Archive
Archive for the ‘e-languages’ Category
Memrise: Another flashcard site for vocabulary learning
2011/11/21
Leave a comment
- Yet another attempt to tackle foreign language vocabulary learning with a crowd-sourced flashcard site: What is different this time, other than the layout?
- The site works with a seed/greenhouse/garden metaphor for spaced repetition (how intelligent is the underlying algorithm for that?) and processing/short/long term memory
- You can have the word pronounced (is this Text-to-speech? does not sound like it. So will it scale?) The focus on non-target language “ponies” seems not fruitful. Actual target language context should be under “Samples”, but seems widely missing. Communicative motivation also. Multiple meanings and grammatical information seem to be missing from the lemmata. .
-
- Looks like a long list of flashcard lists, but note that the number of included words is descending quickly, hardly one of the many textbooks
- The site allows you to download the word lists as Excel files:
Categories: all-languages, e-languages, Vocabulary, websites
flashcards
How to use the online Spanish pronunciation help to generate phonetic alphabet transcriptions and text-to-speech
2011/11/18
Leave a comment
- Go to http://showroom.daedalus.es/es/tecnologias-de-la-lengua/phonetictrans/phonetictrans.php, enter your text, select your phonetic symbol set:
- Unlike with the Portuguese help, there is no text-to-speech option here.
Web-based romanized letters to Cyrillic transliteration tool.
2011/11/16
Leave a comment
- Our Russian tutor uses this transliteration tool HTTP://TRANSLIT.RU which allows for phonetic input on a keyboard that does not have Cyrillic letters and seems popular with native speakers of languages written in Cyrillic.
- As so often, that implies: not designed for language learners. The explanation attests to that:
Categories: Advanced, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-languages, Intermediate, Russian, websites, Writing
character-input, websites
Microsoft Contextual Translator
2011/11/14
Leave a comment
Certainly an advance over the MS-Word thesaurus (unlike the MS-Word 2007 and up spell check, still not contextual). Does this work at least well enough to serve as a fruitful pedagogical exercise: “Which phrase does not belong in the group?”
Categories: Advanced, audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, Beginner, e-languages, English, Intermediate, Speaking, websites, Writing
links, thesaurus
How students access language learning materials on the Library ereserves system
2011/11/11
Leave a comment
- Note the important update in red below.
- This has been tested at post date with Firefox. ereserves seems to be not compatible with Internet Explorer 8: i
- On the Library home page, from the top menu: “Research & Course Help”, choose menu item: “Course Reserves” (or, if this menu changes again, I have a hunch that deeplinking may be more stable: http://library.uncc.edu/caos/coursereserve, what’s in a URL…),
- sign in with your Ninernet ID,
- enter search term
- select from the dropdown “search by name”, an enter part of your course name in the textbox,
- or click on tab:”Course Reserves Pages by Instructor”, and from the dropdown, select your instructor,
- click search,
- then select your course from the results grid.
- Enter the password, which has been given to your by your instructor.
- In the results grid, click on the desired chapter and tracks. Note: You need to disable your web browser”s “popup blocker”.
- In the popup window, click on link: “More information”,
- when offered, , like in this screenshot:
- you cannot save the file, or rather: only a text file with links to the audio which you cannot play, like rtsp://dlib4.uncc.edu:554/e_reserves/CD1bonneforme12-16.rm). That is by design.
- Instead of trying to save, select to “open” the file. You need have a streaming audio playing software installed, like Real Player or the open source VLC-Player.
- instead of VLC, as offered by default, like so :
- choose “Open with”, “Other”, pick “RealPlayer” from the list, like so:
- Here is a more on what does not work with ereserves. The only combination I could get to work with eReserves streaming audio is – see resulting screencast (requires Windows Media Player) of streaming a long file successfully – is RealPlayer 14, Firefox 3.6 on Windows XP3, and that only after resetting the Winsock catalog which I can do for the entire LRC only nownext time the lab is reimaged. For now, use instead audio from Moodle metacourses where possible.
MS Universal Language Input Tool offers correction and transliteration on any web page
2011/11/10
Leave a comment
Using the UIME, you can “type any language with any keyboard on any web page, using only the Roman characters present on every keyboard.”
And you can install your favorite input language in your web browser, like so:
Categories: Absolute-Beginner, Advanced, Arabic, Beginner, e-languages, English, French, Greek (modern), Intermediate, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, software, websites, Writing
character-input, ms-uime
How a teacher creates and grades a Moodle streaming video assignment.
2011/11/02
Leave a comment
- Click button: “Turn editing on”, from the “add an activity dropdown, choose: “video”, like so:
- Edit your assignment, like so:
- using the following options (or else expect problems)
- Due date: not DISABLED (is the default)
- Prevent late submissions: YES (is not the default)
- Allow resubmitting: NO (is the default)
- using the following options (or else expect problems)
- after you post your assignment and your students took it, like so,
- and if you turned notifications (not recommended; rather grade the assignment well after the deadline, or else expect problems) on (if you get already enough email, remember you can turn notifications off, rather send a deadline to the assignments which the students can see in their calendar, and until they get used to it, tell them there will be more video assignments, best: make it a routine and leave 2 for extra credit could be enough to get everybody to catch), you will get an email like this:
- where you click either on the link (1) to go to the assignment, then click through to the submissions (3)
- or on (2) to go directly to the grade book:
- where you are best advised to click on the button: “grade” to view the video submission, , or else you might run into this bug.
- In the grading window,
play the video, add helpful comments, if any, add final Grade and click “save and next” (but click “next” if no video submitted yet and you grade before the submission deadline. Better: do not grade before the submission deadline). - If video seems unwilling to play (frozen frame), drag the play cursor forward on the timeline underneath the video.
If this does not unfreeze the video, let the timeline run to the end (both workarounds have helped with Kaltura issues we encountered here).
Categories: all-languages, audience-is-teachers, e-languages, lms, Speaking, step-by-step-guides
1.9, kaltura, moodle, video
Deutsche Welle ends her live German program streaming today
2011/10/29
5 comments
- Too bad:
- And in those last news: “The Chinese government demands reforms in the Euro-zone before providing financial help”.
- I remember a time when Deutsche Welle was available during family vacation only via short wave radio. Now, the on-demand offerings of the Deutsche Welle will be expanded. They are more useful for language learning than live streaming anyway.
Categories: audience-is-students, audience-is-teachers, e-languages, German, Media
dwelle, links, radio
Questions? Read the About. Or just ask me a quick Our Databases: Resources with calendars -- Language learning material Moodle Sites, multimedia files -- films
FAQs for LRC student staff or for students or for teachers. To search our FAQs, in the browser addressbar, add after "https://plagwitz.wordpress.com/feed/?tag=faqs+/" "+TAG1" (from tag cloud below) OR "https://plagwitz.wordpress.com/feed/tag=faqs
&category_name=" "CAT1" (from category hierarchy below). OR search both categories and tags, and multiple TAGs/CATs (connect with "," for OR-search, with "+" for AND-search), like so: https://plagwitz.wordpress.com/feed/?tag=TAG1+TAG2+...TAGn&category_name=CAT1
+CAT2+...CATn"
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
This is my personal blog (Google+). The views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not those of my employer. The information in this weblog is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Thomas' Work Space 