When our tweens and teens start learning another language I’m sure they would benefit from reading texts on topics they like. Textbooks are usually on very conventional and not so updated arguments, which, in my opinion, makes language learning less appealing. If then the language is a bit more challenging as for its grammar, one can easily loose the interest in learning it.

A while ago I posted an article about news sites for teenagers in different languages.

If your child is learning German and you would like him or her to read or listen to current topics, here are some interesting sites:

The site yaez is a great site about “Schule, Stars & Trends” and the online magazine “Starflash” is easy to read and treats the latest news about music, films etc.

The Goethe Institut links to some other child appropriate sites with topics of different content and also one with youth literature. Personally, I like the site of the Deutsche Welle where one can listen to the audio of the articles, find a vocabulary at the end of it and also do a little comprehension test. On this site, you can even choose the level of proficiency (and comprehension).

On the Deutschlernen Blog one can find many different kinds of texts, audiotexts, “German for children”, German exams etc., whereas the Deutschlerner Blog II is more for advanced students.

On the Deutschlandradio site, you can listen to news and audio articles.

And you can access some TV channels like ZDF via the mediathek site.

Deutsch: “Lebenslanges Lernen” (Sonderbriefmarke), Nominal: 110 Pf. / 0,56 EUR, Maß: 43,0 × 25,5 mm, Papierqualität: Postwertzeichenpapier DP 2 Text: also lautet ein beschluss dass der mensch was lernen muss. lernen kann man, gott sei dank, aber auch sein leben lang . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Please, do check the content of the sites I mention in this post, about appropriateness for your child!

If you have any other site that you would recommend for teenagers who are learning German – or who would like to improve their German – please leave the link in the comments here below and I’ll be happy to add them!