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Advanced language learners can test their English, German or Spanish proficiency in 3.5 minutes here using Exhale

2014/05/23 4 comments

Update: A new version of the Spanish vocabulary test is here, and the English vocabulary test has been updated here.

Go here and click English or German, or  (also requiring only 3.5 minutes to take, but more for  manually grading your test with this answer key) go here for Spanish, if you want to to take a simple quick vocabulary test that has been shown to correlate well with general proficiency.  You can find more info here on English and German, and here on Spanish.

Pictolang, another flashcard site for vocabulary learning

  1. Distinguishing mark: Pictolang is based on the Culturally authentic Picture Lexicon. Here is an overview of the currently available languages and imagery:
  2. Language  Region # Images
    German  2631
    Mandarin China 2336
    ESL  North America 2074
    Russian  1420
    French  France 1231
    Spanish  Southern Cone 1022
    Spanish  Mexico 1000
    Spanish  Central America & Caribbean 872
    Spanish  Peninsular 579
    Arabic  287
    Special Collections  151
    Ukrainian  139
    Japanese  106
    French  Canada 47
    Arabic  Oman 11
  3. You can focus vocabulary your study on specific topics, which will likely integrate it better with your core textbook material (often divided into topical chapters). image
  4. Suitable for self-study, the use of CAPL makes this an especially interesting tool for preparing work/study/travel abroad. It also allows for playing a classroom flashcard game in language culture and area studies, where the teacher can provide context and background information in the images from the target culture.
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  6. Example o the Word Match Game right answer feedback:
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  8. Wrong answer feedback:
  9. image

Meta-search many historical German dictionaries and encyclopedias using Woerterbuchnetz.de

A meta-search by the University of Trier Center for Digital Humanities may not teach you much German – you need to know it already –, but help prevent you remaining a “one-dimensional man”.

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I came to know a lot of those during my own German and history studies a long time ago – – when they still only existed on paper, if not parchment Smile. Gotta love Digital Humanities, and find other activities for physical exercise. Her is an example search result:

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Phonetic Russian character input on US-keyboards with Google IME in the LRC

  1. To write Russian phonetically in Cyrillic:
    1. Since “input methods”are specific to each window (and automatically switch to that of the window you make active), first open the application you want to write in, preferably MS-Word (has proofing tools for Russian).
    2. In the language bar on the lower right, click on “EN”, select “Russian” insteadimage
    3. Click on the keyboard symbol and select “Google”: google-russian-ime1
      1. You first may have to right-click on the language bar on the lower right of your desktop and select “Adjust” to show the keyboard symbol: google-russian-ime2
    4. If you now type in MS-Word Russian (your selection did not “stick” in MS-Word? do the above steps again, eventually it will…) phonetically on a US-keyboard, you will be able to select from suggestions in Cyrillicimage
    5. Click the desired suggestion to have it entered into MS-Word: image
  2. To go back to writing temporarily in English (without changing the entire input method back to English), click the (Cyrillic/Latin) letter symbol on the Google Russian IME menu: image and you can enter English (Latin alphabet) without the popup suggesting you Russian equivalents: image
  3. To switch from the phonetic input to a floating Cyrillic keyboard,
    1. click on the keyboard symbol in the Google Russian IME. image
    2. Or from the Language bar, switch to the other (Microsoft) keyboard layout for  "Russian" (see #4 above), and go to "Start" / "Run" / type OSK, click "OK".

LRC Sanako Study 1200 for Pronunciation

UIowa.edu phonetics website for learners of English, German and Spanish

Hone your foreign language pronunciation skills by learning about phonetics: This oft-recommended University of Iowa phonetics website “contains animated libraries of the phonetic sounds (….)  for each consonant and vowel”, including “an animated articulatory diagram, a step-by-step description, and video-audio of the sound spoken in context”.

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Spring 2012 Faculty Workshop II: Oral Proficiency testing with Audacity/Sanako

  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. workshop-2012-2-sanako-ppt-thumbnails

Protected: Sanako Study 1200 Final oral exam for advanced Business Spanish: A Job interview

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