More information
about the software.
When someone was learning a foreign
language and achieved an appropriate level of knowledge he starts practicing
it. One of the cases of such practicing is reading of the complicated texts
like fiction books written on the studied language. It is actually very
recommended by teachers as one of the next steps for improving the knowledge of
the language.
But such practicing has particular
problems. The reading process creates possibilities of mistaken pronunciation
and misapprehension of the text. Alternatively it is possible to listen for an
audio version of the book when a native reader pronounces it. But here is
another problem - obviously the speed and style of the narration is more
oriented for native listeners, it will hard for a learner to avoid many
miscomprehension mistakes. If the learner combines listening and text reading
into the one process it will most likely reduce the number of such mistakes.
For many people the way to represent simultaneously the same information
visually and acoustically improves information recognition. If in addition the
reader will check the proper translation of the text to his own language and
use also dictionaries all this will improve the learning process.
But isn’t it quite cumbersome to have a
few books and an audio playing device in one place? The reading procedure like
that even while seating in front of a big desk table with all this material is
quite awkward to say nothing of reading in such way anywhere else, when
traveling for example. And also how tedious is the reading process if it is
often necessary to page through the dictionaries or translation and stop and
rewind audio narration when listener wants to recheck how it was pronounced.
Creating software as a specialized
e-book reader combined with audio player is a response to this problem.
Portable and mobile computers, like TabletPC
and Ultra Mobile PC that recently appeared
on the market make such software wider usable.
Currently the following features are implemented:
Ø
Playing of audio narration with the synchronous highlighting of the
read text:
listen to audio narration by clicking the appropriate text with the right mouse
button. The corresponding part of the text will be highlighted in a different
colour. When click the right mouse button again stop listening the narration.
Ø
Parallel translation of each sentence: when you read the sentence,
click with the left mouse button the text and view the translation of the
chosen sentence, if more than one translation is available click again into the
same sentence and view other language translation in a loop;

Ø
Choosing languages for translations: if more than one translation is available
you can enable or disable viewing translations by checking it from the menu;

Ø
Going to the position you stopped reading: Program automatically saves
the position from the previous run of the program and brings you to this
position when you run it again;
Ø
Navigation through the chapters: You can jump to a chapter chosen from the menu;

Ø For viewing a single word
translation you can use

Ø Also for viewing word
translation: Click
with the middle mouse button or double click left button. It shows on-line
translation as if you were using the
Ø Grammatical exercises: This is a new feature. You are
able to train yourself grammar while reading by choosing words or phrases
matching to the original text. Currently are available exercises for the English
articles and demonstrative pronouns.
New features under development:
On the base of the existing literacy
works many additional features and exercises will be developed. It will be not
only for training reading, comprehension and grammar skills but also for
training conversational, pronunciation and writing skills. Also this software will
be developed for other operating systems and platforms such as Mac, PocketPC,
iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry.
If you have questions about
installation of the program, how to create this type of books by yourself,
interested in link exchange or want to be notified when the new features are
implemented or other books are created please write to info@interactiveselfstudy.com.