Reference.
Iberian Studies Web: Academic gateway to scholarly resources in Iberian studies, selected and evaluated by specialists in U.S. universities. Offers easy access to language dictionaries and other helpful language reference tools, newspapers, and subject guides.
Learn Spanish: On-line tutorial for grammar, verbs, and vocabulary, using exercises and games. Includes useful travel phrases and cultural tips.
Real Academia Española: The “keepers of the Spanish language” offer resources to resolve difficulties with spelling, grammar, and other language questions.
Los sonidos del español: Created by the Instituto Cervantes in Spain, this portion of its site offers aural comparison of the Spanish spoken in various countries or regions.
Webspañol: Online Spanish language resources, intended for the U.S. student, offering tests, guides, links, message boards, and chat.

Translators

AltaVista translation: Type in Spanish or English text and get instant translation. Webpages can also be translated. It's an amazing tool, but is not flawless. Proofread!
FreeTranslation.com: "FreeTranslation.com is an easy-to-use site for rapid translations where you can get the "gist" of foreign language text and web pages."
Rincón del traductor: A website dedicated to resolving questions concerning Spanish translation. Pointers are provided to specialized dictionaries as well as to scholarly articles about translation particulars.

News/Noticias

Newspapers and news websites offer excellent tools for learning or improving Spanish reading ability. There are hundreds of sites, but these are some of the best.

CNNenEspañol: International news, offering extensive coverage in Spanish from Spain and Latin American countries.
El País: Renowned daily newspaper from Madrid, providing the best coverage of news from Spain.
Ethnic NewsWatch (SDSU users only): Full-text collection, searchable in either Spanish or English, of newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. A rich collection of articles, editorials, columns, reviews, etc. provides a broad diversity of perspectives and viewpoints.
Noticias en Español (SDSU users only): News articles covering social, economic, environmental, government, sports, health, science, cultural, and business issues and events in the United States, Latin America, and the world from international news services and U.S. Spanish-language newspapers. The entire product is in Spanish.
Periodista digital: Incredible portal to dozens of Spanish and Latin American newspapers, news agencies, magazines, radio and TV channels. Created by Spanish-speaking journalists as a one-stop resource to current news and information.

Commercial Search Engines

Terra: Spanish commercial portal, one of the world's largest and fastest growing, indexing thousands of websites by subject categories.
Yahoo! En español: The Spanish language counterpart to Yahoo!, with specialized portals for Spain and some Latin American countries.
Yupi: Another comprehensive Spanish language search engine, offering access to special country sites in Latin America and Spain.

Academic Search Engines

Internet Resources for Latin America: Extensive coverage of websites, discussion lists, newsgroups, and sources for study of all countries in Latin America. Created and maintained by Molly Molloy, Latin American bibliographer at New Mexico State University.
Latin American Network Information Center: Principal gateway to information about Latin America, maintained by the University of Texas. Look for Spanish language resources under the category of "humanities."

Electronic Journal Indexes

Education Abstracts Full Text (SDSU users only): Ample coverage on the teaching and learning of Spanish, although all sources are written in English. Indexing of journal literature goes back to 1983; full-text of articles began in 1996.
LLBA (Language & Language Behavior Abstracts) (SDSU users only): Indexes journal articles concerning linguistics, language acquisition, sociolinguistics, teaching and learning of Spanish, and other language topics. English or Spanish may be used as search terms, but all results have English abstracts.
MLA Bibliography (SDSU users only): Extensive coverage on Spanish language and literature found in journal articles, books, dissertations, and proceedings. Provides citations to research materials about the Spanish language, although sources are mostly written in English.