Sources for foreign language audio tapes

One of the most frequent questions I'm asked is "Where can I get tapes for ___ language?" So I thought I'd compile a list of suggestions. Short, consumer-oriented book and cassette (or CD) combinations are available from regular bookstores. Some of the publishers include:

• Berlitz:
  Phrase Books, Language Courses, Travel Guides, CD-ROMs, etc. in all "commonly" and many "uncommonly taught" languages.
• Language/30
  Educational Services Corp.
  1725 K St. NW
  Washington, DC 20006
• Living Language
  books, cassettes, CDs, and CD-ROMs in 15 different languages.
• Routledge Colloquial Language Series:
  50 languages covered. (Several of these have been used in courses here.)
• Teach Yourself Series: self-study foreign language programs
  National Textbook Company
  4255 West Touhy Ave.
  Lincolnwood, IL 60646-1975
  Phone: 800-323-4900 FAX: 708-679-2494

In the 1950's, when the IU Language Laboratory was getting started, it wasn't so common for book publishers to provide tapes. Many tape series were produced here at Indiana, as well as at other schools, to go with textbooks from commercial publishers or university presses. Some other schools which still distribute language tapes include:

• Ohio State: Foreign Language Publications
  The Ohio State University
  33 West 11th Avenue, Suite 311
  Columbus, Ohio 43201-2013
  Phone: 614-292-3838 Fax: 614-688-3355 e-mail: flpubs@osu.edu
  Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Czech , Hungarian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Turkish, Ukrainian
• University of Michigan Language Resource Center: e-mail: FLACS@lark.lrc.lsa.umich.edu
  Arabic, Hebrew, Kurdish, Ojibwa, Persian, Tamazight, Turkish, Ukrainian.
• Yale University Press Far Eastern Publications catalog: Chinese, Japanese, Korean

Long (15 to 30 hour) tape series to accompany full-length textbooks are usually not available at your local bookstore, although it may be able to special order them.

• Foreign Service Institute materials are available from the federal government: National Technical Information Service Technology Administration U.S. Department of Commerce Springfield, VA 22161 Phone: 703-487-4650
• Spoken Language series are available from bookstores and from Spoken Language Services, Inc. P.O. Box 783, Ithaca, New York 14851 Phone: (607) 256-0500 Fax: (607) 256-0501 E-mail: sales@spokenlanguage.com

There are a couple of databases of language learning materials:

• The UCLA Language Materials Project lists learning resources for less commonly taught languages of the world.
• And the Center for Applied Linguistics also has a Less Commonly Taught Language Database.

This list is not definitive, so if you know of any other sources that should be added, let me know.

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Last updated: 31 May 2001
URL: http://languagelab.bh.indiana.edu/audio/tapesources.html
Comments: lamiller@indiana.edu
Copyright 1996, The Trustees of Indiana University