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MINI-ARTICLE #2: Awesome Vocabulary Flash Card Program
GreekFlash Pro is a great but misnamed piece of software. It
was originally designed as a flash card system for students
learning Greek, but is actually great for learning any
language. In fact, I'm using it to create Arabic font (rtl)
vocabulary cards in Arabic Windows and am having no problems
doing it at all. Think "Vocabulary Flash Pro" as you read
the
following.
Unless you're learning Greek you'll need to make your own
flash cards, with each card having the word or phrase you want
to learn, a translation into a language you know, and the part
of speech of the word. Through creating different card sets
you can arrange cards by textbook or course. And, if you have
someone to record them, you can record voice directly in the
card editor as well so that you can listen to each word as you
are studying and reviewing. (Each card can contain up to eight
seconds of voice. If you're going to do this, please read the
mini-article below about having the right kind of mike.)
As you flip through your card sets, the program keeps track of
which cards you get wrong or right and accordingly moves the
individual cards from "not memorized" into "short-term
memorized" and finally "long-term memorized".
It's extremely simple to use, extremely simple to create new
cards and new card sets, and extremely simple and fun to study
or review through the card sets as part of your language
learning program. Card sets are shareable, so if you create
any for the language you are learning send them to me and I'll
put them on our website so that others can use them too. (I
bet well-developed comprehensive sets could be sold, if you're
looking for a way to make some spending money.)
I like this program!
You can download a trial copy of this software at: http://www.paradigm-sw.com/ . The
registered version costs about
$35. Please tell them you heard about their product in this
newsletter.
----
Discuss GreekFlash Pro in Language Learning Talk:
mailto:LL-talk@egroups.com (members only)
Become a member of Language Learning Talk:
mailto:LL-talk-subscribe@egroups.com
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MINI-ARTICLE #3: Making Digital Photo Albums with Firehand
Lightening II
In previous issues of Language Learning for Language Learners
(formally Language Learning), Greg Thomson and I have
discussed using picture books to rapidly build vocabulary
recognition and get "input floods" of strategic grammar
exposure.
In the past language learners have had to build such picture
books by going out and taking lots of pictures, and then
having them developed (perhaps getting multiple sets), and
then throwing out the duds, and then sequencing the pictures
and pasting them into a somewhat-large-and-bulky photo album.
About six months ago I discovered and fell in love with
Firehand Lightening II ( http://www.firehand.com
), a program
which allows you to arrange digital pictures into photo albums
and slide shows, adding sound to each picture as well as a
background soundtrack if you like. Not only that, but the
files you create are easily shareable; your recipients just
need two small and free viewers (one for photo albums and one
for slideshows) available from the Firehand website. Or you
can put the viewers on a disk along with your digital picture
books and slideshows.
At that time six months ago I was in the process of making a
(physical) photo book for myself along with several copies for
language-learning friends. This was quickly becoming a major
project, much more than I had intended (the story of my
life!), and I found myself having a hard time getting the
amounts of the kinds of photos I wanted.
I stumbled upon Firehand Lightening II and immediately knew it
was exactly what I needed. I scanned in whatever good photos I
had, "borrowed" photos from friends here who had a digital
camera and had taken hundreds of pictures, and I was also able
to get many pictures from a couple royalty-free CD sets and
picture/clipart websites. (I didn't know about it then but
would start with http://www.arttoday.com
if I had it to do
over again.)
And these weren't just generic pictures, I was able to
find many from the area of the world that I live in--better
pictures than I was taking myself!
I organized pictures into four sets: individuals doing
something, two people doing something, groups of people, and
scenes. I then made both photo albums and slideshows from
those four sets because some language learning activities are
better done with photo albums while some are better done with
slideshows. (I'd recommend you and a tutor starting with one-
picture-at-time slideshows and then using photo albums for
several-picture-at-a-time review.
The software is powerful, and if you find yourself thinking,
"I wish it would do _____," it probably does.
To use Greg Thomson's methods, the individuals set is the best
place to start. I'll let you read his article from the
archives to get you going from there. Be creative as you apply
basic language learning principles and you'll come up with
many other helpful things you can do as well.
----
Discuss FireHand Lightening II or using photo albums in Language
Learning Talk::
mailto:LL-talk@egroups.com (members only)
Become a member of Language Learning Talk
mailto:LL-talk-subscribe@egroups.com
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MINI-ARTICLE #4: Great Recording Directly into CE on My
Computer Now That I Have The Right Kind of Mike
For the longest time I've been very disappointed with the
quality of recording I've gotten by plugging a microphone into
my computer's sound card and then recording directly into Cool
Edit 2000 ( http://www.syntrillium.com/
). Similarly, programs
like Net-2-Phone and dialpad.com gave us disappointing results
as well.
My computer manufacturer didn't have much help on their
website other than suggesting that I try to see if installing
a new driver would help. It didn't. Someone else said that the
sound card in my brand of laptop computer wasn't very good, so
I just figured I'd have to live with the problem and get a
better sound card next time I get a computer.
My frustration grew the other day when I was showing someone
how to use CE and we got very good recordings directly onto
his computer using an inexpensive headset-type mike he uses
for Net-2-Phone.
And then a dear person said, "I bet it's your microphone."
Ends up that there are microphones designed for tape recorders
and minidisc recorders and there are DIFFERENT microphones
designed for computer sound cards--the impedance is really
different. I went out and got a good computer microphone (a
Labtec AM-252 NCAT), and now I am happy, happy, happy!
The recordings I get plugging this mike directly into the
computer are just as good (and actually less noisy) than I get
recording on a minidisc and then transferring to Cool Edit!
(And not only that, but we used dialpad.com and had the person
on the other end ask us to turn the volume down! In the past
they could hardly hear us.)
So, whenever I can get someone in my house and in front of my
computer I'll just record directly into Cool Edit, and then
I'll use my minidisc recorder for the many times I record
outside of my home and away from my computer.
----
Discuss using Cool Edit 2000 in Language Learning Talk:
mailto:LL-talk@egroups.com (members only)
Become a member of Language Learning Talk:
mailto:LL-talk-subscribe@egroups.com
<<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><
An Index of Articles Available via E-mail Autoresponder
Many articles from past issues of Language Learning for Language Learners are available by e-mail. To get a list of
the available articles, just send a blank e-mail to
languageind@sendfree.com .
<<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><<<><
Language Learning for Language Learners is a free e-mail
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Distributed bi-weekly, Language Learning for Language Learners
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