HOW TO
USE THE SUPER DUPER VOCAB TUTORER
=============================================
The idea of the super-duper vocab tutorer is
to help you to learn
individual words from a foreign language
(at the moment spanish, french and english)
by playing the
sound of the words and allowing you to view
a translation of them
into your language (only english currently).
To use the program you type a command (such
as the letter 'w'
plus the [enter] key]) in the top 'text box'
(which has
'Enter a command' written above it) and the
program responds
by doing something (playing a word, or
translating a word etc).
In the 'message box' which is the large text
box on the web page,
the program normally tells you what command
it has just
executed.
A QUICK EXAMPLE OF USING THE PROGRAM
------------------------------------
When the web page loads you will see a
message in the larger
text box saying how many words are
available.
Step 1.
In the smaller text box (which has 'Enter
a Command' written above it)
type the letter 'w' and then press the
[enter] key. Dont type any
spaces or tabs and use lower case, please.
You should hear the sound of a randomly
selected
spanish (or french etc) word being spoken.
If not please see the
'Questions' section below.
Step 2.
In the smaller text box (I'll call it the
'command-box' from now on)
type 'a' and press the [enter] key. You
should hear the same word
being spoken again.
Step 3.
In the command-box type 'v' and press the
[enter] key. In the
larger text box (I'll call it the
'message-box' from now on)
you should see the text of the word that
was just played. The text
is in the original language. It is not
translated.
Step 4.
In the command-box type 'x' and press the
[enter] key.
You will be redirected to a web-page
(www.wordreference.com) that
contains the dictionary definition of the
word which you have just
heard (and viewed). When you are finished
reading the definition
press the 'back' button on your browser.
Step 5.
In the command-box type 'w' and press the
[enter] key.
A new randomly selected word is spoken.
Step 6.
You can continue entering commands
(letters plus the [enter] key)
into the command box in any order that you
like.
SOME
QUESTIONS:
---------------
WHAT IS
A COMMAND (IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS PROGRAM)?
A command is just a letter or word which you
type into the
'command box' (the small text box) plus the
[enter] key
and which makes the program do something.
I TYPED
A COMMAND AND NOTHING HAPPENED? WHATS GOING ON?
Make sure that the cursor was in the 'command
box' which is the
smaller text box which has something like
'enter a command'
written above it
Make sure that you pressed the [enter] key
after typeing the
letter in the command box.
Make sure that you didn't type any spaces or
tabs before or
after the command (ED: This should be fixed).
Make sure that you didn't use capital letters
for the command.
The command should be lower case.
I TYPED
A COMMAND AND NOTHING HAPPENED EXCEPT THAT I SAW A MESSAGE
SAYING
'SORRY THE PROGRAM DOESNT UNDERSTAND THAT COMMAND'
Make sure that you didn't type any spaces or
tabs before or
after the command (ED: This should be fixed).
Make sure that you didn't use capital letters
for the command.
The command should be lower case.
Make sure that the command that you typed in
the command box
was a 'valid' command for the program. You
can see what are
the valid commands by typing ? and [enter]
into the command
box. The message-box will then display a list
of the
valid commands
I TYPED
THE COMMAND 'w' AND I SAW THE MESSAGE
'2 [Command: w] MAY BE SHORT DELAY'
BUT I
DIDNT HEAR ANY SOUND? WHATS GOING ON?
OK, this is a big question and could have a
number of answers.
Basically inorder to hear the sound you need
all of the following
things:
Firstly to hear the sound you need a
'sound-card',
To check if you have a sound-card look at
the back of your
computer and see if there are 3 small round
holes in a row,
often with coloured rings. If not buy a
sound-card and
have it installed into your computer. If
you dont want to do that
you could investigate programs that play
sound files through the
dodgy built-in speaker and please tell me
the results of your
experiments. But you wont be able to use
this web-based program, I doubt.
Secondly you need speakers connected to that
sound-card (or a set of
headphones).
Obtain speakers or headphones and plug them
into the small round
hole which says 'line out' or which has a
little picture of
headphones next to it or something like
that.
Thirdly you need the volume on the speakers
to be turned up sufficiently.
There should be a knob on your speakers.
Twist it. You also may need
to change the volume using a piece of
software. On microsoft
Windows PCs this software can be found
using the menus
start-->programs-->entertainment-->volume-control
Fourthly you need the correct plugin or
activeX object to be installed in your
browser. For the netscape browser version
4.61 you need the 'LiveAudio'
plugin that allows the browser to play 'wav'
format audio files.
If you need the LiveAudio plugin search on
the internet for
'npaudio.dll' and then copy it into the
netscape 'plugin'
directory. (Please see the Netscape help to
find out what this is)
For the Internet Explorer browser you need (I
think) an activeX object,
but Internet Explorer should automatically
install this if it is not
already. In other words for Internet Explorer
this shouldn't be a problem.
There are also other reasons that the sound
file will not play, but I
cannot enumerate them. Essentially the
program has only been tested
so far on Microsoft Windows PCs running IE
4,5,6 and Netscape 4.61.
WHAT IS
A 'LESSON' IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS PROGRAM?
A lesson is just a set of words (usually
about 50).
The program only plays the words that are in
the current
lesson. This is because it is
probably easier to try and learn a small
number of words at
once in order to give your-self a sense of
progress and
achievement.
WHAT
ARE THE 'LESSON' LINKS AT THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF
THE
WEB-PAGE FOR?
These links are to allow you to load a new
set of
(usually 50) words into the program. The
program will
only play the words in the current 'lesson'.
This allows
you to just practice a manageable number of
words at once.
HOW TO
I LOAD A NEW LESSON (GO TO A NEW LESSON)?
Click on one of the links on the right-hand
side
of the vocab-tutor web page which says
something
like 'lesson n' where n is some number.
WHEN I
FIRST LOAD THE VOCAB TUTOR WHAT LESSON AM I IN?
You are in the 'all lessons' or 'all words'
lesson which
means that all available words are loaded
and will be
played by the program.
WHATS
THE WIDE BUT THIN TEXT BOX NEAR THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE
THAT
SEEMS TO CONTAIN A LIST OF URLS? WHATS IT FOR?
Really you dont need to worry about this
box. It just contains
the urls that the program uses to play
('speak') the words.
If you feeling adventurous you can cut and
paste your own
urls of sound files in the and then type
'load' in the
command box. The program will then use your
sound urls instead of
its normal ones. But you normally wouldn't need to do this.
I
NOTICE THAT AFTER I TYPE 'w' PLUS [ENTER] THERE IS A DELAY BEFORE
THE
WORD IS 'SPOKEN'. WHY IS THIS?
This is because the sound file of the word
has to be downloaded
from the internet before it can be played.
That is why the first time
that you play a word there will be a delay
but the next time that that
same word plays it should play
instantaneously.
YOU
SEEM TO BE USING SOUND FILES THAT WERE CREATED BY OTHER PEOPLE AND
ARE
STORED ON OTHER PEOPLES SERVERS. ISNT THIS A LITTLE BIT RUDE NOT TO
SAY
WRONG?
Yes in a sense it is wrong, but since this
is a non-commercial
and education project I feel reasonably
justified.
WHAT
TYPES OF SYSTEMS HAS THIS WEB PAGE BEEN TESTED ON?
Microsoft Windows PCs (Win 2000) with the
browsers
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.7, 5, 6
Nescape Navigator 4.61
Apple Macintosh (OSX)
Browser ? The sound files are not playing
Linux
Completely untested
Other Unixes
Completely untested
OTHER
NOTES AND COMMENTS
========================
At the url
http://www.geocities.com/matth3wbishop/spanish/vocab-sp.txt
http://www.geocities.com/matth3wbishop/spanish/vocab-fr.txt
there is also a vocab tutor which is written
as a script
designed to be run in a unix shell. The user
interface is
approximately the same the web version.
However at the moment the script uses some
programs which
are not standard in the unix shell, such as
a file called
wav.exe which is the program which actually
plays the sound file.
This is actually a windows program. (This is
because I
developed the program in a 'cygwin' shell on
a windows
pc). It should not be difficult to adapt the
program to
run in a 'standard' unix shell, but I havent
done this yet.