ON-LINE PRACTICE AND SERVICES

Grammar

Coloraid

Coloraid is an innovative language learning method that intends to make the most mechanical features of the foreign language acquisition process easier and more efficient and it supports the primary acquisition of the basic sentence patterns with the core vocabulary. While working with Coloraid, learners are stimulated, and even forced, to perform a totally active use of the grammatical and lexical components so that by the time they finish practising with a given sentence pattern, they are capable of creating the correct foreign language sentences on the basis of visual information. If you are interested in learning more about this method, its goals, principles, solutions and history, read the articles below (in English and French, respectively):

Multitest

Multitest is a multiple choice test program (focusing mainly on grammar, but in part on vocabulary, too). Learners are given a sentence with a gap and four options and they have to select - clicking on the radio button with the corresponding letter (A, B, C or D) - the correct one to complete the sentence. The on-line version of Multitest offers the learner sets of 20 sentences in various languages. The sets consist of sentences selected randomly from 300 items (in Hungarian from 350 ones). In the future, like in the case of the downloadable Multitest programs, learners and teachers will be given the possibility to compile sets of test items from a greater database, defining the length, the (grammatical) topic and the level of difficulty.

At present, the following test series are available:

1. Intermediate level:
            Hungarian / English /German / French / Spanish / Italian
   
   
2. Advanced level:
            Hungarian

Morfi (Morphological exercises)

Exercises developed in order to facilitate the acquisition of the grammatical forms of a language (i.e. its morphological components): the forms of nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc., with special emphasis on the functional elements (suffixes, prefixes, prepositions, postpositions, etc.).

At present the following materials are available:

1. Hungarian -- The most important suffixes denoting relations of place (-n/-on/-en/-ön, -ban/-ben, -nál/-nél; -ra/ -re, -ba/-be, -hoz/-hez/-höz; -ról/-ről, -ból/-ből, -tól/-től); the suffixes of the direct object (-t/-ot/-at/-et/-öt); the suffixes of the plural (-k/-ok/-ak/-ek/-ök); the verbal suffixes (definite and indefinite conjugations): indicative (present and past tenses), conditional and imperative.
   
    

Hop-hop

A dice game with words, which are easy to depict and, belong to various topics. Learners throw the dice, then go forward as many fields as the dice indicates (1 to 6). Each field represents a task: learners must put into the taskfield the word depicted in it. If the word is correct, the learner is authorised to throw again. Otherwise (if the word is wrong or has been misspelled) the learner has to go back 5 fields and try to write correctly the word depicted on that field. In case the player fails the word again, he/she must go back another 5 fields, and so on. (Until the field number 1.) The time is not computed; it is only the number of throws that matters in the game. Before starting or after finishing the game, learners can go through the picture-word pairs by means of the 'Help' function, but during the game itself, there is no possibility to do so.

At present, the following topics and languages are available:

Hol-mi

A memory game with pictures and words, an adaptation of the well known game of "Memory" for foreign language learning. But in this case, instead of pairs of words or pairs of pictures, learners have to find picture-word pairs. The game can be played on different topics (with words easy to depict) and various languages.

1. Food: Hungarian, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian
2. Fruits: Hungarian, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian
3. Professions: Hungarian, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian
4. Furniture: Hungarian, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian
5. Animals: Hungarian, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian

Wordmap

The goal of the activity is to introduce basic vocabulary items belonging to various topics and get them practised. In fact, it is a picture dictionary and its reversed version.
These are the steps to follow through the presentation and the practice:
Move the cursor over the picture so as to see the words denoting its components. (The cursor transformed into a hand and the word that appears in a yellow field for a while will help you to do so.) Select one of them, write the corresponding word into the blank field above, and click on the component in question. If you have written the right word and haven't misspelled it, it will appear in the wordlist on the left. If you want to see the word list also in another language (Hungarian, English, German, French, Spanish or Italian), select the language and click on the button with its name. Then all the words will appear in the list on the right in the selected language. In order to hide these words, just click on the button again. Although you can delete the target language words in the list on the left, you cannot get them written, unless you put them correctly one by one into the field above and click on the appropriate element of the picture.

        I. Lakás / Flat / Piso / Die Wohnung / Appartamento /
                a)Nappali / Sitting-room / Sala de estar / Das Wohnzimmer / Soggiorno /
                b) Hálószoba
                c) Konyha
                d) Gyerekszoba
                e) Fürdőszoba / Bathroom / Das Badezimmer / Salle de bains/ Cuarto de bańo / Stanza da bagno/
                    1. Mosdó / Washbasin / Das Washbecken / Le lavabo / El lavabo / Il lavabo/

Imagovox

The goal of this activity is to introduce vocabulary items belonging to various topics and get them practised in written form.
While working with Imagovox, the steps to follow are:
"Presentation" offers you a list of words on a specific topic (for example "Home"). By clicking on any word, you get an image depicting it, as well as a sentence illustrating its use.
"Practice" helps you to memorise the presented words and spell it correctly. You are given a grey image depicting a word randomly selected from the list. You are to write the word into the taskfield, then you get the colour version of the image in the series of pictures that appear at the top of the window. The picture-word pairs are presented by series of 8.
 

Hungarian	English	Spanish
Otthon:  Bemutatás - Gyakorlás	Home:  Presentation - Practice	Hogar:  Presentación - Ejercicio

Wordhunting (Game: Shoot at the letters!)

This is a game similar to "Hangman". Players have to find one of 22 words (for example, the names of some European countries). The number of letters in the word (the word length) is indicated by the number of "_" marks in the "Word to shoot" textbox. Players must guess the letters of the word by clicking on any letter they think is an element of the word in question. You are allowed to 7 wrong shots before you are given the solution.

1. European countries: Hungarian, English, Spanish, French, German, Italian
2. European nationalities: Hungarian, English, Spanish, French
3. Sports: Hungarian, English, Spanish,
4. Miscellaneous objects: Hungarian, English, Spanish,

Wordcastle

This is a task consisting of building complex images by typing in words. The learner can see in a table the components of the target image: 21 simple pictures (for example a car, a tree, a dog, etc.). If a word corresponding to any component of the image is typed correctly into the task field, the component in question jumps into its original place in the complex image.

1. Landscape 1. (buildings, plants, animals, vehicles, etc.) Hungarian, English, Spanish, French, German, Italian
   
   

Mosaic

A memory game with pictures and words, an adaptation of the well known game of "scramble" for foreign language learning. Instead of just clicking on the tile to be moved, you have to write before the word corresponding to the tile in question in a text box.

  Jobs, occupations: Hungarian
  Living-room: Hungarian
  Ladies' wear: Hungarian

Mosaic B

A version of the above "Mosaic" game, where the linguistic task is easier (users don't need to write the words, they have just to recognise them), but much harder as a game (they can move only tiles contiguous with the white tile).

  Jobs, occupations: Hungarian, English, French, Spanish, Italian, German
  Living-room: Hungarian

Miscellaneous

I. ConjugArte en Línea (The art of conjugating Spanish verbs)

"ConjugArte en Línea" gives all the simple finite and non-finite forms of more than 12.000 Spanish verbs. If requested to conjugate a verb (or another word with the formal characteristics of a Spanish infinitive) that is not included in its database, the program gives the possible forms of this supposed verb on the basis of the formal points of reference the user has offered. Nevertheless, it indicates that the "verb" in question does not appear in its verb list. Compared to other on-line Spanish verb conjugators, it is a plus that it gives all the forms of the reflexive verbs.

III. Numeralia (Realm of numbers)

Presentation and written (and oral) practice of the numerals: how to write them with letters and with figurs. Materials are to be added step by step; to begin with: cardinal numbers. Later on: other type of numerals (ordinal numbers, fractions, etc.); measures; operations; time (date; years, months, days; hours, minutes, etc.).

        1. Numberwriter --- How to write (and say aloud) the numbers?

How to write the cardinal numbers in words and in figures. The task consists of writing (in words) and/or saying aloud an optional cardinal number (given in figures by the user) or a cardinal number randomly selected by the program (in the range between 1 an 9,.999,999,999). The result is checked in both cases on the basis of the written form.

      Számíró (Hungarian) / Escribenúmeros (Spanish) / Numberwriter (English)  / Numberwriter (Francia)