Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Resources

• Spanish On-line!
• The Language Centre
  • Spanish materials
  • Portuguese materials
• The Faculty Library
• The University Library
• The Centre of Latin-American Studies
• College Libraries
• Easy reading books in Spanish
• Buying books
• Films
• The World Wide Web (WWW)
• Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL)
  • Catalan Software
  • Portuguese Software
  • Spanish Software
  • Catalan Internet Resources
  • Portuguese Internet Resources
  • Spanish Internet Resources
• Internet radio and TV

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• A wealth of resources for language learning in both Spanish and Portuguese are to be found in the Language Centre. You will be introduced to these resources after the Part IA meeting for all Spanish and Portuguese Freshers on the first Wednesday of the first term (Michaelmas), but two lists, one for Spanish and one for Portuguese, are available. Direct broadcasts by satellite are available in Spanish, and night-time broadcasts are recorded for consultation the following day, so you can watch the news, or the latest episode of your favourite Venezuelan telenovela (soap)! There is also a range of original-language films available on video for watching in the language laboratory (some are in the MML library). See the full catalogue at http://distrib-2.langcen.cam.ac.uk/catalogue/catalogue.shtml (only accessible from within Cambridge).
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• One of the principal resources for your studies will of course be the MML Faculty Library, which is well stocked with essential texts, including, usually, more than one copy of popular set texts and secondary works. It also contains borrowable videos of the films set for the European Cinema paper, and other Spanish papers for which cinema is taught (see also the Language Centre above). If you notice any omissions from the stock, please inform the Librarians, with copy to the appropriate course convenor. Note that you can access the World Wide Web from the terminals in the library, including Spanish, Portuguese and Latin-American newspapers and journals (see below).
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• The University Library (UL) has excellent holdings in Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Portuguese African, Brazilian and Latin-American subject areas. The UL is a research library, containing all the books published in Britain and a high proportion of those published abroad. You cannot borrow books from the UL until your final year, but you are free to consult books there (you use your University PhotoID card to get into the library). The UL's catalogue is computerised, and you can consult it from any terminal that is wired to the University Data Network or by clicking on 'UL's catalogue' in this sentence. The UL also provides access to the World Wide Web.
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• For those studying Latin-American Literature and/or History including Brazil, the Centre of Latin-American Studies has a library located on the top floor of the Mill Lane Lecture Theatre Building, Mill Lane, which you may consult. Again, you can check whether a particular book you need is in the library from any computer terminal, via the UL catalogue. The Centre has a website at http://www.latin-american.cam.ac.uk/ with a full list of its resources.
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• College Libraries vary in the provision they make for Spanish and Portuguese, but all colleges should stock the major set texts which you are studying. If your College Library does not, complain vigorously to your Director of Studies and your Librarian, who will usually be willing to buy books on the recommendation of a member of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
  
  
• Spanish On-line! Our web site has a page which brings together a number of internal Spanish & Portuguese Department learning resources at www.mml.cam.ac.uk/Spanish/resources/. These include Learning Support Web Sites for a number of our undergraduate papers.
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• Ab initio students can borrow easy-reading books in Spanish from the Departmental Office.
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• You may wish to purchase the major set texts you are studying from your local bookshop or, once in Cambridge, from Heffers, Waterstone's, Borders, etc. Heffers in particular has a good stock of Spanish/Latin-American texts. If in dire need, you can purchase books from Grant and Cutler Ltd., 55-57 Great Marlborough Street, London WIF 7AY, Tel. 020 7734 2012; Fax: 020 7734 9272; http://www.grant-c.demon.co.uk/home.htm or by e-mail (spanishlist@grantandcutler.com) or from Dolphin Book Co (Tredwr), Llandysul, Ceredigion, SA44 6BA Tel: 01239 654404. If you tell them the order is urgent, and if they have a book in stock, they will rush it to you by first class post (you will need a credit or debit card number). See also Internet book-purchasing information at www.mml.cam.ac.uk/Spanish/SP5/books.html.
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• Spanish, Portuguese and Latin-American films are to be found in the Faculty Library or the Language Laboratory (catalogue at: http://distrib-2.langcen.cam.ac.uk/catalogue/catalogue.shtml). Some films for specific lectures are to be found in boxes just inside the language lab (look for the name of your lecturer), but note that the film you want may well be catalogued, either in the language laboratory or in the library. Films from the library can be borrowed; those from the language laboratory can only be consulted and viewed in the lab. 

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• The World Wide Web is a major resource for language-learning materials, and Spanish is the second language (after English) on the Web. You can consult pages on the Web from terminals in the Faculty or University libraries, as well as from your College Computing Room. In the Faculty, our librarians will be pleased to show you how to search for materials in Spanish or Portuguese. It is not worth giving extensive lists of URLs (Web addresses), because they change frequently, and the easiest way to search for, say, Latin-American journals and newspapers is to type something like 'noticias latinoamericanas' into any search engine (Excite, Alta Vista, Lycos, Yahoo, etc., or simply select Search the Web from your browser's menu). Note that it is much easier to access the Web, especially transatlantic sites, in the mornings than in the afternoons, because after the United States have woken up, everything slows to a crawl. You can now also immerse yourself in a Spanish or Portuguese environment by listening to Internet Radio (see below for further information).
   
  To whet your appetite, we recommend the following general interest, news, and cultural sites. You will also find a good list of Hispanic and Lusophone sites which are of relevance to language learning on the MML home page (under Internet Resources).

	http://www.mundolatino.org/ for access to many different aspects of the 'Latino' world (use these pages for finding lots of Hispanic information)
	http://www.civila.com/ for "Civila": ciudades virtuales latinas - the Hispanic equivalent of Geocities. This is an excellent site for general cultural information, links to Latin-American cities, etc.
	http://www.el-castellano.com/ for an excellent page of resources on Castilian Spanish around the world, including a "Virtual kiosk", on-line dictionaries, grammar guides, discussion of translation methodology, links to world-wide Hispanic radio stations available on the Internet, a literary resources page, etc., etc.
	http://www.publico.pt/ for the Portuguese national daily Publico
	http://www.lanacion.com.ar/ for the prestigious Argentine newspaper La Nación
	http://www.eltiempo.com/ for the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo
	http://www.elpais.es/ for the Spanish newspaper El País
	http://www.semana.com.co/ for the current affairs magazine Semana
	http://www.oglobo.com.br/ for the Brazilian newspaper O Globo
	http://www.surdelsur.com/pagina3.html for a multi-media experience of Argentina
	http://www.diegorivera.com/ for the first virtual museum of the famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera
	http://www.banrep.gov.co/blaavirtual/ for a whole virtual library in Spanish! (Based in Colombia)
	http://cervantesvirtual.com/ for an extensive virtual library in Spanish (based in Spain)
	http://goya.unizar.es/ for a 'Virtual Exhibition' of the work of Goya
	http://www.literatura.org/ for an excellent literary/cultural site relating to Argentina

• The aim of MML's Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) Facility is to integrate the use of information technology into the Faculty's teaching and learning, primarily for intensive language work, but for literary and linguistic study as well. You should use the Facility to assist you in your language learning, to find out more about the language and culture you are studying via the Internet and the World Wide Web, and to acquire important general computing skills. A range of CALL programs is available to you via the MML Network Service: some teachers stipulate that certain programs must be used in conjunction with their courses - such as KCCALL for Spanish grammar and TransIt-Tiger for computer-assisted translation work - and you can also use it to build up your language skills in your own time.  Increasingly, staff are creating their own software or web-resources for use by their students. Within the Raised Faculty Building, the CALL Facility is the place set aside for you to use the MML Network Service: there are 25 multimedia PCs, and three booths where you can practise speaking and recording in private. You can also access the MML Network Service in college if you configure a PC to receive it.  Many of the programs and resources are available on the World Wide Web, which means you can use them not only in the CALL Facility, but anywhere with a web browser.  The CALL Officer, Gavin Burnage, is responsible for the running of the Facility and helping students and staff to use it.   An introductory talk, which you must attend, is provided at the start of the year.  Information about the CALL Facility, the MML Network Service, Internet Language and Literature Web resources, and training courses is provided on the web at call/.  Dr Chris Pountain, of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, is the CALL Director.

• The Certificate in Humanities Computing for Languages is provided for second and final year students who want to learn more about computing and how it relates to linguistic and literary study.

• Did you know that you can now listen to Spanish and Latin-American radio stations live over the Internet? To do this you will need to use a computer which has multimedia capabilities (i.e., a soundcard), preferably the latest version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (Version 5 with Radio controls which is a free download from http://www.eu.microsoft.com/downloads/, and to be really cool, you can even download the software in Spanish with Spanish spell-check for your e-mail...), and/or RealNetworks' free radio and video player  (click on button for more information).

• If your system is properly set up, you should be able to click on one of the appropriate links below to hear Radio Exterior de España. However, note that links do get out of date quite quickly, so if you have trouble go to RTVE's "Radio en vivo" page at http://www.rtve.es/rne/envivo.htm (or as a last resort, go to their home page http://www.rtve.es/). 
   

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