MULTILANG
(Download)
A software

for language teachers prepare their language lessons with

on Windows 95, NT and 3.1 platforms

A Product of

Language Resource and Research Center

University of Pennsylvania

Vasur@ccat.sas.upenn.edu

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/larrc

1. Overview: (SCREEN SHOTS) Language learning activities usually include "reading", "listening", "recording speech", "consulting reference sources" etc., from the point of view of students and "planning lessons", "making exercises", "testing", "grading", "researching" and so on from the point of view of the teacher. MULTILANG is designed to meet the needs of both teachers and stduents by incorporating a number of activities such as listening, reading, recording speech, making log files for feedback, using network and so on. This sofware runs in Windows 95, NT and 3.1 platforms. The source document of this software is a text file containing a number of easy to use command sequences. In other words, it is an authoring software capable of integrating multimedia features such as sound, video, pictures etc., with running text using a set of commands. At the user's end, it is a browser that displays the text prepared in the authoring mode with a number of hot spots pertaining to different multimedia activities. This manual describes both the teacher's tool kit and the user's front end portion of the software. Use of this software is intended to be a supplement of Web resources. That means, this software can be used along with Web materials, in addition to localized features such as using large chunks of digitized data, effective use of local network and so on.

1.1. Teacher's toolkit:

Lessons prepared using MULTILANG are primarily a set of text files containing a variety of commands triggering various multimedia based actions like playing audio and movie files, triggering a recording mode, keeping a log file of students activities, using foreign language fonts and so on. Commands to invoke any action from the source text file is made using an escape sequence consisting of the left square bracket [ followed by a letter or number representing each activity. The escape sequences may be incoroporated in the document using visually aided components in the software without much of programming.

For example, the sequence [4This is purple displays the text "This is purple" in purple color; "[A This is Arial font" displays the string "This is Arial" in Arial font; "[Bthis is bold[b makes the string "this is bold" in bold - [B is to start bold face letters and [b is end it. These formatting sequences are described in detail in the section 2. Audio, movie and picture files may be used using corresponding extensions such as .mov, .wav, .bmp etc in hotspots.

1.2. Making hot spots:

Making hot spots within any text for different actions is what makes this software an easy to use tool for both the teachers point of view and from the users' point of view. Any word or sentence in a running text may be made into a hot spot and clicking the hot spot will trigger the corresponding action. A variety of actions includes playing sound files, movie files, showing pictures, giving meaning, illustrations and so on.

Hot spots are made using the sequence [g followed by a word or sentence and preceded by another sequence [c. The sequence [c may be followed by the names of a sound file, picture file, text and so on in order to invoke the corresponding action such as playing the wave file, showing the picture file, loading the text file respectively.

For example the sequence,

[gPlay[cding.wav

makes the word "Play" a hot spot. On clicking this word the audio device in the computer plays the wave file ding.wav that is kept in the local directory. Note that the extension .wav is the key element to trigger the action of playing the wave file. Any segment of a large wave file can be played with the respective time marks are specified as below.

[gPlay[cmy.wav<2000,4000>

Following are some of the examples showing the number of possible extensions and their corresponding actions that one can use with this software. A detailed description of all the commands are provided under each section entitled "picture", "sound", "movie", etc.

Brings up a text field where students can enter their responses

Records the answer "yes" in students log file for respective question.

Starts an oral test based on the instructions given in the text file oral.txt. It also triggers the timer function for responses.

Change font to Tamil [gChange&font&to&tamil[ctamilnet.ttf

Changes font value to

2. Multimedia features and command sequences

A detailed description of the escape sequences and their respective actions are given as below.

2.1. Hot spots:

Hot spots are made with the command sequence [g followed by a word or sentences. Space between words must be filled with &. Thus,

Source - Appearance on the browser

Single - [gSingle[cOneWord Single

Clicking the word "Single" will bring up a small window with the word "OneWord". On the other hand, the sequence

[gmultiple&words[cmultiple&words multiple words

brings up a window with the word "multiple words", where the symbol & is suppressed in the display window.

The command sequence [c should be used to invoke any required special action to any given hot spot. Various actions that can be invoked using hot spots in this software are described as below:

2.2. Playing sound files: (Using the extension .wav)

Hot spots may be linked to any wave file, so that clicking it would play the corresponding wave file in the attached speaker. Location of the wave file should be marked explicitly with appropriate path name, otherwise the corresponding file will be loaded from the active directory.

For example,

[gThis&sentence&is&a&hot&spot[cstart.wav This sentence is a hot spot

Clicking this sentence will play the wave file "start.wav" kept in the local directory.

[gClick&here[cc:\windows\chimes.wav Click here

Clicking the phrase "Click here" will play the sound file "chimes.wav" kept in the directory "c:\windows". Any segment within a sound file may be played marking the beginning and end time as in

[gPlay&sound&between&400&and&3000[ckalyan.wav<400,3000>

Play sound between 400 and 3000

When clicking the sentence "Play sound between 400 and 3000" the segment starting from 400 and 3000 in the wave file kalyan.wav is played. A discussion on how to time mark sound files is made in the section "Time Marking media files".

Multiple sound files can be tagged together and play them one after the another by giving an extension "w" preceded by the beginning and end of wave files. The first part of the file name must be the name of the file without the number. Thus, if the three sound files echo1.wav, echo2.wav, echo3.wav are to be played one after another, the hot spot should be made as

[gPlay&all[cecho.13.w Play all

Thus, clicking the hotspot "Play all" plays the sound files echo1.wav, echo2.wav and echo3.wav one after another.

If the control of the sound file from beginning to end with a sliding scale may be handled by the user with the option "Wave Palette" given under the "File menu". This will open an audio palette, so that the sound files can be controlled using different buttons such as rewind, stop, pause and so on.

2.3. Playing movie files: (using the extensions .mov and .avi)

Hot spots can be used to play movie files with the extensions .avi and .mov. The escape sequence [c should be followed by the name of the movie file. If the movie file is not in the current directory, the path should be specified appropriately.

[gClick&here&to&play&avi&file[ca.avi Click here to play avi

The hot spot "Click here to play avi file" plays the avi file "a.avi" kept in the local directory. Any specific segment within a digitized movie file may be played specifying the beginning and end time like

[gMovie&between[[ckalyaan.mov(7000,10000). Movie between

Include the begin and end time with in parenthesis followed by the name of the movie file. Refer the section on "Time marking media files" for how to time mark the movie files.

The option "animation" given in the File menu may be used to play any desired movie from the disk.

If you have not installed drivers properly for playing QuickTime movies, you may not be able to play QuickTime movie files with the extension .mov. In such cases, you will have to either install the proper drivers or convert the movie file into .avi file using an utility software. Avi files are the registered movie files for Windows and the drivers to play .avi files are usually bundled with Windows.

Making oral interviews: (Using the extension .tst)


Oral interviews with timer interface may be made provided the sound file is time marked properly using the option "Time mark" and corresponding text file is specified appropriately.

The text file with interview script should prepared as below.

2000,play c:\movie\student\oral.wav from 1500 to 4350 wait

4000,play c:\movie\student\oral.wav from 4350 to 8786 wait

2000,play c:\movie\student\oral.wav from 8786 to 12928 wait

2000,play c:\movie\student\oral.wav from 12928 to 15360 wait

4000,play c:\movie\student\oral.wav from 15360 to 20582 wait

There are two fields viz., time and command separated by a comma. This script can be generated using the option "Time mark" > "Load sound for cmd output". The hot spot that refers to this text file will look like:

[gStart&interview[coral.txt.tst Start interview

Where oral.txt is the text file with the script as above and .tst is the extension to start the interview session. Each time after playing the sound file, the student is allowed to record the response within a specified time as marked in the lefthand side in the script.

Pop-up references

Plain text without any extensions such as .wav, .txt, .doc, .avi, .bmp, .log etc., may be added after the escape sequence [c so, the corresponding text will be displayed in a small window on clicking the respective hot spot.

[gThis&is&a&hot&spot[cthis&is&meaning This is a hot spot

Clicking the hot spot "This is a hot spot" brings up a small window with the display "this is meaning".

Fonts

More than one font and foreign language fonts can be used in the browser using the following escape sequences.

Escape sequence Fonts

[A Arial

[C Courier

[N Courier New

[F Fixedsys

[E MS Sans Serif

[e MS Serif

[M Modern

[R Roman

[P Script

[L Small Fonts

[Y Symbol

[Z System

[T Terminal

[t Times New Roman

[W Wingdings

[a [UserFont

These fonts are predefined with the respective escape sequences. The font "Terminal" can be reassigned to any other font, provided the corresponding true type font is installed in the computer. For example, by default the sequence "[T This is Terminal" displays the string "This is Terminal" in Terminal font. However, it can be reassigned to other fonts on the "Run time" using the tag .ttf as below.

[gChange&font&to&Tamil[ctamilnet.ttf Change font to Tamil

Clicking the hot spot "Change font to Tamil" will assign the escape sequence [T to Tamilnet. So, anything after [T will be in Tamil.

The option "Font" under File menu:

The option "Font" on the main menu may be used to assign any font to the escape sequence [T by browsing the installed fonts on the window. Also, there any of the other escape sequences such as [A, [C etc., may be reassigned to any font by specifying the name of the font in the respective field using the option "font". For example, the default value [A for Arial may be reassigned to any true type font, provided the name is typed on the respective field and Arial is selected using the pull-down menu.

If printer driver is not installed in the computer, the option "Font" can not be used because, when clicked it looks for all the printer fonts in the system. It is possible that fonts can be installed without installing the printer drivers in the computer. In such cases, clicking the option "Font" in this software will not have any effect, and you will have to install the printer driver.

Pictures

Pictures may be placed in the document using the escape sequences [p, [y, and [z followed by the numbers 01, 02, 03 etc.

[p01 Places pictures to the left

[y01 Places pictures at the center

[z01 Places pictures at the right hand side

Seven pictures are already included in this software. More pictures may be added using the option "Pictures" under the "File" menu.

Pictures may be loaded in the run time using the extension .bmp.

[gShow&Picture[cmypic.bmp Show Picture

When the hot spot "Show Picture" is clicked, a picture named mypic.bmp is loaded on a scrollable window.

2.2 Formatting

Following are the formatting commands that one can use to give different formatting types of the text such as bold face, italics, superscript, tables etc. Usually, the capital letters of corresponding formatting type begins the formatting and the equivalent small letters end the formatting.

[B Bold on

[b Bold off

[I Italic on

[i Italic off

[S Superscript on

[s Superscript off

[U Underline on

[u Underline off

[D Sub/Superscript on

[d Sub/Superscript off

[f Fraction

[G Subscript on

[g Hypertext

[q Restore to defaults

[c Hot spot tag word

[h Table cell separator

[H Table separator

Superscript and Subscripts

The escape sequence [D starts the superscript and [d ends it. Similarly, [G starts subscript and [d ends it. Fractions may be made with the sequence [f. For example, [F1/2 will display half.

Making columns:

Tables with automatic column sizing can be done using the escape sequence [h :

Source:

[h[UState[u [h[UCapital[u [UNickname[u

[hCalifornia[hSacramento[hGolden State

[hNew York [hAlbany [hEmpire State

[hWashington [hOlympia [hEvergreen State

Display:

State Capital Nickname

California Sacramento Golden State

New York Albany Empire State

Washington Olympia Evergreen State

Recording:

Recording of speech using the attached microphone may be made possible using two different ways. We can either use the option "Turn Record on" or give suitable command in the body of the text.

The option "Turn record on":

Turning this option "on" displays a small window with three buttons "record", "save" and "play". When the record button is turned on, the microphone starts receiving signals, simultaneously a red background is appearing on the window. Once the recording is done, the button "Save" should be pressed. "Play" button can play back what is recorded. During the logging process, a sequence of wave files will be created like name1.wav, name2.wav etc. and saved in the directory specified in the beginning using the option "Path".

In the "teacher" mode, the record option is turned off because the teacher mode is considered just a browsing mode and no logging will be performed. However, the record mode may be turned on in the "teacher" mode using a hot spot extension "recordon" as shown below.

[gTurn&Record&ON[crecordon Turn Record On

When recording is done in the teacher mode, the name of the wave files will be just sequential numbers like: 1.wav, 2.wav, 3.wav etc.

Input text field: (using the extension .ans)

Text field for entering any response can be made appearing on the screen using the extension .ans. When clicking the hot spot that contains the extension .ans, a text filed appears. Upon quitting this text field, the text entered will be written in the log file.

Text can be entered in this text file using any true type font that is selected from the option "font".. The option "exit" when clicked saves the content of the text field under with the respective question number in the log file, so that the teacher can then can go read the questions and the answers in the log file. This window appears whenever we have a hot spot with the extension .ans. However, the respective font must be changed every time when this window is loaded using the hot spot.

Following are some of the example tags that are used with the extenion .ans

[gTranslate[cTranslation&for&Question&no&one.ans Translate

When the hot spot "Translate" is clicked, the above window appears, simultaneously a line "Translation for Question no one" is entered in the log file. When the student enters the text and clicks the option "exit", the text is enter under this line.

Time marking:


The option "Time mark" under the "File" menu is an important resource that can be used to time mark any specific point within any movie or sound file. This utility should be used in the authoring mode (teacher) to prepare text for "interview" and "reading" sessions. Wave, movie and avi files can be loaded from "File" menu. As soon as the file is loaded it starts playing. The option "Play from 0" can be used to play the file from the beginning and the button "Begin/End" can be used to identify the position at any point. When this button is clicked current position of the media file is marked in the window named "beginning point", when it is clicked again, the position is marked at the window named "end point", marking the beginning and end point. This way, one can locate beginning and end points of any specific event within the media file. The positions marked in the window can be transferred to the window named "notes" using the button "Mark points". The numbers in the windows named "beginning point" and "end point" can be edited by double clicking on them, so that the selection can be fine tuned. Any specific segment in the file can be played by marking the respective time points in the windows "beginning point" and "end point" using the option "Play between". In order to use this option, however, the positions at the windows "beginning point" and "end point" must be selected first using the mouse. The option "Save script" can be used to save the script in the window named "notes"point" using the option "Play between". In order to use this option, however, the positions at the windows "beginning point" and "end point" must be selected first using the mouse. The option "Save script" can be used to save the script in the window named "notes"

Launching Netscape:

Netscape can be launched using the extension .url at the end of actual url. This [gLaunch[chttp://ccat.sas.upenn.edu.url is the source code to launch the page http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu. The default path for netscape is given as: c:\progra~1\netscape\navigator\program\netscape. If it is not the path in your computer, it may ask the path where the netscape application program is residing. You will have to find out the actual path to launch netscape.

Language Learning in a Networked environment:

The option "Chat" under main menu allows one to choose a common drive accessible by more than one person at the same time. Upon selecting a common drive name usually mounted from a server, it is possible for everyone to exchange messages among themselves. The chat page has two windows, one for reading messages as well as executing commands and the other for sending messages. When sending messages using the bottom window, it is possible to send commands with hot spots, enabling the user to execute them by clicking the hot spots. All possible commands that are useable in MULTILANG's main window can be used in top window of the chat page. Thus, this can be used as a sub window that is useable in real time.

Further, when one of the mounted drives from the server computer is used as path, it is possible to share the sound and log files of every student who is using the software. This will enable the teacher to go through the log file and audio files in real time and correspond with the student using the chat page.