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READ-ME.DOC
An Explanation of
CANTONES
A Program to Teach Spoken Cantonese
Version 2.0 (May 1986)
=======================================================
(c) 1986 by Louie Crew. All rights reserved.
.pa
Contents
A note on Version 2.0's changes
A note on Version 1.1's changes
I. What the Program Does
II. Limitations of the Program
III. The Files That You Receive
IV. Use
Main Menu
PREPARING LESSONS
An Overview
Naming Files
Entering data
Ending the Entry of a Lesson
Resuming Entry
Correcting Mistakes
THE REVIEWS
The Quick Reviews
List both Chinese and English Forms
List English Forms Only
Chinese Forms Only
The Slower Reviews
Branching
Scores
A Sample Slow Review
Translation Skills
Specialized Reviews
V. Creating New Files by Word Class
A Tip On Alphabetizing
VI. Printing Files
Installing Your Printer
MergePrinting
English-Chinese Lists
Back Up Your Files
VII. Ending a Session
VIII. Improving This Program: A Note from the Author
.pa
A Note on Revisions
incorporated in Version 2.0
(c) 1986 by Louie Crew.
April 1986
Essentially the main change in 2.0 was the compiled version, producing the
two executable files,
CANTONES.EXE
and
CANAUX.EXE.
Each chains readily into the other, and vastly speeds the operation of the
program.
CANTONES easily shifts between the student and teacher menus. CANAUX
allows you to (re)install one menu as the default. CANAUX allows you to
print lists and to reorganize them.
A Note on Revisions
incorporated in Version 1.1
(c) 1986 by Louie Crew.
April 1986
In response to requests from the first others to use my program: I have
added the following features:
1. New files:
A student menu, much simplified menu for anyone to use in
reviewing lessons. It shifts easily to the teacher menu,
but mainly allows one to avoid the more complicated options of
when not wanted.
The student menu automatically writes misses alternately to
REV1 or REV2. It lists only those files which begin LESSON??
when it prompts the user to name the file to review. It
omits the options to review by parts of speech and to review
with sentences rather than by words. It also bypasses the
options to create new lessons or to print files. Those who
want these more complicated functions--especially teachers--
can still access them, through (S)hift to Teachers' Menu.
An install feature, to accommodate most different printers.
PARA -- the file which the install feature creates and
the program accesses automatically to supply the printer's data.
A dictionary feature, to reorganize files. (See the "Tip on
alphabetizing in Section V).
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Note: If you have an earlier version, replace it with
CANTONES vers. 2.0. Otherwise, most of these
new files will not work for you.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
New sample lessons: Now
LESSONEW
LESSONEX
LESSONEY
LESSONEZ
2. An easy escape: The program now allows a user to end a review
quickly, even after specifying a desire to review an entire
lesson. As the screen prompts: just hit * as in response to the
first prompt for any new item in a lesson. The program will
immediately report your score on the items actually reviewed and
return you to the menu for an orderly exit.
3. A tip on use: Some users complained that they do not type well
and find it too difficult to type in the Chinese when responding
to English prompts. They do not have to. The program asks you
to do so, but does not require you to do so. The program makes no
use of the data that you type. Proficient typists may like to
type, to test whether they really know the tone markers. No one
needs to be concerned about spelling except as it references
pronunciation.
Many will prefer merely to respond orally. Then type just a blank
answer for each translation. The program moves rapidly. Blank
answers in Chinese entries must be at least one space or one
character. With English responses, even a carriage return moves to
the next prompt.
Please share your experiences with the program: I will incorporate as many
as fall within my programming skills and time allowed. If you have sent a
donation, I will keep you advised of any substantial updates.
.cp 7
Louie Crew (a.k.a. Li Min Hua)
Department of English
Chinese University
Shatin, NT
Hong Kong
TELEX 50301 CUHK HX
TELEGRAM SINOVERSITY
.pa
CANTONESE runs with MS-DOS 2.0 or higher.
CANTONES is copyrighted "Free-Ware." Copy a friend's disk or download
from an electronic bulletin board.
Persons who use the program frequently may want to send a contribution
to the researcher. Those who contribute at least US$10 will be informed of
all future updates as registered users.
Persons who don't use the program should give it to someone else who
will.
The program itself is free and must remain so. For those who cannot
find a copy in another way, the author will supply a disk by air mail for
US$15, or by local Hong Kong post for HK$70, to cover processing costs.
Remit in either US$ or HK$.
Warning: No one may sell this program; you may only give it away.
The program comes with no guarantees, written or implied.
.pa
I. What the Program Does
CANTONES is designed to teach spoken Cantonese, but can readily adapt to
Mandarin, or to any other language which the IBM keyboard can support,
sometimes with no modifications.
CANTONES serves mainly to teach vocabulary and pronunciation. The
program accommodates the tone system used by Parker Po-Fei Huang and Gerard
P. Kok in Speak Cantonese, (New Asia--Yale-in-China Chinese Language
Center, 1981), who distinguish the seven tones of Cantonese by using western
script in combination with three superscript markers ( \ / and - ) and a
silent letter "h," as with the following round vowel:
_
o = high level
\
o = high falling
/
o = high rising
o = mid level
\
oh = low falling
/
oh = low rising
oh = low level
CANTONES keeps score about the user's success with four categories which
the user mush master:
word recognition
tone recognition
measure recognitimn
sentence translation
CANTONES allows the user to review in different ways:
prompted by Chinese or by English
prompted with words or with sentences
completing whole lessons or special categories of lessons
testing only those items which one missed last time or
the entire lesson again
(The student menu simplifies matters, and retains only the first option
here.)
CANTONES will print lessons, including lists of those words the user
still does not know from a lesson. With a standard word-processor, the user
can also MergePrint the lessons into other formats, as for flash cards,
vocabulary tests, etc.
The program is based on Crew's earlier version, "MailMerge Cantonese,"
Hong Kong Computer Journal (February 1985), awarded "Best Article of 1985 by
the Hong Kong Computer Society.
.cp 7
II. Limitations of the Program
The program teaches nothing about written Chinese characters.
The program teaches nothing about grammar.
The program works best if one uses it in the context of a course, with
lessons, textbook, audiotapes, and a class in which to practice.
The program comes with only one sample lesson, to demonstrate how the
program will work with any lessons which the user wants to learn.
Users must finally talk to Cantonese speakers to test their real
performance.
The program augments the work of teachers, textbooks, and friends who
are native speakers. The program allows learners to continue privately, at
their own pace, processes which began in class, in books, or in live
conversation.
III. The Files That You Receive
The full program contains the following files:
LESSONEW Sample lessons.
LESSONEX
LESSONEY
LESSONEZ
SCORE.SP The file which stores data about your progress. (Empty at
first)
CANTONES.EXE The primary half of the program, which chains automatically
into CANAUX.EXE.
CANAUX.EXE Half of the program, which chains into CANTONES.EXE
automatically.
PARA A file which the install feature of CANAUX.EXE creates and
both CANTONES.EXE and CANAUX.EXE access. It automatically to
stores printer codes and sets one menu as the default.
READ-ME.DOC This documentation file.
MERGETST.DOC A sample MergePrint file which MergePrints LESSONEX when used
with MailMerge. (Serves as a model for other print options.)
The program requires at least one lesson, the cantones.exe files, and
para to work at all.
The full program is available in one archive, CANTONES.ARC, via
electronic bulletin boards. CANTONES.ARC, vers. 2.0, was archived by the
public domain program ARC500.EXE. The archive requires Version 500 or a
later version of ARC.EXE for the user to extract the files.
The program uses SCORE.SP to store data regarding your progress. You
never have to open or close SCORE.SP on your own. CANTONES maintains it
automatically. It arrives empty because you have not yet taken a lesson,
but it will soon hold your scores during your ten most recent reviews. The
file must always appear in the same directory with CANTONES for the program
to to work properly.
.cp 5
IV. Use
To use, turn on your computer. CANTONES.EXE and CANAUX.EXE are the two
program files, and belong together on one drive. Put all other distributed
files (plus any lessons you create) either on the same drive with the .EXE
files or on another. If you use more than one drive, log on the drive
without the .EXE files and use the path command to tell MS-DOS where to find
the program files. (See your DOS manual)
When on the drive with the lessons, type:
CANTONES
The distributed version loads the simpler, student menu automatically (you
can change that default with install):
S P E A K C A N T O N E S E
/ / \ /
G o n g G w o n g d u n g w a
Vers. 2.0 (c) 1986 by Louie Crew
(C)omplete review
(Q)uick list
(S)witch to Teacher's Menu
<ESC> to end the session
Choice:
First the user must specify whether to review completely to list
rapidly all of the contents of a file. Second, the user must name the
lesson to review. Third, the user must specify either English or Chinese
prompts.
The teacher menu yields a fuller range of options:
Your Name's Copy of
CANTONES vers. 2.0 (C) 1986 by Louie Crew
Installed for Your Brand Name Printer
PREPARE NEW LESSONS
1 = Enter data 2 = Add data 3 = Edit
REVIEW LESSONS PROMPTED WITH
Chinese English
4 = Words 6 = Words
5 = Sentences 7 = Sentences
8 = Toggle to review by parts of speech (OFF)
Just a quick list of (E)ng. (C)hinese (B)oth
(A)uxiliary functions (S)witch to Student Menu 0= END
Enter:
===========================================
If you choose "A" you get another menu:
CANAUX Auxiliary Programs to Use with CANTONES
(c) 1986 by Louie Crew, Chinese University, Hong Kong
1 = Reinstall the program
2 = Reorganize a file, to put English words first
3 = Print a regular file (Chinese words first)
4 = Print a regorganized file (English words first)
5 = To Main Program
6 = to MS-DOS
Study these menus very closely. They can tell you almost everything else you
will read in this booklet. They are your main guide to the program. The
program should always return to the default menu after you complete any one
task.
Preparing Lessons
An Overview
Since the program is not tied to any one textbook, users (teachers or
students) will need to to prepare the lessons for review, typically by
entering words from a textbook or from some other source, such as a native
speaker's list of words around a particular subject one wants to master.
Learners will often find that the task of typing the lessons into the
computer effectively introduces them to the material; and often in the very
first review of the lesson, they will already know a several items from this
exposure.
Many will not want to limit their use of the program to Cantonese, or
even to Chinese. The program allows you to build vocabulary lists for any
two languages which the IBM keyboard can support.
The Main Menu specifies the options:
1 = Enter data 2 = Add data 3 = Edit
"1" here begins a new lesson.
"2" lets you continue adding material to an old lesson, as when you
have stopped to do some other task or when you have discovered some new
terms to add to your special word lists
"3" lets you correct mistakes that you detect in lessons that you have
already created.
Naming Files
The student men;u assumes very simple naming conventions. When it
tells the user the files from which to choose, it lists only those named
LESSON??.--where the two question marks represent the only part of the names
which varies. The student menu also writes the items missed to a new file,
automatically named either REV1 or REV2.
The teacher menu allows much more flexibility, both in creating new
files and in accessing them. (Actually, the student menu also lets users
access any file: but the student would have to know the name, since the
program lists only those in the form of LESSON??. Thereby, teachers may
prepare, review, and print special files.
Those who use the teacher menu rather than student menu will be wise to
establish clear conventions in naming their files, especially to distinguish
between permanent files and temporary ones.
For example, if I am trying to learn most of my vocabulary from lessons
in a textbook, I will want to create permanent files which contain all words
in the lesson. Even as I learn more and more of the words in a lesson, I
will want to keep the full lesson in tact.
I will also want to have temporary files, to collect the items that I
now do not know, so that I do not waste time reviewing material that I
already know. CANTONES collects mistakes automatically: whenever the user
begins to review a lesson, the user must specify the name of a file which
will store the items which the user did not know. Then next time, the user
can elect to review only that smaller file, and from that, write the
mistakes into hopefully an even smaller file, etc., until the latest file of
"mistakes" is empty. Usually the user will want to return to the
"permanent" file to test memory again.
For this process to work efficiently, users need to name files in ways
that distinguish between the permanent and the temporary. I recommend my
own system:
I name all permanent files from the same source in a similar
way, such as L1, L2, L3.... for files which come from one source,
SLANG1, SLANG2.... for files from another, etc.
I name all temporary files REV1 or REV2. When I do, the program
recognizes my convention and automatically writes the mistakes in
REV1 to REV2, or the mistakes in REV2 to REV1, alternately. Or I may
simply number between 1 to 10, or often just "1" and "2"
alternately. I don't need to fill the disk with my mistakes, but I
do need to store them briefly until I know them.
Thereby my names always reflect a files relationship to other
files. Whenever I begin a new sitting, I always know which files I
can and cannot safely overwrite.
Especially remember: the computer overwrites any old file if the user
names a new file with the same name. Users will want to overwrite
temporary files, to limit their proliferation. They are "temporary"
precisely because you will not need them very long. For example, I might
need to see the items I missed at 9 a.m. this morning for five more times,
but I will not need to see them next week, unless I am too stupid to be
learning a language at all. If next week I need to review the same lesson,
I need to start with the entire lesson, or with a file I have renamed on
purpose, such as HARD6 for the ones I found hardest in Lesson 6.
The student menu employs most of my personal conventions, but the
teacher menu allows users to adopt conventions that best serve their own
purposes. Users will need to have some conventions to make files easily
recognizable and distinct.
Novices to computers will want to read their computer manual for
additional material about the conventions computers require for file names,
such as the restriction to a maximum of 8 continuous letters, plus an
optional extension of up to a maximum of 3 continuous letters.
The teachers' menu requires users to name files often. Do so
purposefully, carefully.
*********************
Enter data
If you choose "1," the screen responds:
Here are the files you already have:
C:
LESSONEX
SCORE .SP
CANTONES.EXE
CANAUX.EXE
READ-ME .DOC
MERGETST.DOC
What name would you like to give
to your new lesson?
Your own screen here will change to reflect any additions or subtractions
to make to your collection of files as you continue to use the program.
Notice: Of these here, only "Lessonex" is a lesson file. Only "Lessonex"
is a files which you can actually review: and it alone would appear when
this question is asked from the student menu. You cannot review any of the
other files, but you can review any which you have prepared with options 1,
2, or 3 of the teachers' menu.
Next you are prompted to enter data for each item:
<> to end.
Word in Chinese?
\
Suppose you enter the Chinese word yahn. First you type the "y"; then
the "a"; then the "\" ... The accent mark will appear over the previous
letter automatically (unless you have come to the end of a line). The
program recognizes only three such tone markers, and only when you respond
to prompts for Chinese:
\ = the slash descending to the right
/ = the slash ascending to the right
- = the hyphen
N.B.: the program regards these keys strictly as superscripts in
Chinese entries: hence they are not available for other uses.
Next the screen prompts:
English?
Here you would enter "person". Then the screen reviews the following parts
of speech and prompts you to specify one:
a = adverb p = particle
at = attributive pat = patterns
av = auxiliary verb ph = phrase
bf = boundform pn = pronoun
cv = coverb pv = postverb
ev = equative verb pw = placeword
fv = functive verb q = question
i = interjection rv = resultative verb
ie = idiomatic expression rve = resultative ending
m = measure sp = specifier
ma = movable adverb sv = stative verb
n = noun vo = verb-object comp.
nu = number tw = time word
on = onomatopoeia
x = other useful expressions
---------------------------------------------
Part of speech?
\
Since yahn is a noun, you would enter "n".
Lower case matters here. Be consistent: use upper or lower case all
of the time, if you want the program to match properly with several options
that you will specify when you review the lessons!
(Note: Programmers again could alter these codes to reflect different
analyses of Cantonese or or any other languages. See the note at the end
about the availability of the source code.) Non-programmers themselves
can use different codes here without even changing the program, so long as
they remember what codes they have used when later they ask to review items
which match.)
Since you specified "n" the program will ask you
Measure?
It will not ask for measure for other word classes.
\
The correct measure for "yahn" is "go," which you would then enter.
Next the program prompts:
Sample Chinese sentence:
- - \ /
You might respond: Nidi yahn hou guih.<>
Next the screen prompts:
English?
You would need to type "These people are very tired."
Finally, the program plays back the full entry and asks:
Is the full entry correct? Y/N
If you say "N," you are allowed to re-enter it from the beginning. If you
say "Y", the program prompts for the next word:
Note: the program will also prompt "Correct? (Y/N)" for earlier
entries in Chinese, but not for those in English. These prompts allow you
to correct smaller, more difficult portions of the entry without having to
retype the entire entry. In practice, those prompts speed rather than
delay the task, since the Chinese entries are less familiar and provoke more
mistakes more easily.
Ending the Entry of a Lesson
Whenever you complete the entry of one item in a lesson, the program
prompts you again for another items, as before:
.cp 4
Enter:
<> to end.
Word in Chinese?
The "<>" here means "carriage return" or "ENTER key."
To end the session completely, hit the carriage return or the ENTER
key. The screen will remind you of the name which you have given to your
new file "Your new entries have created ..." and will prompt "Hit any key to
return to the main menu." Make a note of the file name. Return to the main
menu, and enter your next response, even if merely "0" to end the session.
Remember: after each new item when you are entering a lesson, you will
always return to this first prompt. Always end a session in the orderly
way described. Otherwise you risk losing all data which you have entered
for this lesson. You can fearlessly terminate your the creation of lessons
prematurely, because the program allows you to return to the same lesson:
Resuming Entry
As we have seen, the Main Menu specifies the options:
1 = Enter data 2 = Add data 3 = Edit
Choice 2 allows users to enlarge lessons created earlier. The
program prompts for items exactly as in Choice 1, but first the user
specifies an existing file to which the program will add them, rather than a
new file. The program also lists all existing files so that the user can
precisely name the file to be enlarged.
Choice 2 especially helps one who needs to work in short segments of
time while entering a long lesson. One closes each "incomplete" version in
the orderly way described above; leaves to do something else; and returns to
the lesson by Choice 2.
Correcting Mistakes
Choice 3 provides an orderly way for users to rectify mistakes
after they have already created a file. It lists every item in a specified
file individually, and prompts "Correct? Y/N." If the user says "N," the
program prompts as the user re-enters that item completely.
THE REVIEWS
The Quick Reviews
Both menus support this option. Many times one wants merely to flash
through a lesson, sometimes just to see what it there, sometimes to warm up
for a more thorough session.
The program provides three ways to do so:
List both Chinese and English Forms
If one responds with a "B" at the Main Menu, the program will list all
words in a lesson giving both the Chinese and the English versions. When we
type the letter, the screen prompts "Which of your files do you want to
list?" and, to guide us as we choose, lists all of the files currently on
the drive with the program.
When we answer, as with LESSONEX, the program scrolls through the
Chinese and the English words in that lesson:
\
syu
book
/
bouji
newspaper
\
Junggwok
China
/
meihgwok
America
gwai
expensive
Hit any key for more...
Notice that the program pauses when the screen fills. As you hit a
key, you see more of the lesson, until you have seen all items. At the end
of the lesson you have another choice:
1 = List another file
2 = Return to the main menu
Enter:
If you choose "1," you will review according to the same terms that you
expressed in your first review (here, to see both Chinese and English
together). The program prompts to you name the next lesson and you proceed.
If you want to change terms for a different kind of review, choose "2" and
specify your choice at the main menu.
"2" here speeds up this process if you mainly want to flash through
several lessons very quickly.
.cp 4
List English Forms Only
This review works just like Choice B, except that you flash through
lessons with only the English words. This is very useful if you want
quickly to test your knowledge of a lesson.
.cp 4
List Chinese Forms Only
This review works just like Choice B and Choice E, except that you
flash through lessons with only the Chinese words.
.cp 5
The Slower Reviews
The heart of the program, and of any instruction, is the slower, more
thoughtful review. The teacher menu specifies:
REVIEW LESSONS PROMPTED WITH
Chinese English
4 = Words 6 = Words
5 = Sentences 7 = Sentences
8 = Toggle to review by parts of speech (OFF)
The student menu retains only options 4 and 6 here, i.e., the choice of
reviewing all items prompted by either Chinese or English. A teacher who
wants students to review words by parts of speech, can still allow them to
do so by culling all words in a category, such as all time words (see Part V
below) and naming the new collect in a way that it will show up as a lesson
in the student's listing, as would the name LESSONTW, for example.
The "slow" reviews add features essential to good instruction:
Branching
The student menu branches automatically, writing the items missed
alternately to REV1 or REV2 and inviting the students to review this file in
the next round.
The more complex teacher menu prompts the user to specify a file to
collect the ones missed. Typically, in the next round you will want to
review only those items, writing the mistakes in that round to yet another
(hopefully smaller) file....until the file of mistakes is an empty file and
you have succeeded in learning the lesson. (Alternatively, one may create
specialized word lists by "missing" the ones desired for the lists. See
Part V.)
This feature keeps the program from boring you. It "branches," as any
good program must, into what you personally need to know, and does not
require you to stay with anyone's prior expectations, yours or those of the
one who prepared the lesson which you have begun to review. It also keeps
the program from paying false compliments, as it would if you continued to
get high scores but only because you limited your vision to what you already
know.
.cp 3
Scores
The program keeps your score, in 4 categories: word recognition, proper
tone designation (if you respond in Chinese), proper identification of
measure (if the word is a noun), proper translation of sentences.
At the end of any lesson, the program computes your score in all
categories and reports it automatically. It also allows you to choose to
see how you compare in this lesson with your score on the last 10 lessons
(or as many as you have completed up to that number).
This option lets you diagnose which of the 4 categories to
concentrate more closely on next time. The program never lies to you about
your progress or your lack of it. It does not court your approval, as many
a teacher might. Nor do you have to worry about others knowing your
mistakes. Many will find that they will sit at a lesson much longer merely
under the compulsion to compete more effectively against their own private
record.
Note: the program gets you to help keep score. Some will consider
this an annoyance, if not a "bug"; others an advantage. After you answer,
the screen shows you the correct answer and asks "Correct? Y/N"--for each
possible error. One key stroke sends you along. (The program never even
shows the Y or N on the screen; nor does it require a carriage return.)
Perhaps it would be nice for the computer to decide whether you were
correct, but practically that would present more problems than efficiency
now seems to warrant.
For example, some will want to credit themselves as correct with a
translation in which they have only one error in tone. Others will be
stricter. Almost everyone will want the freedom to put tone markers over
any letter in a syllable, not just over the letter arbitrarily chosen when
the lesson was created. Spelling is not the object. Few Chinese people
could read these phonetic transcriptions anyway. Their sole function is to
point towards intonation and live performance.
A Sample Slow Review
Here follows a sample of the screens that would appear as one reviewed
an a lesson slowly, prompted with English words--i.e., when one requests "6"
on the teacher menu or "E" from the student menu. The double underlining
here indicates a user's responses from the keyboard.
(The file to which you wrote those
missed last was: REV1).
Type the name of the file which you
would like to review.
Note: the illustration here assumes that you have just reviewed another
lesson. (If you have not, the sentence will appear without a file name
where "REV1" appears here.) The program is reminding you that you wrote the
items which you missed to a new file called "REV1" (or another specified
file), in case you forgot). Often the file of misses is the file you want
to review next.
Type the name of the file which you
would like to review.
.cp 2
? REV1 ====
Type the name of the file in which you
would like to store the items
that you miss:
.cp 2
? REV2
====
.cp 7
Person
/
Chinese: yahn <>
=======
\
yahn
Note: the screen stops with the colon after "Chinese" until you enter
your answer and hit a carriage return. Then the screen shows you the
correct answer and asks
Regarding the Word?
.cp 2
Correct? Y/N
=
Here you confirm with one key that you got it right or wrong, as with next
question, where you missed one:
Regarding the Tone?
Correct? Y/N
Measure:
.cp 4
go
==
go
.cp 5
RE measure:
Correct? Y/N
=
Translate:
These people are tired.
.cp 3
- - \ /
Nidi yahn hou guih.<>
===================
.cp 2
- - \ /
Nidi yahn hou guih.
RE translation:
.cp 2
Correct? Y/N
=
Because you acknowledged one one mistake, with tone the first time, the
program will save this entire item into your new file of misses (here you
named it "REV2"), so that you can review the entire entry again.
The program will continue in the same fashion with the next word, the
next.... The program will inform you when you have finished and will
review your score. (Here we will assume that only this one item was in the
file.):
.cp 7
You have completed your review of: REV1
Summary
1 = Records in the file
1 = Records actually reviewed
100 = Percentage of records reviewed
-------------------------------------
75 = Overall score **************
1 = Records with at least one error
100 = % of total
Words missed: 0 or 0 %
Measure missed: 0 or 0 % of tested
Tone missed: 1 or 100 %
Sentences missed: 0 or 0 %
You earned only the 75% because you missed one of the four things
tested for this item. If you had reviewed a longer lesson, these counts
would be much more useful, as you would lose track of your score.
Often that score keeps you informed well enough before you dive into the
misses for another try. Sometimes, however, you want to back off for a fuller
diagnosis as the program prompts:
.cp 2
Do you want a fuller review? Y/N
=
Had you said "N," you would have the choice of immediately going to the file
of mistakes or of returning to the Main Menu for full options. The full
review follows. The statistics here will vary from your own scores. Always
the program reports the scores for the most recent lesson first and then the
score for 10 most lessons, whether or not the user has asked to review those
scores each time.
.cp 7
Regarding Words Not Recognized
--------------------------------------------
File: Percentage
REV1 0
REV2 0
REV1 0
LESSON1 1
REV2 0
REV1 17
REV2 17
REV1 40
REV2 70
REV1 80
LESSON14 95
Hit any key to review next category.
Enter:
Notice: The user here has recently reviewed two lessons, the current one, L1,
(which has only 1 item in it, remember) and L14. Notice how the user improved
the score each time with L14 until finally the user had no errors, at least no
errors in word recognition.
When the user hits any key, the program continues to review the score in
like fashion for the other three categories monitored:
Regarding Tones Missed
Regarding Measure Missed
Regarding Translations With Mistakes
If for one particular review, one of these categories did not apply, the
program specifies "N/A"--as when one reviewed a lesson prompted with Chinese
and therefore did not test knowledge of tone.
.cp 7
The full review concludes with a composite score:
Enter:
Here is a review of your overall scores
on the recent lessons:
Lesson Size Score
REV1 1 75
REV2 1 50
REV1 1 25
LESSON1 1 0
REV2 4 100
REV1 7 91
REV2 12 77
REV1 20 77
REV2 24 56
REV1 25 44
LESSON14 30 10
Here the user sees the progress, especially with the full LESSON14, which got
smaller and smaller in the reviews of temporary files (here REV1 and REV2).
The student still needs to review the full LESSON14 again to see whether
these reviews have fixed the full list more permanently in mind. These
scores show that the user has chosen to progress only with those most
recently missed and needs to test real memory or all of LESSON14, especially
of those items recognized once but not reviewed recently.
The full score concludes with a reminder:
Remember that you have stored all those
with any errors in the new file called
REV2
Hit any key to list them quickly.
\
If the user hits a key, the screen shows the Chinese and English for yahn,
since that is the item which the user had missed. Then the user must choose:
1 = Review this new file more slowly
again saving those missed.
2 = Return to the main menu.
.cp 5
Translation Skills
Both menus review any example sentences stored with lessons. Often
lessons omit this feature. The program allows teachers to create lessons of
either kind.
On the teacher menu, options 5 and 7 review only those items in lessons
which include illustrative sentences. These options by-pass many of the
fundamental questions about individual words. Most will not want to use
them except for specialized instruction.
Nevertheless, CANTONES most effectively uses translation as an adjuncts
to building vocabulary one word at a time. Options 5 and 7 will not really
prove very useful, because of two special problems, though a few users may
want the freedom to do so. The problems:
The program writes any item ("record" is the official term) into one
record line, maximally 254 characters long (including spaces,
accents...every jot and tittle). After you have entered a word in
Cantonese, then in English, then its measure, and its part of speech,
typically you have room for maybe one line (80-columns) of sentence and
one more line of translation. That is not much room for elaborate
translation exercises. Besides, complicated translations do not make
good use of the computer screen: a user's answers are too hard to match
with stored answers when the eye must take in more than 2 lines at a
time.
Remember that the program will assume that you have ended entry for the
entire lesson unless you enter more than a space or carriage return for
the first prompt, the one that asks for a word in Chinese. Even if you
user want to use only sentences, you person will still need to enter
something, however meaningless, when prompted for the Chinese word.
You can circumvent this problem by entering the same null character
every time, such as "."-- but will not be able to ask for a quick
review of the lesson, as it would list only a screen of dots.
.cp 5
Specialized Reviews: Toggle for Parts of Speech
A toggle works by hitting the specified key (here "8") to change its
condition. It alternates ON or OFF. If ON, this toggle does focus merely
on the one part of speech which it later prompts you to specify. The
condition when one load the program is stated on the main menu:
8 = Toggle to review by parts of speech (OFF)
Users may choose to review words of just one class by first hitting "8."
The screen will then show that the toggle is ON.
This option when on allows the user to specify any one class of words
to review within a lesson, either of a class which the user has chosen and
remembered when entering the words, or of a class which the screen prompted
for at entry time:
a = adverb p = particle
at = attributive pat = patterns
av = auxiliary verb ph = phrase
bf = boundform pn = pronoun
cv = coverb pv = postverb
ev = equative verb pw = placeword
fv = functive verb q = question
i = interjection rv = resultative verb
ie = idiomatic expression rve = resultative ending
m = measure sp = specifier
ma = movable adverb sv = stative verb
n = noun vo = verb-object comp.
nu = number tw = time word
on = onomatopoeia
x = other useful expressions
If a person has problems with words in any one of these classes, this
option allows the user to focus.
V. Creating New Files by Word Class
This section does not apply to those who use the student menu. It
serves mainly those who prepare the lessons.
With a little imagination, the user can exploit the toggle to generate
specialized lessons of great variety. Thereby the toggle can serve very
effectively to help one design additional instruction.
Suppose, for example that after 10 lessons or so a user wants to review
all time words. One can enter each lesson one at a time an toggle to review
on the "tw" That method is easy enough--all that most users will need.
But suppose that a teacher or learner wants to create a new, permanent
file which contains all and only time words. Doing so is fairly easy:
1) Toggle "8" to ON.
2) Specify the class (here, tw) when prompted to do so
3) Specify the file to collect "mistakes" with a name that reflects
your design, e.g., LESSONTW.3 -- to contain all time words from
LESSON3.
4) "Miss" (i.e., say "N" when asked "CORRECT? Y/N" for at least one
of the scores kept on each item. (You can then hit carriage
return for all other answers to speed the "review")
5) Repeat steps 2-4 for each lesson from which you want to cull the
time words, writing "mistakes" always to different files with the
same name, but a different extension, in LESSONTW.1, LESSONTW.2....
6) After you have culled time words from all files that you wanted to
review, then at the dos prompt, type
COPY LESSONTW.* LESSONTW.ALL
LESSONTW.ALL will contain all of your gleanings.
These steps run very quickly and give you a huge freedom in building
specialized word lists.
Note that nothing prevents you from using other letters to designate
word categories, so long as you do so when you enter the words initially
into your word lists.
.cp 5
A Tip On Alphabetizing
Most word lists don't really need to be in alphabetical order, but that
order helps for lists from which one frequently wants to isolate specific
examples, as in special review lists, small dictionary-making, etc.
Users can quickly sort any file which CANTONES creates. All versions
of MS-DOS come with a file called SORT.EXE. Enter the following sequence at
the DOS command line:
SORT <FILETOBESORTED >NEWFILE
Be sure to end the line with a carriage return. Also be sure to type the
"<" and ">" precisely as shown, with no spaces between the character and the
file name. Add drive designators for any files not on the same drive with
SORT.EXE.
Then inspect NEWFILE (or whatever name you specified) to confirm that
it is alphabetized. Usually you will then enter the sequence:
ERASE FILETOBESORTED
REN NEWFILE FILETOBESORTED
--supplying your own names for the files.
VI. Printing Files
CANAUX allows you to print files.
The print facility is especially convenient if you have several words
which you have not mastered when you have to end a session at the keyboard
and want a paper copy of the words that you still do not know. It is also
useful when teachers want to prepare word lists.
Installing Your Printer
Before you can print, however, you must Install the program to
recognize the codes of your own printer. You install this feature from
CANAUX, accessible as an option from the teacher menu. Install will ask you
to give in decimals the codes your printer uses for superscript on, for
superscript off, and for backspacing. You can find those in the manual for
your own printer. For example, manuals for my two printers specify:
Juki 6100 Epson MX-80
Superscript on 27 68 27 83 0
Superscript off 27 85 27 72
Backspacing 8 8
Some may want to run install more than one printer. That is easy to
do if they make separate copies of the program, labeling their disks to
reflect how the PARA file on each is installed. Then, to shift printers,
choose the disk that the right printer in the PARA file. You may review the
contents of PARA (or of any such file that you have renamed, if at the DOS
prompt you enter TYPE PARA <>. It also stores the code for the default
menu, your name and the name of your printer.
Option 9 and option "/" ask you to specify:
Be sure that the printer is ONLINE
and paper at the first line.
What file would you like to print?
?
Then the text appears .
Users may also view their lesson files directly by using the non-
document mode of their word-processors, but should do so very cautiously.
Any alterations in the "comma separated variables" could make that file
inaccessible to the computer. These files are not very intelligible, as the
accent marks appear next to rather than above the appropriate letters.
CANTONES reads these files and reports them in the formats described
earlier.
MergePrinting
A sample MailMerge file (MERGETST.DOC) is included with the program for
users familiar with WordStar. It shows how users can MergePrint data from
the Lesson files. Users can modify this model for other formats, as to
print flash cards, vocabulary tests, etc. This method makes print options
much more available, as each user will already have installed the proper
print codes for his or her version of WordStar.
MERGETST.DOC prints the accents (\ / or -) to the right of the letter.
If you want the accents over the letters, you can make a second copy of the
lesson and use WordStar to add the codes for backspacing and superscripting
for each of the three accents used. The procedure looks long, but actually
works very quickly:
1. copy LESSONEX (or any other lesson you create) into a file of
another name.
2. Let the new name replace the file named after .df in
MERGETST.DOC. Better, make a copy of MERGETST.DOC and change
the file name after .df to that of your lesson file altered
to overprint the accents.
3. Enter the new copy of the lesson via WordStar.
4. Type ^QA
5. When prompted for string, enter \
6. When prompted for replacement, enter ^PH^PT\^PT
7. When prompted for options, enter NG<ESC><ESC>
8. Type ^QA
9. When prompted for string, enter /
10. When prompted for replacement, enter ^PH^PT/^PT
11. When prompted for options, enter NG<ESC><ESC>
12. Type ^QA
13. When prompted for string, enter -
14. When prompted for replacement, enter ^PH^PT-^PT
15. When prompted for options, enter NG<ESC><ESC>
16. Save the revised file
17. MergePrint either MERGETST.DOC (altered as in Step 2) or
from a copy of MERGETST.DOC renamed after you have altered
it.
English-Chinese Lists
Files will be sorted alphabetically only in Chinese, since
the first word in any entry is the Chinese word. However, the auxiliary
menu allows you to re-organize any of these files into English-word-
first. Access the auxiliary menu by typing "A" from the teacher menu or by
typing AUXCAN at the MS-DOS prompt. Then choose option 2 from the auxiliary
menu:
2 = Reorganize a file, to put English words first
After the program creates the new file, it lets you choose to leave to MS-
DOS so that you can sort the new file, as described above. When you have
done so, rerun CANAUX and specify option 4 to print your new file:
4 = Print a regorganized file (English words first)
SORT.EXE can handle any files up to 85K, far more space than most word
lists will require. Any longer files can be sorted by parts and recombined
with your word-processor in the non-document mode.
Back Up Your Files
ALWAYS WORK FROM BACKED-UP COPIES, both with program files and with
lessons that you create! You can create a batch file to backup lessons
after each new creation. For example, if you use the convention of naming
all lesson files with LESSON as the first six characters, the following
command line from drive B: (with your lessons) will copy your files from to
a backup disk in Drive A:
COPY LESSON?? A:
If you don't want to bother with such a command, type it once into a file
called daily.bat. Store daily.bat on your disk wit the lessons, and then
simply type DAILY when you are ready to back up.
.cp 5
VII. Ending a Session
Always end a session in an orderly fashion: type "0" when at the Main
Menu. You will return to the DOS prompt from which you began the program.
Any other option on the Main Men will return you to the Main Menu when
you have completed the task.
In this way you will help to assure that your files will remain in
tact.
.cp 4
VIII. Improving This Program: A Note from the Author
I am not a professional computer programmer. I am a writer who teaches
Chinese people to write in English. I began this project strictly to help
me prepare as I began to study Cantonese. First I wrote a version using
MailMerge (see Hong Kong Computer Journal, February 1985). Then I
wrote it in BASIC and continued to embellish it, especially to add the
scoring feature that made me study more aggressively. Finally, I compiled
it.
I began on a CP/M machine, and only recently rewrote the program to run
on my IBM clone.
CANTONES does a job that no other program now does. I avoided silly
games, I hope. For example, the computer does not ask for your name and
then say, "Mary, got got that one right, didn't you? Congratulations."
Computers are not people, and I believe that people should learn from them
without fiction. We never had that problem with flash cards, but some
programmers treat the computer like a modern prayer wheel.
CANTONES never tires as it drills me. I don't want to wear out my
teacher or my friends.
I hope that my program will help them learn to speak Cantonese. I also
hope that some other programmers will help to make the program better.
I am now adapting the program to teaching English vocabulary to
students of English. The program tests students' mastery of new vocabulary
in most of their readings for our literature assignments. I hope that
publishers of anthologies will soon provide much more sophisticated versions
for the literature of all languages. I want be the among the first to use a
program that will let me review Faulkner's or Proust's vocabulary after a
chapter has just moved me.
I will glady supply the source code for programmers who want to modify
CANTONES for other kinds of language instruction. Send US$ 15 to cover my
costs in copying and mailing.
I hope soon to make available versions of still other programs which I
have written for myself, which may also help others. Write me if you want
more details:
STYLE A Program which profiles syntax
CHINGLISH A Program which detects hundreds of forms of
English which beset Chinese learners of English
and prompts for revision.
MUSES A Program which manages a writer's circulation data
and related correspondence with publishers. (See
Ratner's review in CODA, publication of Poets &
Writers, Inc., Summer, 1986)
APPLY A Program which manages data for applications--as
for jobs, grants, etc.
F Keeps up with all expenses and income, sorted into
55 categories, and posts periodic totals to an
eXecute files for use in SuperCalc (see preliminary
report in Portable Companion, 1985).
Computer users are reviving "community" in substantive ways which too
many academic settings long ago abandoned. A few computer people still bark
at a corner to protect their narrowness, but more and more are abandoning
territoriality. That is what "free-ware" is all about--another tradition,
that of hospitality, of kindness to the stranger within our gates--as old as
Buddah, Beowulf, Ulysses, or Abraham.
Please share reactions as you use this material. I hope that
CANTONES contributes modestly as you work to learn a language which will
access the rich resources of friendship and culture which Cantonese opens.
.cp 2
/ \
Hou teng indeed! Louie Crew, a.k.a. Li Min Hua
.pa
