Archive
Archive for the ‘second-language-acquisition’ Category
Introducing the LangLabEmailer
2013/06/04
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- The LangLabEmailer helps integrating the digital audio lab (still widely operating based on files and network shares) into the departmental language teaching and learning process by automatically forwarding (audio, text) assessments and assignments collected in the digital audio lab to teachers and students via campus mail (using MS-Exchange automation).
- Easy on the Language Lab Manager who can "set up and forget": 1000s of assessment files will reach their originating students and teachers in near real time without you lifting a finger.
- To earn "extra credit", show your teachers how they can override the default LangLabEmailer behavior by adding “_noemailing” or “_nostudentemailing” to the folder name when saving their digital audio lab collections.
- Status of the language lab and purpose of the software
- Features
- Prerequisites
- Downloading
- Installing
- Configuring (and sharing back)
- Running or scheduling
- End User options
- Troubleshooting
- Requesting features
- Getting Updates
- Uninstalling
- Samples & questions at my IALLT 2013 session.
How to provide students with blended human/computer-automated feedback on their speaking using a dictation with speech recognition assignment screencast
2013/05/08
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- Teachers often feel there is never enough time for grading students’ speaking proficiency. Fortunately, we can now automate feedback on pronunciation using Windows 7 dictation with speech recognition.
- This feature will be available for 7 languages on Windows 7 in the LRC, here is a demo for a reading exercise dictating German.
- An assignment step-by-step could look like this: Students
- record a screencast of their dictation,
- read a text to the computer in MS-Word,
- turn track changes on in MS-Word and correct the text (immediately or after dictation) where the computer could not recognize their speech,
- upload their screencast to Kaltura in Moodle.
- To grade the performance, the teacher has to review only at the very end of the screencast to see how many corrections the student needed to make (when it doubtabout the speech recognition validiiy, the teacher can easily jump to the screencast segment in question and, if necessary, override the speech recognition).
- This could be a regular assignment type since it provides the following benefits:
- immediate automated intelligent feedback for the student
- little grading overhead for the teacher, so that the teacher can concentrate her work on providing aural feedback on student recorded speech as a highlight maybe twice per term, maybe after mock exams before a midterm and final exam
- some multimedia pieces demonstrating language proficiency for the student’s ePortfolio.
- Requirements:
- a quality headset (we use Sanako SLH-07
) - Windows 7 Enterprise/Ultimate with Language Packs,
- knowing how to switch the display language, (optional/recommended:) TBA:a simplified language switching facility,
- individual voice training data: speech recognition users have to train the computer – once, even in a deepfrozen computer enviroinment, since we enabled you to save this data to and restore it from a flash drive or personal network share space,
- a reading text (often authentic texts can be taken straight from the textbook, to fit in with the syllabus, like in this example from Treffpunkt-Deutsch 1st-year German),
- MS-Word with track changes
- screencast software (we use MS community clips)
- a way to submit the results to the teacher (we use Moodle with Kaltura video uploading (example for teachers, students do it similarly), but email could be sufficient depending on screencast length and attachment size allowance).
- a quality headset (we use Sanako SLH-07
How not to have to join a Saba Centra online class from the LRC late, for lack of speaking capabilities
2013/05/06
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- Problem: We continue getting reports from teachers that students who try to participate in a Saba Centra online class from the LRC listening station computers (with analogue headphones) experience a considerable delay in joining and cause disruption to online classes since they have to troubleshoot their microphones, for lack of being audible online.
- Root cause: Saba Centra on startup automatically selects the “microphone” as recording device…
- Workaround:
- On XP, click “Start”, click “Run”, type (without quotes) “SndVol32 –R” (meaning: “SoundVolume for Recording”), click “OK” which opens the volume mixer for recording devices. The radio button selected will be “Rear input”.
- Start Saba Centra.
- Switch back to the volume mixer you opened in step 1. Note that the radio button now selected is “Microphone”. This is wrong for the listening stations (and the teacher station) in the LRC. Switch it back to “Rear input” (you know that your headset is supposed to be plugged into the rear).
- And off you go… Plus note: There is no need for “expensive” workarounds like:
- haphazardly trying to replug headphones,
- purchasing your own USB headphones,
- hogging the main classroom with its USB headphones.
- On XP, click “Start”, click “Run”, type (without quotes) “SndVol32 –R” (meaning: “SoundVolume for Recording”), click “OK” which opens the volume mixer for recording devices. The radio button selected will be “Rear input”.
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, Distance-education-format-is-Synchronous, e-learning, Listening-Stations, Presenter-Computer, presenter-computer, service-is-configuring-learning-tools, service-is-testing-troubleshooting-debugging, Speaking
audio, FAQs, saba-centra
Saba Centra on startup automatically selects the "microphone" as recording device…
2013/05/03
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- … But we in the language lab use the (dual function microphone/line-in) "rear input" for our headsets (for ergonomic, health&safety and security reasons). Workaround here.
- Apparently this startup behavior cannot be changed within Saba Centra:
- Any startup will bring up the “Audio Wizard” asking users, even in a controlled lab environment, to configure their audio devices,
- and if users do (and choose what they have: headset), make wrong assumptions which audio plug to enable (“Microphone” front panel, even if your headset is plugged into the rear panel dual “line-in/microphone”)
- The workaround according to these easily Googled instructions is using the “Advanced” audio wizard options to override this “Audio Wizard” error, like so:
- “Re-open the Audio Wizard, go to the third screen and change your recording device in your “Recording Device” menu. Advance two slides and determine if you can hear your recorded voice. ”
- 1st screen:
- 3rd screen:
- note the instructions – Click “Advanced”. But it is easier to just use from the start our Workaround here.
- 1st screen:
- “Re-open the Audio Wizard, go to the third screen and change your recording device in your “Recording Device” menu. Advance two slides and determine if you can hear your recorded voice. ”
- The long-term solution is reconfigure your hardware and disable the front panel audio – but will Saba Centra understand you? Stay tuned…
Protected: How a teacher can give students aural feedback on oral exams using the Sanako Study 1200 Lite Recorder
2013/04/25
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Testing my Langlabemailer…
2013/04/11
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… to improve the integration of the digital audio lab into the university’s language teaching processes – 1000 emails at a time. 
(Coming soon: same day delivery. More on this project will be available here: https://2013.iallt.org/session/driving-tutorial-call-face-face-classroom-and-what-it-took).
You can get the LRC’s keyboard shortcuts to write foreign language characters automatically installed on your home or office PC …
2013/04/09
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..if you click on Microsoft’s FixIt here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306560 (’nuff said elsewhere about US International keyboard layout) . Our British Friends seem to still type French, German, and Spanish accents the old tedious way. Maybe they find it too difficult to install the MS UK-International keyboard layout which takes care of most accents in all languages that use a Roman alphabet. I wish I could recommend them also a Microsoft FixIt installer which automatically enables the UK "international" keyboard layout option built-in to Windows. However, the FixIt version automated enablement seems only available for US International, not for UK international. If you want US International without manually configuring it (interactive video) , take advantage of MS FixIt by clicking here.
Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, os, Writing
us-international
Cheatsheet for typing phonetic symbols with the IPA Keyboard Layout on Windows 7 – the ultimate training…
2013/03/28
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…using animated .gifs. Slower? Compact: 0.25sec, 0.5sec, 0.75sec, 1sec, 1.5sec, 2sec, 3sec, 4sec, 5sec, 6sec, 7sec, 8sec, 9sec, 10sec. 
This is taken straight from the great documentation of this great Phonetic symbols Windows keyboard layout by SILS international, but needed a bit of massaging to support hands-free lookup via display on one screen of your dual screen system, while you learn or demo the keyboard to the class). Users without dual screen (including students) are better off with the slideshow below in which they can stop the images on any page:
The IPA MSKLC can produce both regular Roman characters and transcriptions with phonetic symbols by employing certain “dead keys” that can be combined with regular keys. Just and like our default LRC keyboard us-international .
Your first must select the keyboard like so. 
(Icelandic is suitable since it is not used for other purposes much). In the LRC, you must wait until we upgrade to Windows7.
Categories: animated-GIFs, Arabic, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, cheat-sheets, e-languages, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek (ancient), Greek (modern), Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Presenter-Computer, Russian, service-is-documenting, Spanish, Speaking, Swahili, Uncategorized, Yoruba
ipa, keyboard, phonetics
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