The Center for Applied Second Language Studies (CASLS) Materials Archive is a free, on-line database of Japanese language materials. Teachers can search for materials by topic, function, level, or key words. The materials are tied to the Oregon Benchmarks, but can be used as supplementary materials by anyone regardless of the textbook or standards being used. Eventually it is hoped that the Archive will allow teachers to reduce their reliance on textbooks by targeting specific performance standards and then searching for materials that will help students reach those standards.

The materials were created by practicing teachers in Oregon with support from the Nippon Foundation of Tokyo. Teams of K-12 and college teachers targeted specific themes and developed materials most likely to be useful to secondary students.

At the time of this writing (July 1999), the materials can be accessed through any Web browser, and it is possible to copy or print them from the Web site. We hope to provide downloadable documents early in the 1999-2000 school year so that teachers can edit, modify, and print the documents with maximum flexibility. Nisus Writer and Claris Works 4.0 will be available for Macintosh users, and Word 97 will be available for Windows users. For all platforms, PDF (Portable Document format) files can be used with free, downloadable Adobe Acrobat Reader software. Although the documents are not editable, this method has the advantage of being able to read and print Japanese without a Japanese font in the user's computer.

In the future, the Archive hopes to include materials for higher benchmarks, elementary (FLES) materials, and advanced materials for college-level classes as well. Until then, teachers are encouraged to use the Archive to find supplementary materials for beginning level classes.

CASLS Homepage: http://casls.uoregon.edu/home/index.php.