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Machine: Mac/Win comprehensive
Publisher: Learning Company, The
See also Amazon.com
Approximate single-unit price: $40
Purchase options: lab, site
Level: Beginning, intermediate For: All but K-3
Special use: Bilingual
A CD-ROM-based course designed for native speakers of Spanish that includes video and audio recordings, exercises, games, and a 350-page textbook to help learners improve listening comprehension, grammar, and writing skills. Like in its English-based counterpart, Learn to Speak English, each lesson begins with a setting and a dialog. The settings follow a visitor to the U.S. through customs, getting a hotel, exchanging money, to furnishing an apartment and shopping for food. The students can expand their study of the language presented in the settings and dialogs through the use of cultural notes, vocabulary study (hear the word, definitions, notes about usage), grammar notes, exercises (fill in the blank, sentence writing, scrambled sentences, listening dictation), pronunciation work (listen to the model pronunciation, record voice and play back), and a test of both grammatical and functional language knowledge. The Windows version uses speech-recognition technology to evaluate pronunciation on a scale of 'Tourist' to 'Native.' QuickTime movies show cultural points of interest in the US. Windows 95/XP.
Machine: Win pronunciation
Publisher: Communication Disorders Technology
Purchase options: currently under revision
Level: Intermediate, advanced For: All
Pronunciation program based on contrastive analysis. Offers an all-languages version as well as specialized versions for Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. "Vowels in Space" uses the device of an animated vowel space diagram with digital recordings of many example words to help the student sharpen English vowel pronunciation and perception. Selected contrasts are practiced in a number of interactive game settings, including puzzles, treasure hunts, image completion, space battles and simulated bowling. The program customizes instruction, adapting the instructional sequence to the user's skill level. Students can override the selection process and choose the contrasts they wish to work on themselves. A detailed log and a progress chart record work over time. The program can be used in self-study or instructor-led mode. The website lists this as unavailable until 2011.
Machine: Mac comprehensive
Publisher: Heartsoft
Approximate single-unit price: $400
Purchase options: $400 lifetime site
Level: Beginning, intermediate For: K-8
Special use: elementary, bilingual
A set of 12 Heartsoft products, including Billiards 'n' Homonyms (vocabulary game), Bubblegum Machine (sight work with key words), Coin Changer (practice recognizing the value of coins and bills), Electric Math Chalkboard (uncover a picture by answering math questions correctly), Electric Coloring Book (keeps students within the lines), Great American States Race (social studies game about the US), Memory Master (concentration with letters and numbers), Reading Rodeo (literacy game), Sleuth Master (a mastermind game - guess the hidden 4-number code), Spinner's Choice (a version of Wheel of Fortune - guessing words or phrases in categories), Tommy the Time Turtle (practice in telling time), and Word Capture (wordsearch puzzles). The ESL version includes copies of each program in Spanish. Relatively inexpensive network/site license lets schools add copies as their needs grow. Win 98/2000/NT/XP; Mac OS 7/8/9. Not verified on Vista or Mac OS X.
Machine: Win reading
Publisher: Editions 3D
Level: Literacy, beginning For: All
Special use: literacy
Multimedia CD-ROM for ESL and literacy learners. See the TESL Ontario review at http://www.teslontario.org/new/publ/contact/Summer2007_Vol33No3.pdf (refer to pp.22-29).
Machine: Win/Mac discussion, writing
Publisher: Tom Snyder Productions
Approximate single-unit price: $40
Purchase options: lab, network
Level: Beginning, intermediate, advanced, teacher For: All
A creative writing CD-ROM, which lets you or your students write, direct, and play your own animated shows with talking characters. You select the scene, you direct the actors, you write the dialogue, you choose the music and special effects. You can screen it in the theater by clicking on the projector. There's even an Idea Machine which provides story starters, plot twists, and dialogue suggestions based on the scene you've chosen and the specific personalities of your characters. Uses computerized voices; sometimes you have to fiddle with spelling to get them to sound right. (SA) Formerly sold by Theatrix, it is good to see this title reappear. Windows 2000/XP; Mac OS 9.
Machine: Win/Mac discussion, writing
Publisher: Tom Snyder Productions
Approximate single-unit price: $40
Purchase options: lab, network
Level: Beginning, intermediate, advanced, teacher For: All
Like its predecessor Hollywood, Hollywood High has students write and direct an animated show with talking characters. The settings and characters are high school-oriented, so this is more attractive to teens but less useful for adults than Hollywood. Students select the scene and characters, place and move the actors, write the dialogue, and choose the special effects. Because it uses synthesized rather than digitized voices, they can be odd. It's possible to tweak the spelling to improve the pronunciation, but the point of this is the dialogue among the learners creating the show, not the end result itself. This is not recommended as a listening skill builder, but it's a great tool for discussion at the computer. CD-ROM. Formerly sold by Theatrix, it is good to see this title reappear.
Machine: Win, Mac authoring
Publisher: Half-Baked Software
Purchase options: free under some conditions-see publisher
Level: Teacher For: Teacher
A suite of programs for creating exercises that will run using a web browser, either online or offline. Programs include JQuiz, to make multiple choice and short-answer quizzes; Jcloze, to create gap-filling exercises; JCross, to create crossword puzzles painlessly; JMix, for scrambled sentences; and JMatch, for matching exercises. Graphics and audio can be added easily. Menus (and content) can be in English or any of several other languages. The real power of the program is that it is so easy to create exercises that students can create them for each other. Version 6 and beyond includes the option of subscribing to a web-hosting service. A version with all the features, but limited in the number of items in an exercise, can be downloaded from the website. The full version is free of charge for those working for publicly-funded non-profit-making educational institutions, who make their pages available on the web. Different versions run on different platforms; check online before downloading.
Machine: Win, Mac reading
Publisher: Educational Activities Software
Approximate single-unit price: $160
Purchase options: lab, network
Level: Intermediate For: Adult
Designed for adult learners. Topics include reading labels, menus, and job ads; managing money; working with want ads and job applications; and travel-related reading. Activities include crosswords and other puzzles. CD-ROM. Windows 98/NT/2000/XP: Mac OS 8 or OS 9.
Machine: Win, Mac writing
Publisher: Educational Activities Software
Approximate single-unit price: $160
Purchase options: lab, network
Level: Intermediate For: Adult
Topics include writing skills for resumes, employment forms, business letters, lists, memos, social security applications, bank account applications, and driver's licenses. Some voice instructions. Also offers an Internet link to useful websites. CD-ROM. Windows 98/NT/2000/XP: Mac OS 8 or OS 9.
Machine: Mac, Win authoring
Publisher: Software MacKiev
Approximate single-unit price: $90
Purchase options: school, district licensing
Level: Beginning, intermediate, advanced, teacher For: All,Teacher
Sophisticated authoring program with an easy interface and a lot of built-in graphics and other resources, including video narration, iLife® integration (Mac version), podcasting support, and integration of Web cams. This was originally an alternative to HyperCard; current versions have been updated and run on Mac OS X and Windows XP and above. Now distributed by Software MacKiev.
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Last updated 05/15/2009 by Deborah Healey.