Language Adventure™

Language Adventure was developed by Instinct with Stanford University second language researchers, teachers and children. Its approach is in accordance with the communicative based teaching recommended by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Its goal is simple — to get a child to speak and understand a foreign language as quickly and enjoyably as possible. It does this by instantly capturing the attention and motivation of children as they get engrossed in a thrilling story. This adventure unfolds through a graduated series of animated lessons, each one unlocking once the previous one has been completed.

This multimedia software employs a natural language learning process that gets children telling a story and answering questions in a foreign language within minutes. The product is designed for ages 6 to 12 and teaches English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish

Children learn to speak by receiving feedback on their effort in using a language. Language Adventure succeeds in activating this learning process in children at an age when they are most receptive. But what makes it exceptional is that the attention riveting drama of this CD ROM means children actually use it!

Product Overview

The program’s animated lessons, are constructed from over a thousand interactive exercises teaching the most important words and phrases. These fall into four basic categories: Narration, Quiz, Author and Discover exercises.

A narration exercise teaches pronunciation and vocabulary. When students reach a narration exercise, the animation will stop, requiring them to repeat and record what was just heard. After recording, students will immediately hear their own voice and the model narration thereby allowing instant comparison. The students can then re-record or if satisfied, go on to the next exercise which has now unlocked.

A quiz exercise teaches comprehension. Here, the student is asked by one of the characters to click on something. When the correct object is clicked the animation will continue. Quiz exercises are rich environments for learning and entertainment and consolidate learning by reinforcing what has just been taught.

An author exercise is where students can try out the new language for themselves. Here, students are asked to create an animated movie and add to it their own narration in the foreign language. This scene will then play as an integral part of the adventure. The author exercise is where students "put it all together" and enjoy the freedom of their own creative expression.

Discover exercises consist of hundreds of clickables interspersed throughout the lessons. Their purpose is to reinforce and expand the student’s command of the foreign language. On clicking them, a relevant word or phrase will be introduced accompanied by a short animation which may take the movie into hilarious directions.

Language Adventure can be considered the tracing paper for speech. In the same way as tracing pictures vastly accelerates a child ability to draw, this software enables a child to accurately mimic a foreign tongue in a most delightful and rewarding way. But the true high point of Language Adventure is when a lesson is completed and watched in its entirety with only the student’s narration. The thrill is indescribable as children hear themselves speaking a foreign language in an action packed adventure of their own making.

Key Features

Multi-student and omni directional

Language Adventure supports any number of students wishing to learn any of its six languages. Furthermore, any of the languages may be set as the student’s native tongue and any other as the language to be learned.

Story based learning

These episodic animations chronicle the misadventures of Una and Om as they embark on an endless odyssey through time and space in pursuit of their dog Pico. The copious use of stunning graphics, animation, music and special effects draws children through the lessons as they step from one cliff hanger to the next. Students remain engaged and motivated with learning becoming almost incidental to the fun and excitement.

Graduated curriculum

Exercises and lessons build on each other and follow rules regarding length, complexity and content. In this way the curriculum adapts to the student’s progress and the language learned becomes instantly useful.

The repetition-correction of natural learning

The immediate repetition of the student’s narration instantly followed by the model language, attunes the student’s ear and tongue to the foreign language by replicating the way we learn languages naturally.

Changeable level setting

The program comes with 3 level settings, Pre-reader, Beginner or Advanced but can also be fully customized to suit a particular learning need. There is also an Observer mode where the adventures can be enjoyed passively with no requirement to do the exercises. While this product is designed for an age range of 6 to 12, observer mode makes it suitable for children as young as two.

Student reports

The program generates detailed reports regarding the student’s progress, effort and study time. These reports continuously update and can be printed.

System Requirements

Language Adventure runs on a Windows 95 or NT 4 PC with:

· CPU Pentium 90 MHz or higher.

· Memory 16 MB, 32 recommended.

· 60 MB of HD storage per student.

· 4X CD-ROM drive.

· 16 bit sound card.

· Microphone and speakers or headphones.

Setting Sound on your computer

It is essential that sound levels are correctly set and recording is enabled on your computer before you use Language Adventure. You may check these settings through the Volume Control software on your system. This is opened by going through the menu: Start/Programs/Accessories/Multimedia/Volume Control. Or by double clicking the small speaker icon on the Windows taskbar if you have one.

· In Volume Control go to the Options menu and select properties.

· In Properties select recording and click OK.

· In recording make sure Microphone is selected and its recording volume is set reasonably high.

· Close Recording Volume.

Later, you will be able to fine tune the relative sound levels of recordings and music from within Language Adventure (see Setup)

Getting Started

Insert the Language Adventure CD into your CD-ROM drive. The Language Adventure CD Launcher will start automatically. Click “Run” to start the program.

If you do not see the CD Launcher after about a minute then do the

following:

Click "Start" on the Window's taskbar, then "Programs", then the "Language

Adventure" folder, then click on "Language Adventure" where you see the

icon..

Student Registration

As Language Adventure can be used by multiple students, each student must register before being able to use the program. To register click on the register button and fill in the registration form with the following:

· New Student: The name or nick-name the student likes to be called. Use 20 characters or less.

· Native language: The student’s mother tongue.

· Foreign language: The language the student wishes to learn.

· Record Your Name: The student should record a name. Make sure you like the recording because it will be heard throughout the program.

· Setup: These are the student specific set-up options and are discussed in the section on Setup.

Once you have completed the form click the OK button. Note that the student’s name, and flag buttons corresponding to the native and foreign languages chosen appear on the Language buttons.

Help

Clicking on the Help button brings up the professor who provides help when you click on any object you want to learn about

· You will both hear and see the help in the languages set by the Language buttons.

· Click the red Cancel button to exit help.

· After a period of time with no user activity, the professor will come up automatically and give helpful hints. This is called Pro-active help and can be disabled in the program Set-up.

Lesson Library

To start a lesson click on the Lesson Library button. There you will see pictures representing all the lessons. Only the lessons with color pictures can be opened. If you are just beginning this would be Lesson 1.

· When a lesson is completed the next one is made available, indicated by its picture now being in color.

· You can go back at any time to any lesson to review or redo it.

Start a Lesson

To start a lesson click on its picture in the lesson library.

· An animated movie will start playing and will stop at the first exercise. You must do that exercise to continue.

Exercise Controls

The Exercise Controls let you go through a lesson exercise by exercise. The sequence and repetition of the exercises is determined by the student profile selected (see Setup). The Exercise controls consist of the Microphone, Advance, Replay and Stop buttons.

Narration Exercise

When the movie stops at a Narration exercise, it means you must repeat and record the narration you just heard. This is indicated by the Microphone button popping out and flashing blue.

· You may have heard the narration repeated several times depending on your student profile setting (see Setup).

Recording

To record click on the extended Microphone button. While you are recording the microphone will turn red. To stop recording click the microphone button again. You will then hear immediately what you have just recorded and the model language. This is to enable you to compare your pronunciation with the proper one. Re-record the exercise until you think it is perfect.

Advance

Once you have completed an exercise the Advance button will flash green indicating that you can advance to the next exercise.

On clicking the Advance button, the lesson movie will play on until it reaches the next exercise.

Replay

You can replay an exercise by clicking the Replay button on the control panel. This will let you see and hear that exercise again.

· Clicking the Replay button while the Ctrl key is down replays the previous exercise

Stop

You may stop a lesson movie at any time by clicking the Stop button . To go on to the next exercise click the Advance button.

Exit

Click the Exit button to leave Language Adventure. The lessons of all registered students are automatically saved.

Discover exercises

These are hundreds of clickables interspersed throughout the lessons. They unlock once a recording has been done in the narration exercise and are indicated by a star burst and a sound. On clicking them, a short animation will play often accompanied by a word or phrase.

Quiz Exercises

When a character in the lesson movie asks you to do something you have reached a Quiz exercise. Here, you give all answers the same way, by clicking on the appropriate object in the picture.

· Clickable objects that could be answers to the quiz question are indicated by a star-burst and also an audible tone when the hand pointer is placed over them.

· When you click on the wrong answer, something will happen and then the movie will return to the same point. When you click on the correct answer the movie will go on to the next exercise.

· In Quiz exercises the native language is automatically switched off., except when the pre-reader profile is used (see Setup). This is so that comprehension can be tested.

· When a quiz question is replayed the native language is automatically switched on. The program now assumes that the student does not understand the question and needs the translation.

· You are encouraged to re-visit quizzes and click on all the clickables. They are a lot of fun and expose you to even more language.

Author Exercise

When you are at an author exercise a set of tools appear in place of the text window on top of your screen. Author exercises let you use your own creativity to add a scene to the movie and narrate to it in your new language. You must create a scene and narrate to it to advance to the next exercise (unless you are using the pre-reader profile.

The tools do the following:

Select an object on the screen and drag it as an animation in your movie. You can select and re-select objects as often as you wish.

Draw an animated picture on the screen.

Choose the line color and thickness for drawing.

Undo the last thing you did.

Redo the last thing you undid.

Erase the whole scene and start again.

· Once you have completed your movie you can play it by clicking the Replay button.

· You must add narration to your movie by clicking the Microphone button before you can advance to the next exercise.

The Review Controls

The Review Control lets you replay an exercise or play completely through a lesson in the languages selected by the Language buttons. Help and the Lesson Map also play in the languages set by the Language buttons. You can turn a language off by clicking the button so it looks faded.

· When you have finished a lesson it is great fun to watch the lesson movie entirely in your own narration. To do this click both language buttons off and your name button on.

· Language modes, their sequence and repetition are determined in the Student Profile Setup.

Play Through

You can play the entire lesson from the beginning to the point you have reached by clicking the Play Through button.

· Clicking the Play Through button while the Ctrl key is down plays the lesson through starting from where you currently are.

· It will play in the languages selected by the Language buttons.

· It will play the scenes you created as part of the movie.

· You can play through from a certain point by selecting that point on the Lesson Map and then clicking the Play Through button.

· When you have finished a lesson you can show it to your family or class with only your narration. Switch off the Native and Foreign language buttons and leave your button on.

Review Exercise

You can review the current exercise by clicking the Review button. It will play in the languages set by the Language buttons.

· Clicking the Review button while holding the Ctrl key on your keyboard down will replay the previous exercise.