Dr. Roger W. Anderson, Independent Scholar, Monterey, CA (USA)

The BLUF (Bottom Line, Up Front): The United Nations website offers trainings for diplomats and activists on a variety of globally important subjects, in all six official UN languages. These authentic, free tools can provide opportunities for unsimulated, contextualized vocabulary acquisition, appreciation of register, etc.

Suggested audience: Advanced learners and non-native instructors of Spanish, French, English, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, or Modern Standard Arabic

Actual audience: Activists, United Nations delegations and speakers at the United Nations

Tool: The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) trainings (www.unitar.org)

Topics: A wide array of global issues, including corruption, pollution, human rights, development, etc.

Notes: UNITAR offers courses and certificates that require payment, but also many online, self-paced courses that are free.

Pedagogical benefit: Authentic, advanced-level input; videos made by UN staff members; short quizzes written in the target language, etc.

Suggested pedagogy: Users could enroll in two versions (two languages) of the same course and move through the material in both languages at the same time to ensure comprehension, etc.

Link: www.unitar.org

Just below UNITAR’s full catalogue is a section called “Self-Paced, Open-Enrollment Events.” To enroll in most courses, you will need to create a free account. Courses can be searched using language filters (see Image 1 below).

Image 1. Screenshot of UNITAR’s free, open-enrollment courses (shown here in French)