Archive
How to use visual instead of aural cues during a Sanako oral proficiency exam
- This exam file has been authored with the Sanako Study 1200 TBA:authoring tool. It is displayed from the Sanako tutor application:
- images on a projection screen connected to the teacher computer,
- aural portion through the tutor-controlled Sanako student player and headsets.
- 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
.
Protected: Sanako Study 1200 Final oral exam for advanced Business Spanish: A Job interview
Apply for STARTALK Travel grants for Summer Institute on LCTL by 5/1/2012
“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”
Independent study with free language learning materials from the FSI?
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).
I2speak.com: Web-based IPA Keyboard
The Sciweavers Team announces http://www.i2speak.com: “an online Smart IPA Keyboard that lets you quickly type IPA phonetics without the need to memorize any symbol code. For every Roman character you type, a popup menu displays a group of phonetic symbols that share the same sound or shape beneath typed character. Use arrow keys to select the proper symbol then hit the Enter button. I2Speak also supports the following features:
1. The Sampa English Keyboard lets you type English phonetics using Roman characters according to SAMPA (Speech Assessment Methods Phonetic Alphabet) rules.
2. The IPA English Keyboard provides you with a full English phonetics keyboard. Press the symbol of interest using a suitable input device.
3. You can type directly on your physical keyboard or on the virtual on-screen keyboard using a suitable input device such as mouse or touch screen device.
4. You can change the keyboard symbols by selecting another layout from the list box located above the virtual keyboard.
5. For every keyboard layout, more symbols can be displayed by pressing the CAPS Lock.
6. When you hover the mouse over an English phonetic button, a slick tooltip will show some example English words.
7. You can save typed phonetics as an MS-Word file by clicking the Save button, copy them to clipboard using the Copy button, or post them to Twitter, Facebook, etc. by clicking the desired button.”

