Delaware County Libraries Offers Pronunciator - A Free Language Learning Tool

Released: April 17, 2023

Delaware County Libraries offers a wealth of written, visual, and audio materials available to our residents, including Pronunciator — a free web-based language learning tool that allows residents to learn over 150 different languages from around the world.

All you need is your library card!

Whether preparing to travel abroad, learning a language for your job, or just want to try something new, Pronunciator will build a personalized learning course with videos, audio lessons, music, and more — accessible through their mobile app or on the web.

Patrons of Delaware County Libraries simply go online, create a free account (or select Instant Access to bypass the registration process and jump right into it), select the language of interest, then choose how to start building language skills with customizable courses.

Courses feature a wide variety of activities to keep you engaged; video clips and human voices to keep it real; and progress tracking to keep you motivated. Users can select from short Daily Lessons, deeper Main Courses (including drills, quizzes, audio lessons, and more), or even select Structured 8-week courses, city tours, and detailed interactive grammar lessons.

Learning courses are available for those who are complete beginners, intermediate speakers, and advanced, and offerings in many languages are geared for those as young as three years old!

No limited language choices here – there are a total of 164 languages to choose from so the possibilities are endless. Options range from the most heavily spoken languages such as Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Hindi, and Arabic to languages such as Icelandic, Welsh, Thai, Kurdish, and Swahili — and virtually everything in between.

Audio instructions feature the recorded voices of native speakers of each language. Some languages have videos with subtitles which let learners loop any phrase in the video, and some languages have audio downloads of songs, with lyrics, called ProRadio (music is a proven method for learning quickly). There are even lessons to prepare for the US citizenship exam and health vocabulary!

“A library card opens up a world of opportunity,” said Catherine Bittle, Director of Delaware County Libraries. “In this case, our patrons who take advantage of Pronunciator will truly get to explore a bit of the world.”

Pronunciator has been reviewed by the prestigious Library Journal, founded in 1876 for librarians, received a "Highly recommended" rating by Choice, the publishing arm of the Association of College and Research Libraries, and is used to teach undergraduates at many major universities!

To get started, library card holders can access the Pronunciator tool at http://bit.ly/2Q6Fi11.

Don’t have a library card? Visit Delaware County Libraries online at https://www.delcolibraries.org/ or request one directly at https://charlotte.delco.lib.pa.us/selfreg.

Library cards can also be obtained in-person at any of Delaware County Libraries’ 28 locations, listed here: https://www.delcolibraries.org/our-libraries.