Do you know the term Open Educational Resources, also known by its acronym OER? It refers to learning, teaching and research materials in any format or medium that are in the public domain or that are protected by copyright and published under an open license, allowing free access, reuse, repurposing, adaptation and redistribution by others. Its literal translation in English would be Open Educational Resources (UNESCO, 2022).
According to the article published on the Learning Foreign Languages Online (LFLO) blog, Open Educational Resources (OER) grants users rights that are normally only granted to authors and publishers due to an open license, including the freedom to modify the original work and the ability to distribute derivatives for free. The OER movement began as a global grassroots phenomenon in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, when educators aspired to develop intellectual content that would be accessible to Internet audiences (Blyth, 2017).
As an alternative to traditional textbooks and expensive web-based learning resources, Open Educational Resources in language learning have recently attracted the attention of language educators, curriculum developers, and academics.
OER provide access to controlled language practice, self-learning, engagement and learning satisfaction, among other advantages for language learners. In addition, these resources can support cutting-edge teaching strategies that address constructivist and interactionist theories of second language acquisition (Scott & Cherrez, 2022).
Open Educational Resources are a unique tool to foster learning and information sharing, which are necessary to establish inclusive knowledge societies and meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The OERs, or Open Educational Resources, revolution
The Open Educational Resources (OERs) movement/revolution, open or open education, is based on a set of ideas shared by a remarkably wide range of scholars, including the belief that knowledge should be free and open for use and reuse, that collaboration should be easier rather than harder, that individuals should be recognized for their contributions to education and research, and that concepts and ideas are linked in unexpected and surprising ways rather than in the straightforward linear ways presented in most textbooks.
Open education promises to radically change the way writers, teachers, and students communicate around the world (Baraniuk, 2007, p. 229). This open education revolution has led to the emergence of “open content,” a term used to refer to any published digital content that can be freely used.
Open content, in terms of pedagogy, comes with open access and open source. Open access refers to material that is made publicly available on the Internet without specific permission to edit it. Open source content, on the other hand, allows users to reuse and repurpose content to create original creations.
To cope with the rising costs, OER advocates focused on creating and disseminating free resources for the first ten years of the movement. However, the movement has begun to focus on empirical research to determine the effect of OER on student learning, including foreign language (LE) learning, in its second decade. In addition, open educators are beginning to investigate various methods for integrating OER into mainstream education.
In summary, the open education movement has four main objectives:
(a) to democratize education and thus expand the “knowledge ecosystem”,
(b) to reduce the high prices of pedagogical materials,
(c) to accelerate the production of materials, and
(d) allow students and teachers to modify materials to make them more appropriate to the particular circumstances of their communities (Blyth, 2012). Here we present some suggestions and reputable OER repositories (ROER) for foreign language learners who are new to OER and find it difficult to recognize credible resources among the plethora of OER:
How to become an informal language learner: learners should be exposed to the target language as much as possible while learning a foreign language. When learning occurs in non-immersive environments where the target language is not used, it is extremely important to remember this. In addition, learning a language involves much more than learning its grammar and vocabulary; as a result, pragmatic and sociocultural elements should be included in the language learning curriculum and learners should choose to learn through resources that facilitate their language learning.
How to navigate and locate OER? The Internet is undoubtedly awash with resources for LE learners. For starters, learners can choose CC Search CC Search Portal (creativecommons.org) where learners can find open content in different formats: images, music, text, and videos. In addition to OER Commons (OER Commons) there is another OER public digital library.
Accredited ROERs can also be joined: some well-known ROERs for foreign language learners are the following (Perifanou, M. and Economides, 2021):
- COERLL: The Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning creates and disseminates language OER in the following languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Czech, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, K’iche’, Malayalam, Nahuatl, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Sanskrit, Spanish, Tamil, Turkish, Urdu and Yoruba. It sponsors initiatives for language OER and teacher professional development, plans events for open language education, publishes textbooks, and does much more. Supports the Language OER Network (LOERN), a network of ambassadors, creators, reviewers and teachers of open educational resources.
- MERLOT: multimedia educational resource for online learning and teaching offering peer-reviewed online teaching and learning materials. Over 3000 world language resources are listed, including animations, quizzes, exercises and practices, e-portfolios, online courses, journal articles, presentations, simulations and tutorials. The following languages have OER available: Less Taught Languages, Multilingual Resources. Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Arabic, Chinese, ESL or EFL, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Russian, Spanish and more. Support Language OER Network (LOERN), a network of ambassadors, creators, reviewers and teachers of open educational resources.
- OpenLearn: the UK’s supported Open University offers more than 1,000 free courses in eight different subject areas. Courses also include interactive activities, quizzes, audios and movies. The learner can access and download a free participation statement after successful completion of a free course to use with a digital badge (if the course offers one). Most courses have reviews and a Creative Commons (CC) license. There are 67 language e-books and 79 language courses (44 introductory, 14 intermediate and 15 advanced) to study the following languages: Welsh, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, English, French, Gaelic and more languages.
Everyone has the right to the opportunity to study, and society can help people exercise this right by ensuring that education and knowledge are accessible to all. Open education is a strategy that organizations and individuals can use to learn virtually anything, address current problems and take advantage of upcoming opportunities.
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