Archive
Transcribe sounds into Arabic letters on the web using Yamli
How do you compare this to Microsoft Maren and Google Arabic keyboard input?
How to check if components of Shotgun Microphones (05-08) are complete
- Use this list:
- micro
- seat1
- seat2
- cable1
- cable2
- adapter1/4”
- windshield
- Or use the illustration from the microphone package:
How to check if components of Microphone Boom pole (01-04) are complete
- Boom
- Adapter for microphone holder. To change the screw size to that of the microphone holder you have
, you can unscrew the adapter and turn it around – however, do not lose it! 
How to check if components of Canon camera (01-10) are complete
- Battery
- Battery Charger
- AV cable – FIREWIRE cables for transferring video are not included, we do not have enough. Use in the LRC only.
More Moodle Kaltura video assignments here: French
- Yay! You can find the assignment right on your course home page:
- Provided you do not miss the deadline – visit your calendar
, better load your deadlines into NINERMAIL at term start - Come to the LRC to record your Moodle video assignment and practice speaking with our webcams.
How to set up SDL-Trados 2009 Licensing Server
No time getting this post in shape since SDL is keeping me on my toes by changing the licensing infrastructure for 2011 (abandoned FlexLM), but for what it is worth: the difficultty with FLexLM was managing the licensing service from the proviced GUI, I had to resort to restarting it manually through services.msc. 
How to do model imitation recording exercises to improve language learner pronunciation in the LRC and beyond
- Sometimes teachers ask about support for voice recognition in the LRC. The term voice recognition or speech recognition (the former appears to be analogous to face recognition in authentication and other security contexts?) is usually reserved for software that can transcribe your voice into text – still no free option for this, AFAIK. Dragon naturally speaking is the oft recommended market leader outside of education (and within, Auralog Tell me more, see below). Update summer 2012: We are working on enabling the Speech recognition built into Windows 7 Enterprise for English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, Spanish, German, and Japanese.
- Often times, what is actually desired is a digital audio recorder with voice graph, ideally a dual track recorder.
- In the LRC student computers, we have for exactly this purpose a digital audio recorder as part of the SANAKO Study 1200language learning system
- It features a dual track recorder (allows to listen to teacher track which can be a prerecorded model to imitate on the left channel while recording the student track on the right channel of a stereo track) with a voice graph:
. See this dual-track-voice-graph screencast demo from the vendor and also our student cheat sheet from the vendor documentation. - The Sanako is available in the LRC, as well as in many other educational institutions around the world, but neither free nor web-based (although a web-based version seems to be in the works). It currently requires MS-Windows to run.
- It features a dual track recorder (allows to listen to teacher track which can be a prerecorded model to imitate on the left channel while recording the student track on the right channel of a stereo track) with a voice graph:
- A popular and free audio editor (but not an SLA – specific application, let alone geared towards model imitation; also, for all practical ends and purposes, requires an extra download and installations of an MP3 encoder to be able to save recordings as compressed MP3) is Audacity. To use for model imitation exercises,
- the student can open a model track (mp3 recommended)
- and manage within the program the imitation portion, using the voice graph:
- then export back out as mp3,
- either her responses individually (see my demo screencast, requires Windows Media Player on Windows, which actually shows a question/response rather than a model imitation, but same principle),
- or, by deleting the model track, the response parts mixed down to one track,
- or also, if, like in my demo screencast, the timeline sequence of model (with pauses) and responses is carefully managed (so that model and imitation do not overlap), mixed down to one track.
- In one language program, I have worked extensively with Auralog Tell me more
- which was (not exclusively, but arguably too much) based on this pedagogic concept of having students compare the voice graph of their imitation with the model voice graph (while it do did not allow for teachers to upload their own content, and was certainly not free).
- To my knowledge, Auralog Tell me more does not allow for adding teacher-produced content as models.
- I did like the self-reflective and repetitive practice element. However, I found that students – apart from intonation and (not useful for not pitch based languages) pitch -, did not benefit as much as one might have expected from viewing the voice graph, indeed tended to get overwhelmed, even confused by the raw voice information in such a voice graph.
- And automated scoring of pronunciation (or speech recognition” – not free form, but on a level that has been commoditized in operating systems like Windows 7, the level of voice-directed selection between a limited set of different options, like menu options, and in the case of Auralog, choosing between different response options) seemed iffy and less than transparent in Auralog Tell me more, even though this is their primary selling point. E.g. when I made deliberate gross mistakes, the program seemed to change its standards and wave me through ( English pronunciation example; also observed by me when testing Auralog with East Asian speakers of English).
- which was (not exclusively, but arguably too much) based on this pedagogic concept of having students compare the voice graph of their imitation with the model voice graph (while it do did not allow for teachers to upload their own content, and was certainly not free).
- In the LRC student computers, we have for exactly this purpose a digital audio recorder as part of the SANAKO Study 1200language learning system
- A voice graph is not the same as a more abstract phonetic transcription (although I do not know whether language learners can be trained in phonetic symbol sets like the IPA). There are now experimental programs that can automate the transcription of text into phonetic symbol sets for e.g. Portuguese or Spanish. Maybe you will find that practice with recording and a phonetic transcription of the recorded text is more useful for your students’ pronunciation practice than a fancy voice graph.
NFLRC "Assessments for Japanese Language Instruction" Summer Institute
The National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is pleased to announce its 2012 Summer Institute:
ASSESSMENTS FOR JAPANESE LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION July 10-13, 2012 University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii
Website: http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/prodev/si12j/
This four-day NFLRC summer institute (July 10-13, 2012) is intended for postsecondary Japanese language educators who wish to promote good assessment practices in their home institutions. It consists of lecture as well as hands-on sessions designed to help improve their theoretical knowledge and practical skills about assessments (including testing). To this end, the workshop will provide ample authentic assessment examples in various formats and procedures to assess learning outcomes in Japanese in classroom and program-level settings. The workshop will also cover portfolio assessments for Japanese language teacher training programs. After attending the workshop, participants will be better prepared to engage in effective formative and summative assessments for Japanese language instruction and teacher training in their home institutions.
If you are interested in participating in the Assessments for Japanese Language Instruction Summer Institute, please submit your ONLINE APPLICATION FORM BY JANUARY 31, 2012.
For more information about the workshop, application, funding possibilities, and logistics, please visit the summer institute website.
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Other ways to find help
If you cannot find it here, look there: 5,500 Language-Learning Links and Programs for learning or teaching 150 languages
Shortcuts:Our Lists, Our Maps, LRC Staff Moodle Site,LRC Project Moodle Site, 49erexpress, UNCC Moodle, Student Recordings: s:claslcslrcsanakostudent
Learning usage samples: Sanako oral exam, Kaltura webcam presentation, Dictation with speech recognition, Sanako written exam, Chinese and Japanese interactive stroke-order practice
Test the Sanako Installer, Webbrowser Popup Konfigurator for XP, or Windows7, faster LRC TeacherPC Log-in Let MS facilitate diacritics writing by installing for you US-International keyboard layout
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