Thomas' Work Space

1. View screens (best viewed side by side, but note that left and right screen are not synchronized):
   1. for full slide show (note the included short links for convenient further reading), left screen
   2. for Sanako interface and full audio track, right screen.
2. Table of contents:
   1. Overview of a Sanako Oral Exam
   2. Examples of Exam teachers’ exam question recordings
   3. Example of a Sanako Exam
   4. Loop induction
   1. creating an exam question recording
   2. by taking a Sanako exam as a student
   5. Step-by-Step of administering a Sanako oral exam
   6. Grading Sanako oral exam student files
      1. Sanako voice insert for
         1. facilitating recording oral assignments for student without hard-coded pauses
         2. commenting on student responses during grading
   7. Sanako authoring tool for providing visual on top of aural cues to students
3. 

1. This exam file has been authored with the Sanako Study 1200 TBA:authoring tool. It is displayed from  the Sanako tutor application:
   1. images on a projection screen connected to the teacher computer,
   2. aural portion through the tutor-controlled Sanako student player and headsets. 
2. To protect the integrity and allow for reuse of the exam, only the initial instruction, example and collection of the results of an exam with visual cues are shown in this screencast.

“The Penn Center for Foreign Language Teaching and Learning with Technology (PLC) will host the second STARTALK Excellence in Leadership Summer Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. For each of the languages (Chinese, Dari, Hindi, Swahili, Turkish and Urdu), the Summer Institute invites no more than five participants for each language group. These participants must hold positions as principals, supervisors of world language and/or language program directors who wish to implement curricular changes, employ pedagogically-sound applications of technology and gain leadership know-how in an effort to strengthen, expand and solidify their respective programs. These leaders will become STARTALK multiplicators who in turn will promote and implement programmatic and curricular changes. The program of the Summer Institute is designed for Leader-Teachers to:
 
•      gain leadership know-how
•      strengthen existing programs
•      expand and solidify programs
•      discuss current pedagogical trends in language education
•      promote and implement curricular changes
•      endorse lasting efficacy of robust learning outcomes
•      practice pedagogically-sound applications of technology
•      engage in succinct field building opportunities
 
Applications are due May 1, 2012.  To apply and for information about travel and accommodations, please visit our website at:
 
http://www.plc.sas.upenn.edu/elsi2012/Application.html”

The Foreign Service Institute language learning materials  – consisting of scanned documents and digitized audio of multiple courses per language – were still a heavily-advertised resource when I visited the Defense Language Institute in Monterey in 2006.

It is nice to see these resources be made available for free. It is also nice to see the progress that has been made not only in technological adaptation of textbook learning materials since these materials were made available (post WW II?).

This, however, comes at a cost. If you shun it, and do not take a course that works which requires (and entitles you to the use of) a textbook, here are easily accessibleviewable learning materials for a large set of languages, including many LCTL: Amharic, Arabic, Bulgarian, Cambodian, Cantonese, Chinese, Chinyanja, Czech, Finnish, French, Fula, German, Greek, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Igbo, Italian, Japanese, Kirundi, Kituba, Korean, Lao, Lingala, Luganda, Moré, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Shona, Sinhala, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Twi, Vietnamese, Yoruba.

The Forums , however seem to indicate that not too many still use these options. The transformation into a (technologically superficially) more modern format here is limited to very few languages and courses (and crashed my web browser).

http://www.call4all.us///home/index2.php

1. Here you can haz dictionaries. And if you use them in the Language Resource Center, you even have the chance to  run into someone who can show you how to use them well.
2. http://linguistlist.org/sp/GetWRListings.cfm?WRAbbrev=Dict
3. http://lexicall.widged.com/repository/listing.php?category=words

1. One of the Sanako Student player’s useful features  geared toward language learning activities, is that it can save the teacher the time and effort for inserting pauses into their audio recordings,  so that students can record responses into them.
   1. Meaning the teacher can just press the red speak button and record through the entire file in one sitting.
   2. The teacher can still help students finding their way around the file, especially where to insert their own audio recording responses, by adding aural cues.
      1. This can be done in minimal time: I once saw a teacher use a bicycle bell – and why not, if it saves time.
      2. A spoken instruction “Respond”/”Answer in 10 seconds” is not more difficult to spot (unless only the voice graph is being browsed) and might be even better.
      3. If you have spare time: 
         1. You can post-edit the file with audacity, generating and inserting sinus tones.
         2. You can use the Sanako player to insert bookmarks instead of cues.
2. As long as students have been instructed to how to use voice insert recording mode with the Sanako student recorder.
   1. This is for self access of students to teacher recorded files – be it during class or homework.
   2. If you want to record students under exam conditions, a similar insert recording feature is available within the activity: Model imitation, but not with a pre-recorded file, only when the live teacher is the program source students listen to for cues.

This 5-minute video shows how an actual oral exam in interpreting from French to English, using the software instructions from Part I.

Audio Source is a prerecorded mp3 file. Other sources are also possible, including live teacher microphone

Students speak during hardcoded pauses after listening to program track – insert recording without hardcoded pauses is also possible.

Clear structuring of the exam is recommended for first-timers, including adding clear audio signals in the program track when to speak and stop.

Content

0:00

teacher explains exam format (structure of audio with gaps for students to respond (here interpreting) and cue when to begin / end responding)

0:55

explanation of Sanako player volume control

1:35

students can’t believe their luck: “it is going to record automatically?” – “you do not have to do anything!” Just language (that’s the point, isn’t it?)

2:08

audio started

2:30

beep – students speak  (cut to abridge)

2:40

beep – end of student response  – beginning teacher track

3:32

beep – end of student response

4:10

beep – end of student response  – beginning teacher track

4:50

end (file collection is not show, teacher only needs to press in activity pane button “End”  and in folder name dialogue button “OK”)