April 1998: Lesser-taught Languages

I was recently in France, doing some workshops on Internet and multimedia use in language teaching. I thought I was going to be talking to English teachers in Monaco, but found that the group was actually teachers of Monegasque--the native language of Monaco.

There are not a lot of ready-made computer resources that I'm aware of for Monegasque; like other lesser-taught languages, it's largely a "do it yourself" situation. Fortunately, there are a number of easy to use templates out there to help the authoring process, at least for languages that use the Roman alphabet.

The following is a list of programs and ideas for creating your own material. Those who teach uncommonly taught languages have to go this way, but these would be useful resources for any teacher interesting in creating custom material.

Mostly plain text programs

Wida Authoring Suite Wida Software	Windows; earlier version for DOS and Macintosh	A collection of text reconstruction, multiple choice, true-false, and matching exercise generators. Samples exercises for English are available at CELIA.
Question Mark Question Mark	Windows, Mac, DOS	Text reconstruction, matching, true-false, multiple choice exercise generator. Exercise types can be mixed and matched to create tests. This also is set up to create exercises to use on the World Wide Web.
Author Plus Clarity Language Consultants	Windows, DOS	Creates multiple choice, instant quiz, gap fill, and error spotting exercises.
SuperCloze, Hangman in Context, Hangword Stevens and Millmore	DOS	Creates cloze, hangman, and whole-text deletion exercises from plain text files. Very easy to create material. Shareware.
Crossword puzzles: Crossword Creator (Centron Software) Crossword Compiler for Windows (Simtel)	Macintosh, Windows, DOS	Crossword puzzle generators--very easy to use.
Adventure Game and Interactive Fiction Generator RK-Idees	DOS	Authoring system for text-based simulations; have groups of students create the games for others to play.

Internet resources: Authoring

ITESLJ quizzes and crossword puzzles	Authoring templates are available.	Quizzes Crossword puzzles
ESL Cafe quizzes and crossword puzzles	Some different formats to look at.	https://www.eslcafe.com
Creating web pages using information and graphics from the Web	Several previous tech tips offer help to the teacher who wants to create lessons using Web material	February, 1998: Virtual Travel February, 1997: Sharing Bookmarks: A Guide for the Teacher Who Doesn't Do HTML April, 1996: Using Screen Shots June, 1996: Creating Lesson Plans that Incorporate Technology

Internet resources: Links for some lesser-taught languages

The Human Languages Page	So many language links, it's organized alphabetically by language	https://www.june29.com//HLP/
Ohio University Language Page	Another good collection of resources	https://www.tcom.ohiou.edu/OU_Language/languages.html
Yamada Lab	Font archive	https://babel.uoregon.edu/Yamada/fonts.html
University of Minnesota	Less Commonly Taught Languages site	https://carla.acad.umn.edu/lctl/lctl.html

Multimedia authoring systems

These require more work than the templates above, but are far more powerful (but then, it usually works that way, with an inverse relationship between ease of use and flexibility). All allow relatively easy incorporation of graphics, sound files, and video clips.

WinCALIS Duke University	Windows	Designed for language teachers, this authoring program has a number of templates for language exercises. With the right sound card, a limited amount of speech recognition can also be built in.
HyperStudio Roger Wagner	Macintosh and Windows	This authoring system is set up to be largely point and click; you make choices from menus to create multimedia applications. This is popular in a range of US elementary and secondary classrooms because of its ease of use.
HyperCard Apple Computer	Macintosh	The original Macintosh-based authoring system, this has a powerful programming language inside it. Simple activities can be created just using built-in functions, but much more is possible.

So what about Monegasque? Well, there is one web page written in Monegasque, but I'm hoping to see much more coming from those teachers. Happy authoring!

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If you have questions, comments, or for more information, contact Deborah Healey, dhealey AT uoregon DOT edu

https://www.deborahhealey.com/techtips/apr1998.html
Last updated 26 June, 2009