WikiBooks describes itself as "the open-content textbooks collection that anyone can edit." Wikibooks is hosted by the
Wikimedia Foundation, the same organization behind
Wikipedia. The idea is similar to Wikipedia: anyone can create or contribute to a Wikibook.
Wikibooks has several "textbooks" on the German language, although they are in various stages of completion.
1)
"German"
"German" is a textbook for beginners on the German language. It is currently listed as "half-finished." The earlier lessons are more complete, with audio and practice questions, but there are a lot of lessons that still need work. The book also has a
PDF version and a
Print version; these have the entire book on one webpage.
2)
"BLL German"
"BLL German" is a course of "Bite-sized Language Lessons" for German. They are meant to be shorter lessons that are more focused. So far, there are only lessons for the "A1 - Breakthrough" level (for absolute beginners).
3)
"Freistil"
"Freistil" is a collection of "actual annotated German texts." The texts have "in-text annotations" that give you a translation of a word when you hover over it with your mouse. A "What's worth learning?" box points you to commonly-used vocabulary, and an "In detail" box provides background and cultural information. So far there are only texts under the "Nachrichten (News)" category.
4)
"Deutsche Grammatik"
"Deutsche Grammatik" is a basic German grammar guide. However, it's written in German, so this might be more helpful for advanced German learners.
5)
"Fruchtbringendes Wörterbuch"
The "Fruchtbringendes Wörterbuch" seems to be part dictionary, part language experiment: it suggests German words that German-speakers can use instead of using words that have been adopted from other languages (especially English). One example: instead of using "Hypertext," the dictionary suggests "Sprungmarkentext, Hüpftext, Übertext."
6)
"Das Schreiblernbuch"
"Das Schreiblernbuch" is a book in German designed especially for German parents in other countries to teach their children about the alphabet and phonetics. It also includes exercises for children to do. There is a continuation of this book for more advanced learners -
Das Schreiblernbuch für Fortgeschrittene - but it's not as complete yet.
7)
"Wikijunior Tieralphabet"
Also for teaching children is the "Wikijunior Tieralphabet:" for each letter of the alphabet, it shows an animal whose name in German also begins with that letter.
8)
"Rechtschreibung"
"Rechtschreibung" is a book in German about the spelling reforms of 1996. It says on the book's main page that the book has been abandoned, so it may not be updated.
9) For Wikibooks on learning German for speakers of other languages, check out the links under
"Deutsch für Nicht-Muttersprachler".
What did you think of these Wikibooks? Add your comments below!
