OUTLINE FOR TASK BASED OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
Contents
1. Record Click this button to begin comparative recording If a sound file is open you ll hear the original program material that is on the left track while your voice is being recorded on the right track this is called Comparative Recording If there is no file open when you press Record you ll start recording your voice to a new file on both tracks the title bar will indicate New Recording If you open a video or MIDI file clicking Record will cause your voice to be recorded to anew WAV file that is synchronized with the video MIDI file Note This button is disabled if you open a sound file that is monaural a single track prohibiting you from recording over the original material 4 CLOSING SAVING FILES Whenever you start recording with your Soloist Digital PC Comparative Recorder software digital audio data is constantly being written to a temporary file it is always being saved much like a cassette tape Unless you permanently save your recording the temporary file will be automatically deleted Close File Click the Close File button shown above to close the PC digital audio sound file Gf no file is open this button will be disabled If the teacher turns on Lid Lock this button will be hidden If you ve done any recording before you click the Close File button you will be asked if you want to permanently save your recordings 11 Close File Pe2. File Edit Format LA ROPA Repita por favor La blusa La bufanda Los calcetines La camisa Sony Soloist la ropa way E La camiseta n La cartera SONY La corbata La chagueta La falda Las medias Co oS S a E El vestigo le ssc Los zapatos Students are able to practice using the vocabulary list or they are able close it using only the audio file Example Two Use a combination of audio text clip art graphics photo or video clip In the following example the student opens the video file car avi and the supporting text file car txt opens simultaneously with directions for a writing assignment that corresponds to the video 29 Incorporating Multiple Files con Students have control of the video clip as they would an audio file through Soloist we onp Text Editor Car_txt File Edit Format After viewing the video write a summan Describe what took place in the car and identity each of the passengers and their relationship to each other 30 Soloist Symphony Activities Text Player Soloist incorporates a Text Player which can open display and play the text in ASCII text format txt Text files can literally be played and synchronized voice recording is also possible PART ONE The primary purpose of the Text Player is to use text files as the program material allowing the user to record his her voice while readin
3. PM 10721701 5 56 PM 3 6 00 8 53 PM af alle 447 PM 1079701 4 46 PM 34 02 b Da PM 3 3 02 31 PM If a Hyper Text Markup Language HTML file exists in the same folder as the sound or video file that you open with the same filename but with an extension of either htm or html that text file will automatically be opened and displayed in the Sony Web 6 Browser HTML Viewer You can also directly open HTML files into the built in HTML Viewer using Soloist s Open File dialog Once a file is opened you can press one of the PC Keyboard Commands to see Format Information about the open file Note You may also open files that have been created for Automatic Comparative Recording See Automatic Comparative Recording Files in Section IV 2 VOLUME CONTROLS Depending on how your Soloist Digital PC Comparative Recorder software is configured you may see the Volume Controls button immediately to the right of the Record button These controls adjust your PC s sound card input and output levels for the signals that Soloist uses They are the same controls that you use to adjust the Windows Volume Control program When you click the Volume button the Soloist Volume Controls window above will appear This window can be moved to any location on the screen and unless your Windows Taskbar is disabled You can also minimize it NOTE Use extreme caution when adjusting these controls as it is possible
4. Program Length gt 00 03 95 Frogram Length 1 5 00 05 4 Frogram Length Record Length 00 11 5 5 seconds 00 16 5 Frogram Length 2 00 26 68 O seconds 00 29 2 120 seconds Program Length 2 p Automatic Segmentation s D gt be BOOK i xm 37 Manual Segmentation 1 Click on the Segment Editor tab Using Soloist begin playing the file to be edited 2 In the Current Segment window click on the Add Current Time BUTTON 00 00 0 at the end of each segment sentence phrase word as the file is playing 3 The end point for each segment will be listed under Program End 4 Select the Record Length you wish to allow for the students to record their responses For example Program Length X 2 would allow twice the amount of time as the length of the original segment If the segment were 15 seconds the students would have 30 seconds to respond To set the Program Length individually for each segment click on highlight the segment under Program End and then select the Record Length 5 To select the same Record Length for all segments click on the Al BUTTON Automatic Segmentation As with the Manual Segmentation process open the file to be segmented using Soloist 6 Click on the Play Stop BUTTON in the Automatic Segmentation window to start the segmentation of the selected file 7 Stop the process and adjust the sensitivity if it is not segmenting pro
5. Repeat Cue and VariSpeed playback Record Controls The right portion of the Volume Controls window is for adjustment of recording levels You may see a slider labeled MASTER which adjusts the overall volume of sounds when you are recording Using Soloist in a stand alone configuration you will probably see a slider labeled MIC This slider adjusts the level of sound being recorded including your voice Note that with some sound cards adjusting a slider on the playback side also adjusts the corresponding slider on the recording side 3 FILE PLAYBACK AND RECORDING CONTROLS The File Playback and Recording Controls includes the controls you need to playback and record supported files Sony Soloist MSGreeting_ avi SONY 9 G lt lt gt gt gt m Counter The counter displays your current position within the open file or new recording The format is in minutes seconds and tenths of a second If you have a file open and hold the mouse button down on the counter the counter will display the total length of the open file If you right click on the counter a pop up counter will appear where you can enter an exact time to have Soloist position the file Also along the bottom of the counter you may see a bar graph meter showing the relative level of the audio material this depends on the capabilities of your sound card When recording try to keep the green portion of the met
6. audio file if they have been instructed to do so 31 PART TWO While the primary purpose of the Text Player is demonstrated above it is also possible to synchronize text with sound video and MIDI program files Whenever Soloist opens a sound video or MIDI file it searches for a file in the same folder with the same name but an extension of txp for ASCII text player files If such a file exists it will be opened in the Text Player For example using Soloist open the text file created in Part One USA1 txt While the text is scrolling record your voice along with it Save the recording as USA1 wav in the same folder as the USA1 txt Using windows explorer go to the file USA1 txt right click on the file and click on the rename option Rename the file USA1 txp If you are asked if you are sure you want to change the file extension click on yes Now the students are able to open the USA1 wav file using Soloist the USA1 txp will not be visible as a choice and the Text Player will also open with the appropriate text Students can listen and follow the text If the file has been created to allow for the students to respond they can do so by clicking on the red record BUTTON You may want to create a dialog text file record the part for one of the people involved in the dialog and have your students record the part for the second person using the scrolling script Sett
7. be set in any order you choose If your PC is connected to the Sony Symphony or Virtuoso System and the teacher sets a bookmark the bookmark light will turn orange instead of green and the ToolTip will indicate teacher set You can name your bookmarks by simply right clicking on the bookmark number and entering any name you like The name will appear in the bookmark s ToolTip when you hold your mouse cursor over the buttons Any and or all of the up to 10 bookmarks can have a verbal bookmark comment associated with it When the bookmark is clicked the comment is played first then the opened media file plays from the bookmark position This allows the instructor to pre record comments instructions translations or any other information related to the material at the selected position in the opened media file Bookmark lamps are blue for which there is a bookmark comment VARIABLE SPEED PLAYBACK VARISPEED VariSpeed allows you to hear a Wav file either slower or faster than the original recorded speed VariSpeed is adjustable from as slow as minus 50 half speed to as fast as plus 100 two times speed in 1 increments using a slider in the VariSpeed window shown below The window can be opened via the Tools menu or by pressing Ctrl V on the PC keyboard whenever a Wav format file is open and Soloist is the active window TEXT TO SPEECH TTS If configured to do so your Soloist software supports
8. in a stand alone configuration without Symphony or Virtuoso Learning System It is not intended to cover every feature or function of Soloist but rather to serve as a guide to new users The information that follows is based on the Soloist Help Menus Screens The Help Files also describe additional functional operations and capabilities The final authority for operations should come from Help files that are part of the operational software For information on a few of the more advanced authoring features please see Section IV 1 OPENING FILES Click the Open File button to open a previously recorded digital sound file zip compressed sound file video file a MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface music file an HTML Hyper Text Markup Language file or a text file Soloist supports PCM formatted WAV sound files for playback and recording as well as MPEG Layer 3 sound files for playback only or converting into a WAV file for comparative recording Soloist can also open zipped compressed WAV files and unzip the file for playback and recording Soloist can open and play MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface music files AVI and MPEG digital video files and text file You can record your voice while listening to MIDI files watching video files or reading text files your recordings are made to a WAV format file that is synchronized with the MIDI video or text file If you ve made any recordings
9. once the Speech Settings dialog is closed COMPOSER CLIP SEQUENCE EDITOR Your Soloist software can open play and perform comparative recording with Composer cmp files Composer files are small text files containing a list of filenames of existing program files to be played by Soloist in sequence The start and end position of each file is pre selected a clip The original files must exist in the specified folder when the Composer file is opened with Soloist if any file in the list is not present Soloist will skip over the file not including it in the sequence Any combination of all supported sound video MIDI and Text Player format files can be included in a Composer file and the same file can be used multiple times in a composer list For example to display different portions of a video file at different times in the sequence When a Composer file is opened in Soloist the first file in the clip sequence is loaded The time display is set to 00 00 0 regardless of where the actual start of the clip is relative to the beginning of the file and the clip can be played until the end point selected Soloist s random access slider can access any point within the clip If the you play fast forward or record to the end of the clip the next file 1s automatically opened by Soloist with the time display reset to 00 00 0 Soloist can fast forward or rewind through all the clips in the sequences Double c
10. other their occupations etc Video segments with sound can be used for evaluating students comprehension Select a video segment and save to a file Record questions relating to the segment and have students record their responses 21 SECTION IV SOLOIST ACTIVITIES INSTRUCTOR AUTHORING ACTIVITIES Note When making a recording with Soloist stand alone to be used as the master track for student activity the recording should be save asa MONAURAL recording 2 x Save Sound File As Save in Sy Sony Soloist e ef Ee Stereo 2 Track f Monaural 1 Track i Program Drill tracks Drill track only Remove Silence Silence Threshold af H File name Lesson Save as type wav Sound Files wav Cancel 28 Incorporating Multiple Files Whenever Soloist opens a sound video or MIDI file it searches for files in the same folder with the same name but a different file extension This allows you to create a variety of multimedia activities such as an audio file supported by text and or a photo or video supported by text Example One Create an audio file and then support it with a vocabulary list or grammatical explanation The following shows a text file la tienda txt that was created to support the audio file la tienda wav When the students open the wave file to practice their vocabulary the text file opens simultaneously w Sony Text Editor laropasth a e E 0 x
11. time do you generally wake up Do you get up right away Do you eat breakfast before or after you get dressed Do you bathe shave in the morning or in the evening Can you get dressed in ten minutes What time do you leave home in the morning Where do you usually go What time do you arrive at school university work What classes are you taking What days are your classes What class do you like the most The least What time are your classes Are they easy Difficult Do you study a lot Where do you study Do you have a lot of homework Do you have to write many reports When do you plan to graduate What will you do when you graduate Where do you eat lunch At home in the cafeteria in a restaurant What time do you leave school university work Where do you go What time do you arrive home in the afternoon evening What time do you eat dinner What do you do after dinner What time do you go to bed Other suggestions Create a list of questions for your students and using the AUTOMATIC COMPARATIVE RECORDING EDITOR FOR SOLOIST set a PLAY PROGRAM TWICE RECORD VOICE or other appropriate option Have students respond to the questions and save their recordings You could then use the resulting student 24 recordings for evaluation and or to provide students with feedback on their listening comprehension and oral skills Another version of this type of activity that students seem to enjoy is role playing Have students pick identit
12. to generate very loud sound in your headset or to cause very loud feedback Since the capabilities of every sound card are different you may or may not see all the slider controls as illustrated above Drag a slider up to increase the volume and down to decrease the volume Playback Controls The left portion of the Volume Controls window is for adjustment of playback levels The Playback Slider Control labeled MASTER is used to adjust the overall volume of playback sounds Since your PC is not connected to the Sony Symphony Multimedia Learning System you probably see a slider labeled MIC This slider is used to adjust your playback microphone level it does not affect the level of your voice being recorded rather it allows you to adjust the volume of your microphone so you can hear yourself talking when you are not recording The slider labeled WAVE is used to adjust the volume of the multimedia file while it is playing The slider labeled MIDI is only enabled if you have a MIDI music file open It is used to adjust the volume of the sound card s MIDI synthesizer Track Select The button under the WAVE slider should be visible whenever a PCM WAV format file is open This button can be used to select which track s are heard when playing back a file Left program track Right student track or L R both tracks The track s selected will be heard during Play Repeat Play phrase A B
13. C Recorder software will immediately shut down 6 ADVANCED OPERATIONS SOLOIST In addition to the basic operations outlined in Section I the Sony Conductor Soloist Learning Lab has many advanced operations functions and capabilities Below are listed a few of the most popular functions We encourage you to explore the detailed Help Screens that are included in the Conductor Instructor Control Software and the Soloist Student Recorder for the detailed instructions of how to use these functions SONY TEXT PLAYER See activity in Section IV Soloist can open display and play the text in ASCII text format txt and Rich Text Format rtf files in its built in Text Player window Using Soloist s transport buttons text files can literally be played and synchronized voice recording is possible While the primary purpose of the Text Player is to use text files as the program material allowing you to record your voice while reading it can also be used to synchronize text with sound video and MIDI program files The Text Player should not be confused with Soloist s built in Text Editor which enables displaying and editing of text files by opening them via the File Open menu in the Text Editor or when a txt or rtf text file exists with the same name as an opened sound video or MIDI file AUTOMATIC COMPARATIVE RECORDING ACR See activity in Section IV Soloist include
14. Text To Speech where the computer literally speaks text in two ways SPEAK Soloist will have the computer speak the text in the text editor window using the selected voice at the selected speed Speaking will start at the current cursor location and continue to the end unless the user clicks SPEAK to stop or selects a different voice If a selection is highlighted only those words will be spoken With SAPI 5 1 voices each word is highlighted as itis spoken With SAPI 4 0a voices Soloist can optionally be configured to display a moving mouth as the words are spoken 15 SPEAK TO FILE The text in the text editor window from the current cursor position to the end of the text will be spoken directly to a monaural 16 bit 22 050Hz file which can be saved as WAV or MP3 Soloist can then use the file as an audio program file TTS is made possible by Microsoft SAPI Speech Application Programming Interface and both Versions 4 0a and 5 1 are supported SPEECH RECOGNITION If your Soloist is configured to support Speech Recognition it can be used for commands and control of Soloist You can adjust settings for Speech Recognition via the Speech Settings dialog Once Speech Recognition is enabled Soloist will listen to you to say Soloist followed by one of the phrases from the designated list the list can be displayed by clicking the List button in the Speech Settings dialog The list can remain open
15. _ i Basic Operations Manual Soloist Stand alone 4 Sony Soloist BES Sja SONY EEEE OTS Il gt gt gt ab on om ee Janet A Light Advanced Communication Systems Inc SECTION I TABLE OF CONTENTS BASIC OPERATIONS SOLOIST DIGITAL PC COMPARATIVE RECORDER l 2 Opening Files Volume Controls File Playback and Recording Controls Closing Saving File Exiting Soloist Digital PC Comparative Recorder Advanced Operations Overview Soloist Sony Text Player Automatic Comparative Recording Bookmarks Variable Speed Playback Text to Speech TTS Speech Recognition Composer Clip Sequence Editor Qaim O Ow gt SECTION II FOREIGN LANGUAGE LINKS Page 18 SECTION ITI LEARNING LAB ACTIVITIES Page 22 Page THE FOLLOWING ARE BASIC SAMPLE ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS Activity No 2 Audio Journals Activity No 4 Daily Activities Activity No 5 Maps and Directions Activity No 6 Video Segments 23 24 26 2 SECTION IV INSTRUCTOR AUTHORING ACTIVITIES Page 28 Activity No 12 Incorporating Multiple Files Activity No 13 Text Player Activity No 14 ACR Automatic Comparative Recording Files 29 31 33 TASK BASED OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR SONY CONDUCTOR AND SOLOIST SOFTWARE SECTION I BASIC OPERATIONS The following is a user manual for some of the most basic operations of the Sony Soloist Digital PC Recorder and Media Player when used
16. ang html Dave s ESL Cafe IS truth Boake Carter Contact us ESL Cafe News Description Extensive ESL site including many useful links to jobs resources message boards and chat rooms www eslicafe com Foreign Languages Department Learning Web Sites culture and language education maps travel and the Spanish language and Hispanic hot Excellent Spanish links and more Sciences Gateway Foreign Languages hot Description Part of David Levin s Learning Web Sites a guide intended primarily for high school educators who www ecnet net users gdlevin flanquages html Education Planet Linguistics and Lanquage Arts Page Multicultural Education Project Web Site Information and links TESOL Linguistics Foreign Language Education English for Specific Purposes English As A www educationplanet com search Linguistics and Language Arts The Official Web Site for the Test of English as a Foreign where English is the language of instruction Educational Testing drawn from the higher education community The TOEFL test Quick Links Description Official site of the Test of English as a Foreign Language TOEFL Includes online tutorials practice www toeftl org Language Education Technology etc Amherst College Great Links by Five College for second and foreign language educators Association of Language Lab Directors for Higher Education FIPSE Fund www
17. ardens index htm Mayan Culture http dir yahoo com select society and culture culture groups and the Mayan 20 National Geographic www nationalgeographic com Myths http tcfreenet org org mythos mythos www MLINKS HTML Spanish comics hitp ow1 netcom com aedgpi thumbnails htm For Teachers Ideas for office 2000 www microsoft com education Lesson Plans www eduniverse com Free Stuff for Educators www edufree com Freestuff asp More freebies www freestuffshop com Grade books on line www thinkwave com 21 SECTION III LEARNING LAB ACTIVITIES They following activities are provided to help you to become familiar with using soloist They need to be tailored and adjusted to your specific lesson plan and objectives In addition your textbook most likely has many activities that could be adapted for use with Soloist 22 Soloist Activity Audio Journals Have Students use Soloist for their Audio Journals They can add to their entries as often as you determine that they need to do so The subject of each entry can be left up to the students or you may wish to direct the subject of some all entries to target specific grammatical areas or vocabulary or to target previous material in order to encourage the students to review Allow students to work independently for 10 15 minutes to record their entries on a regular basis Intermediate level students should be as spontaneous as possible In other words they should not me
18. before you click the Open File button you will be asked if you want to permanently save your recordings 21x Look in a Media Files e E Ei m Folder Select MIDI Files 1 more mp FRENCH_UNIC txl __ Sound Files Chinese Unicode bet dj German lwar videos E dig mov E German Dialog 1 F Lessons Folder dija Moment 2 mp3 ENGLISH txt d German Dialog Mo Pi Recordings Folder Added Bookmark txt F441 285 mp3 German Dialog mp Recordings Folder B Added Bookmarks txt French Unicode txt PA German Dialog rtf Videos Folder Pre Listen File name Files of type A Supported Files Cancel Depending on how your Soloist software is configured you may not see the Folder Select and or the Pre Listen frames on the right side of this dialog The Folder Select buttons will let you quickly go to pre configured folders Your Soloist software cannot play or record files that are on a non local hard disk drive such as network floppy and CD ROM drives This is primarily for two reasons First access speed is very important since Soloist plays and records digital audio data in real time and any delays is accessing such drives could cause drop outs Second multiple students may want to work with the same sound file at the same time Obviously only one student could actually record data to a single file at a single time Soloist automat
19. ck and your Drill track or just your Drill track recording If you choose the latter you will then have the option to Remove Silence from your recording before saving This feature will scan through your entire recording and attempt to remove delete all silent pauses between your vocalizations Before the file is saved you will have the option to hear the effect this has on your recording Save Recording Remove Silence Removing silence may have unexpected results depending on volume levels Would you like to hear to the recording with silence removed before Saving Note You can use the File Save As menu to save your recording at almost any time This option is primarily meant to allow you to save an existing file as another format as described above For example you could open a two track PCM WAV format file and save it as a monaural MP3 format file 5 EXITING SOLOIST DIGITAL PC COMPARATIVE RECORDER To exit your Soloist software you can click on Close in the Control Menu which is accessed by clicking the icon in the upper left hand corner click on the Close button in the upper right hand corner X or press ALT F4 If you have made a recording you ll see the following dialog box that gives you the opportunity to save your changes before exiting 13 Permanently save recording before exiting If you haven t made any recordings your Soloist Digital P
20. cond time while recording However if the record time for the segment is shorter or longer than the play program time refer to ACR Segment Editor below the video image will be shown during the entire recording time which may not be desirable e The user can be forced to save the recording when the ACR exercise is finished If the next item Automatically name file and save is not checked the user must select a path and file name the user cannot cancel this save operation e The forced saving of a file can occur automatically with no user interaction If a path is specified the file will automatically be named and saved when the exercise is completed e When if an ACR exercise recording is saved it can be set to save the student track only ACR Editor Segment Editor Tab Automatic Comparative Recording Editor German Dialog Mono acr kA Automatic Comparative Recording ACH Hode Repeat Play Program Record Yoice None ACH Exercise Parameters 9 rent Segment i 00 11 5 to 00 16 5 Length 00 05 0 gt x Jeez Record Length Program Length 2 gt All Automatic Segmentation 4 5 HARKS 1 ment Editor 3 00 02 1 Program Length 00 03 9 Program Length 1 5 00 05 4 Program Length 00 11 5 5 seconds Program Length 2 OO 6 8 seconds 00 29 2 120 seconds The ACR Segment Editor is used to segment the program material and set the corre
21. egment according to pauses dead air time in the recording If the file being segmented is being chopped up into fragments or not correctly sensing the correct place to end the segment you may need to adjust the sensitivity less or more accordingly It is always possible that a recording might not contain adequate pauses with dead air time to cue end of the segments For this reason automatic segmentation will mostly likely work best with commercially prepared recordings such as the audio materials from a publisher 5 Other Click the Add All Bookmarks BOOKMARKS BUTTON to add all bookmarks set in the file being edited in Soloists main window to the segment list each bookmark will become the end of a segment Click the Delete All Segments X All BUTTON to delete all segments from the segment list Part Two Creating an ACR File e First using Soloist select and open the file Such as a wav file you wish to edit Then open the ACR Editor Start with a short simple audio file and experiment with the various ways to segment it e Set the desired parameters for the activity gt Automatic Comparative Recording Editor German Dialog Mono actr KiE 1 9 Automatic Comparative Recording ACR Hode Repeat Play Program Record Voce i Nonre ACH Exercise Parameters Segment Editor 2 i C tS t AEN Seam PROGRAM END RECORD LENGTH 00 02 1
22. er as high as possible without having the red portion light up You can double click on the counter to display an alternative font for the numbers Position Scrollbar E E The Position Scrollbar is used to randomly access any position within the currently opened or newly recorded file Simple click and drag the pointer to move to any position During A B Repeat mode you will see a blue area in the scroll bar indicating the area being repeated A B Repeat The A B Repeat button allows you to have Soloist repeat any portion of the file indefinitely Clicking the button once will mark the A time if the file is not playing it will automatically start The light in the button will blink and the blue bar in the Position Scrollbar will appear until you click the button a second time marking the B time The selected area will then repeat until you click any button Repeat Play Phrase Clicking on the Repeat Play Phrase button causes Soloist to scan backwards in the current file either a selectable number of seconds or if you have a WAV file open until it finds a period of silence and then begins playing again If this does not work as you expect try adjusting the Repeat Phrase Sensitivity by clicking on the Sony logo and selecting this option under Settings Click the right mouse button on the Repeat Play Phrase button to begin playing the phrase For WAV format files Soloi
23. from the dropdown list A record length of Program Length means the record time will be the same as the length of the that segment Program Length x1 5 means the record time will be one and a half times as long as that segment and Program Length x2 means it will be two times as long In addition you can choose from the available fixed number of seconds or directly enter any number of seconds from 0 to 120 A record length of zero means students will hear the program but not be able to record this may be useful if the segment is the answer or correct pronunciation of the previous segment for which they were able to record Click the gt All BUTTON to apply the currently selected Record Length to all segments 4 Automatic Segmentation Frame Click the Start Stop gt BUTTON to start automatic segmentation of the program file Playback will begin from the current position and segments will automatically be added whenever silence is detected marking the end of a segment Additional segments can be added by clicking the Add Current Time BUTTON in the Current Segment frame and Record Lengths can be changed while automatic segmentation is in progress Click the Sensitivity BUTTON to adjust the sensitivity while performing automatic segmentation 36 ACR Automatic Comparative Recording Files con ACH Silence Sensitivity The software will set the end of each s
24. g the scrolling text Using for example Microsoft Word WordPad or Notepad create a text file you want the students to practice and or record It could be a poem song lyrics or a reading passage from a textbook On the first line you can enter information to determine the speed of the scrolling text 60 450 whether to display the text by word or by sentence and the length of pause 0 10 between sentences Press Enter and begin writing After you have finished writing the file save it as a txt file You might want to experiment with different scrolling speeds and choose one that would be appropriate for the level of your students The following is a short example of a text file to be used with the Soloist Text Player 170 indicates 170 words per minute displayed one word at a time with a moderate pause 5 between sentences 170 word 5 The United States of America is bordered by Canada Mexico the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean Including Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands there are 50 states The above sample was saved as USA1 txt When students open this file using Soloist the Text Player will open and will begin to scroll the text when the students click on the play BUTTON or red record BUTTON The following shows the scrolling of the file in progress 9 G lt lt gt gt When students are finished recording and reviewing their work they can save the
25. ically copies any file selected for opening that is on a non local hard drive to a temporary folder that your system administrator specified Your system administrator may have also configured your software to automatically create a backup copy of any file that is opened from your hard drive s The copying is automatic and you will see a dialog like the following while copying is in progress You can cancel the copy at any time When you are finished with the file it will automatically be deleted from the temporary folder you will be given an opportunity to permanently save the file to another folder Creating back up copy of German Dialog way 5 364 526 bytes TTT TTT TT If the file you open is monaural 1 channel you may see the following dialog depending on how your software is configured If you click Just Open your Record button will be disabled Open Monaural Sound File i German Practice way is 1 channel monaural Convert to 2 channel Program file else recording is not possible Just Open If you open a file on your hard drive that is marked as Read Only and your system administrator has not configured your software to automatically create a backup copy you will see the following dialog You have the choice to open it allowing you to overwrite the file Open Monaural Sound File German Practice way is 1 channel monaural Convert to 2 channel Program file else recording i
26. ies to assume and then record descriptions of the daily activities of those people using the first person Students might choose to be teachers waiters lawyers doctors construction workers and so forth but they do not identify the role they are describing They save their recordings to a specified folder This should be done with assigned numbers so that the students identities are not known The students then access the assigned folder listen to as many descriptions as possible and see if they can identify the roles jobs careers described by their classmates This would be more appropriate for upper level students 25 Soloist Activity Maps and Directions Use city maps that you already have from an appropriate country or access maps from a country s tourist bureau homepage for city maps Option Give students a starting point and have them record directions to various destinations or a series of destinations using a map you have selected Give students a copy of a map project a map on a screen that can be seen by all students or save a map to a file on the server It is easier for the students if they have a printed maps or one that they can view on their computers Option 2 Select an appropriate map and record directions from one point to another on the map Allow a pause for the students to record the name of where they will be after following your directions a museum shop caf etc and then continue with a
27. ings for the Sony Text Player are located in Sony Soloist System Configuration Click on the Edit Other tab For mare details and information please see Sony Text Player by clicking on Sony Soloist Help in the upper right hand corner of the Soloist Recorder Sy Soloist Symphony Activities ACR Automatic Comparative Recording Files Soloist includes the ability to execute comparative recording activities automatically You are able to select options that make it possible for Soloist to automatically play segments of the audio program repeat each segment record student responses after each segment and replay each student response When any media file is opened all supported formats Soloist automatically looks for a file in the same folder with the same name but an extension of acr for Automatic Comparative Recording If the file exists it is opened and the Automatic Comparative Recording exercise is executed according to the contents of the acr file For complete information on the ACR Editor please refer to the Soloist Digital PC Comparative Recorder Features and Specifications document and the Soloist Help screens If the built in ACR Editor Automatic Comparative Recording Editor is enabled via the Other tab in the System Configuration dialog Soloists Tools menu will include a selection for Auto Comparative Recording Editor that opens the editor Part O
28. inning and playback will start Play Sound PLAT S0UND TIDEO RECORDING When you open a video file this Play Sound button will appear along the top of the Position Scrollbar By clicking this button you can choose to listen to either the sound of the video file or the sound of your recording if you ve made any With some PCs it is possible to play the sound of both at the same time your Soloist software will automatically detect if your PC can do this Note that this button only affects what you ll hear when you play the files When you record with a video MIDI file open you will hear both the video MIDI sound and your voice Fast Forward Cue Click this button to have Soloist fast forward the current file You will see the Position Scrollbar begin to move forward slowly at first then at a faster pace Clicking almost any 10 other button will stop the fast forward Pressing the gt key on your PC keyboard will also fast forward the file If you double click this button Soloist will immediately advance to the end of the file Hold the mouse button down on the Fast Forward button to Cue play fast the Wav file does not apply to any other format and it will play at two times normal speed allowing you to quickly locate points in the file If the file was playing before Cue was started playback will resume when it is released The track s selected for playback will be heard during cueing
29. licking fast forward jumps to the last clip and double clicking rewind jumps to the beginning of the first clip Clicking play or record will play or record each clip in sequence stopping at the end of the last clip When each clip is opened Soloist will automatically open any file with the same name and in the same folder as the clip If a Bookmark file exists only those bookmarks that are within the clip are displayed and the same for Bookmark Comment files only those within the clip will be heard The 16 Bookmark tool tip indicates the Bookmark position relative to the start of the clip not the actual position from the beginning of the file 17 SECTION I FOREIGN LANGUAGE LINKS The following links are provided to give you a start on the vast resources that are available through the World Wide Web One of the criteria for listing these sites 1s that they lead to other links that can be used in with your foreign language students Language Resources contains a number of sample lesson plans for Spanish mainly French and German all involving the Web There are also foreign language and education links www educationindex com lanquage FLTEACH WWW Resources for Foreign Language is an annotated listing with links to standards and frameworks from many US states and Canada State Departments of Education and Links to www cortland edu flteach flteach res html Topic Areas Foreign Language Education t
30. morize what they want to say or write it out and then read it You may not want to give them the subject of the next entry in advance but rather give it to them right before they begin Beginning level students may need some time to prepare in advance or specific guidelines such as In 3 5 sentences tell about your immediate family This activity can be a lot of fun for students Encourage them to be creative You may want to spot check their recordings but I would recommend that they not be graded The goal is to have them speaking as spontaneously as possible and to assist them in gaining confidence in their speaking skills Web sites can provide an excellent resource for subject matter Students could take a virtual tour of a city or museum listen to a recording or music or read a newspaper magazine article and report on their observations and reactions At the end of the semester these recordings will provide tangible feedback to the students concerning their speaking abilities They will be able to observe that they have made real progress Using Soloist students click on the red RECORD BUTTON click on the center STOP BUTTON when finished and save to a folder you have designated 23 Soloist Activity Daily Activities This activity targets and reinforces vocabulary for daily activities Other topic areas following the same format could be substituted To target tenses other than the present have students describe
31. ne Overview Click on the Sony logo on Soloist to view the menu click on Tools and select the ACR Editor The Editor will appear as below and you will be able to select the parameters you want for the ACR file you are going to create ACR Editor Exercise Parameters Tab w Automatic Comparative Recording Editor 1 Ci ce fa Automatic Comparative Recording ACR Hode Repeat Play Program Record Voice Hone i Prompt user that this is an ACA exercise after opening file Give user choice to open as a normal file Display ACH Mode in Title Bar and remaining Play Aecord time in Time Counter Flash Tithe Bar while recording Enable Stop Open File and Close File buttons allowing user to stop exercise before completed Enable Repeat Phrase button allowing user repeat current segment Record for Fp F seconds before starting exercise allowing user to record self introduction lf the Program i a video file play the video image during recording 41 lt 1 lt 1 41 41 M Force saving of recording when ACR exercise is finished W Automatically name file and save in the following folder else user specifies D Media Files Recordings Browse I When the recording is saved save the student track only 33 ACR Automatic Comparative Recording Files con 1 Toolbar 2 Mode Click the New Clear toolbar BUTTON to clear all of the current ACR settings returni
32. new starting point and second set of directions You can save a map that will open with the audio recording when the students access the assignment See Incorporating Multiple Files in Section IV 26 Soloist Activity Video Segments Begin with a short video segment 2 to 5 min without sound The segment can be something very simple such as people greeting each other or something more involved such as a news report on an accident The segment may be saved to server and opened with Soloist Students are able to control the video segment and may record their descriptions while watching the video or after they have seen it Note I allow students to be as creative as they want as long as they don t contradict facts observed on the video segment For example they shouldn t describe someone as happy if on the video the person is clearly upset However they may invent explanations for what they observe or make up appropriate details Language videos available from the various publishers are a good source of material This activity may be used to target the past and or present tenses Guideline questions Who is involved Number of people ages physical characteristics Where is the action taking place Physical description of the place and or a name of the place What action is taking place Students then may add fictitious details to the facts such as names or ages of the people why they are there their relationship to each
33. ng all to factory defaults Click the Open File BUTTON to open an existing acr file for editing Click the Save File tooloar BUTTON to save the current ACR exercise settings to an acr file The ACR Mode defines what occurs for each segment in the exercise The mode applies to all segments The current ACR modes available are e Play Program Twice No Record Play Program Record Voice Play Program Twice Record Voice Play Program Record Voice Play Voice Play Program Twice Record Voice Play Voice Play Program Record Voice Play Program Play Voice 3 Repeat Repeat can be None 1 2 or 3 indicating the number of times to repeat the mode pattern for each segment This applies to all segments of the exercise 4 ACR Exercise Parameters When an ACR file is opened students can be prompted that it is an ACR exercise informing them of the ACR mode of the exercise Sony Soloist Auto Compar In addition they can be givena as choice to open the file as an This i an Suto Comparative Recording exercise ACR exercise or to open it as a Tou Will hear the Program two times and then be normal pro an file Not able to record your Yace pog i shown here The ACR mode can be shown in Soloist s Title bar the blue bar at the top of the main window indicating the mode such as Play Record and Review If this item is checked the Time Counter in S
34. o help the US education system recognize and is your resource on foreign language learning in grades K 8 University this site links foreign language www cal org topics forlang html Internet Activities for Foreign Language Classes CLITA Workshops of the California Foreign Language Project and the and His Work AP Language Jairo Jimenez La Perla Teacher URL s 480 links to teacher resource http members aol com maestro12 web wadir html Foreign Language Lesson Plans and Resources for Teachers and is committed to improving foreign language education in US primary and and projects and provides links to useful foreign language Web www csun edu hcedu013 eslsp html FLTEACHERS Web Pages TECHNOLOGY Devin P Browne Technology in Foreign Language Education Tom Duggan Links to FLTEACHERS PowerPoint Presentations Spanish Joyce Dustin www geocities com Paris LeftBank 9806 flteacherspgs html Foreign Language Links on the World Wide Web General Links for Foreign Language Teachers Language Learning Center at Michigan State University Center for Language Education and Research at MSU http polyglot cal msu edu clear internet internetlinks html The Hall of Literature and Language Spain Russia Eastern Europe Austria and foreign press media links NCBE 18 Language and Education Links National Center for Bilingual Education teacher and www tenet edu academia l
35. oloist s main window will count down the remaining time for the Play or Record segment letting the user know how much time remains In addition the color of the Time Counter will be green during playback red during recording and yellow during review Soloist s Title Bar can be set to flash while recording giving an additional indication to the students that they should be recording their responses The Stop Open File and Close File can be enabled while the ACR file is open allowing students to stop the exercise close the exercise or open another file If these are disabled students must complete the exercise once it is started The Repeat Phrase BUTTON can be enabled during the exercise If students click the Repeat Phrase BUTTON the current ACR segment will be repeated from the beginning giving students the opportunity to hear the program again and re record their voices 34 ACR Automatic Comparative Recording Files con e Students can be given the ability to record for 0 5 10 or 15 seconds before the ACR exercise starts This provides an opportunity to record a self introduction and or other comments e Ifthe ACR program file is a digital video file the video image can be played while students are recording their responses Typically a segment of video is played and students are given the opportunity to record a response It may be useful to play the video image a se
36. perly As with Manual Segmentation determine and set the Program Length 4 Bookmark Segmentation 8 If you already have bookmarks set in the file you are editing you may click on the Bookmarks BUTTON The end point of each segment will be set according to the location of each bookmark in the file Save 9 Save your ACR File before exiting the ACR Editor 38
37. rmanently save recording before closing Click yes and you will see the following dialog 2 x Folder Select Lessons Folder Recordings Folder File Properties tf Stereo 2 Track Monaural 1 Track P Program Orill tracks F Dril tack only lt German Practice waw File name Seat 4 recording 01 D Remove Silence Silence Threshold Save as type aan Sound Files gt wav Cancel 4 Depending on how your software is configured you may not see the Folder Select and or the File Properties frame along the right of this dialog Note for instructors When making a recording with Soloist stand alone to be used as the master track for student activity the recording should be save as a MONAURAL recording When students access the recording it will convert to two tracks so students can do audio comparative recording Enter a filename Identifier recording X X wav Identifier If you entered a User ID on start up that ID is used as the identifier If not the seat number of your Soloist position as set by your administrator is used recording The word recording is literally used if you created a new recording If you opened an existing program file and performed comparative recording the name of the original program file is used XX a two digit number 01 99 The first number not matching an existing file in the selected folder is automa
38. s not possible Just Open If you attempt to open a non supported file for example a file that is not a PCM format WAV sound file you ll see the following dialog Geman Dialog way is of a non supported file format Try opening another file If a text file exists in the same folder as the sound or video file that you open with the same filename but with an extension of either txt ASCII text format or rtf rich text format that text file will automatically be opened and displayed in the Sony Text Editor See Incorporating Multiple Files in Section IV If a txp or rtp text file exists scrolling text file that text file will automatically be opened and displayed in the Text Player You can also open files with an extension of txp or rtp directly into the Text Player using Open File button in Soloist s main screen car bet TRE cag la ropa rtf 466 la ropa way 3 7 r KE cag la ropa rtf oF la tienda brik 1KB la tienda txt 1KB la tienda way 1 7 06KB am questions bmk 1KE A questions wav 3 49 9h 8 TP Destinos txp TRE 2 TP Destinos wav 1 095KB LISA tap 1KB USAT wav 1137KB Text Document Rich Test Format Wave Sound Rich Test Format BMK File Test Document Wave Sound BME File Wave Sound TF File Wave Sound TF File Wave Sound 3 4 02 3 05 PM 1079701 4 14 PM 3 6 00 amp 40 PM 1079701 1 32 PM afo U2 6 54 PM 10 9 07 1 05 PM 35 02 6 54
39. s the ability to execute comparative recording exercises automatically a mode called Automatic Comparative Recording When any media file is opened all supported formats Soloist automatically determines if it includes an Automatic Comparative Recording exercise ACR exercises automatically play segments of the program material can automatically record your responses can re play the program segment can re play your recording and can repeat the process or continue to the next segment The length of time to record a response for a segment may be the same amount of time as the segment some multiple of the length of the segment or some fixed time 14 When an ACR exercise is opened you may be prompted that it is an ACR exercise informing you of the ACR mode of the exercise In addition you may be given a choice to open the file as an ACR exercise or to open it as a normal program file BOOKMARKS Normally the word BOOKMARKS appears above these buttons except if your PC is connected to the Sony Symphony or Virtuoso Multimedia Learning System and the teacher starts a Response Analyzer Test Whenever a sound file is open clicking on any one of these buttons when its light is off will set it as a bookmark and its light will turn green Clicking on a bookmark button when the light is green will cause Soloist to immediately set the sound file position to that bookmark position perform the selected action The bookmarks can
40. sponding recording lengths 1 Segment List The right side of the tab shows the Segment List for the ACR exercise both the Program End time and the corresponding Record Length A segment always begins where the previous segment ends the first segment begins at time 35 ACR Automatic Comparative Recording Files con 00 00 0 Clicking on any line in the Segment List selects the segment as the Current Segment Double clicking will cause the segment to be played from Start to finish and will apply the currently selected Record Length 2 Current Segment Frame The Current Segment frame indicates the start and end time of the current segment as well as its length Click the Play Stop gt BUTTON to listen to stop the current segment Once the end of the segment is reached playback will automatically stop and the next segment will be selected This allows quick aural review or the beginning and end of each segment Click the Delete X BUTTON to remove the current segment Click the Add Current Time 00 27 5 BUTTON to mark the end of a segment and add the current time to the Segment List The time shown in the BUTTON is the same as the time shown in Soloist s main window time counter The currently selected Record Length will be automatically assigned to the segment 3 Record Length The Record Length time for each segment can be set by choosing
41. st will play until the next silent pause is detected For non Wav format files Soloist will play a predetermined number of seconds The icon in the Repeat Play Phrase button will change while it 1s playing a phrase The adjustment of sensitivity used to detect silence for Wav format files or seconds to play for non Wav format files is the same as that is used to for the Repeat Phrase function Rewind aal Click this button to have Soloist rewind the current file You will see the Position Scrollbar begin to move backwards slowly at first then at a faster pace Clicking almost any other button will stop the rewind Pressing the lt key on your PC keyboard will also rewind the file If you double click this button Soloist will immediately rewind to the beginning of the file Play Stop This button is used to both start and playback the currently opened file When the arrow is visible on this button clicking it will start playback from the current position After playback has started a square is visible in this button and clicking it will stop playback Pressing the space bar on your PC keyboard will also toggle playback and stop Your Soloist software may be configured to automatically stop playback when you start playing a tape in the optional Sony ER 8020 cassette tape deck If you are currently at the very end of the file and you click this button the file will be automatically rewound to the beg
42. t Language Links University of Wisconsin Netscape Foreign Language Dictionaries www Imp ucla edu wwwsites htm FLE 5876 Electronic Media in Foreign Language Education must have a user account to use this UVIC s Language teaching clipart library is a great resource Address http Awww dubravac fau edu 5876 links htm www dubravac fau edu 5876 links htm Internet based Language Learning of academic resources links bibliographies for using ICT at UK Higher Education ReLaTe Remote Language Teaching using Web based foreign language exercises Description A list of language learning projects which incorporate the internet www hull ac uk cti langsite internet htm ADDITIONAL LINKS TO EXPLORE For Students and Teachers Newspapers www onlinenewspapers com A variety of information www lanquagebox com French resources www minitel fr Mayan Civilization http zapotec agron iastate edu maya html Incan Civilization www zinezone com zines news history inca index html Maps of France www maison de la france regions ukcartefrance html Asterix in German www cologneweb com asterix index htm Foreign Language Links www unc edu cit gquides irg 28 html French comics www coolfrenchcomics com French magazines hitp etext lib virginia edu fr oth html FR3 Espana Cultural visits www madrilejos net Madrid Zoo www madridzoo com Movie Works www movieworks com Monet s Home and Garden hitp giverny org g
43. their daily activities during the past week or what they plan to do next week You may want to have students prepare in advance and permit them to use notes not write out everything and read it You may want to give them specific guidelines as to the number of questions they should be prepared to ask answer and the vocabulary they should incorporate Another option especially for lower level students would be for you to record the questions and have the students listen and record their answers Have students record their questions and save their files using a number you assign to them rather than by name Assign each student a different file number Each student records a set of questions For example Sue records ten questions and saves her recording as 12 wav 12 being the number you assigned to her Joe records his questions and saves his recording as 5 wav 5 being his assigned number for the activity Either the same day or another day assign each student a different file and have each record his her answers to the questions Sue might be assigned 5 wav and will answer Joe s questions Joe might be assigned 12 wav or another student s set of questions The students do not need to know who recorded the original questions Also if some of the question files are not satisfactory you do not need to assign them One question file could be assigned to more than one student Questions could include the following What
44. tically selected Examples are smithg German Lesson 3 1 01 wav Seat B2 recording 54 wav 12 If you want to save your recording as an MPEG Layer 3 MP3 format sound file select MPEG Layer 3 Sound Files in the File Type drop down list or simply give your file an extension of mp3 While the file is being converted from PCM format to MPEG Layer 3 format you will see a progress indicator The conversion time will be dependent on the length of your recording the speed of your computer s microprocessor and the Bit rate selected in your configuration settings If you want to save your recording as a ZIP compressed file select ZIP Compressed Files in the File Type drop down list or simply give your file an extension of zip While the file is being compressed you will see a progress indicator The conversion time will be dependent on the length of your recording and the speed of your computer s microprocessor If the Folder Select frame is shown you can click these buttons to quickly return to the default folders for open lessons or saving recordings If the File Properties frame is shown you can choose to save your recording as either a stereo default or a monaural file A monaural file is a single track which requires half the storage space of an equivalent stereo file If you choose the monaural option you can then choose to save either a mix of both the Program tra
45. umass edu langctr langlearn html MEL Language for over 150 languages and links to 30 free translating sites to Language See Also Foreign Language Education Resources See Also English mel lib mi us humanities HUM language html Spanish Foreign Language Links including course information Education WWW Servers in Network Information Center Links to information on to the MCPS Foreign Language home page www mcps k12 md us curriculum lang LinksSpan html Region 8 Education Service Center Foreign Language Links WWW Foreign Language Resources J Links Meta Index Categories Links to sites of interest including art business education news recreation science www r8gesc k12 in us Instruction T eacherLinks ForeignLang htm 19 The Human Languages Page is now iLoveLangquages Your Guide Foreign Language Education Program University of Central Florida Informational areas of interest research and links to other sites www ilovelanguages com index php category Schools CUniversities CHAMPS ELYSEES INC Links Page audio magazines for foreign homework help continuing education professional re English for Foreign Born Professionals and of French language and culture a very useful links section to www champs elysees com html inks language php3 Language Related Sites Center for Language Education And Research CLEAR Language Learning ne
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