Last year I decided to design a computer program that would help. I have the first few parts ready and if you are learning Spanish you will find them useful. If you already know Spanish, you may find it intersting to test youself and see how many traps you fall into. And if you are a native speaker and have a little bit of spare time your comments would really help me.
Let us start with something simple. English speakers often trip on the
gender issue. Is it feminine or masculine? Daughter and son are easy but
how about an apple, Peru or spoon? It gets tricky in a hurry.
To see how well you do click on El or La
And now the perennial favored: por or para? There are rules, they are
relatively simple, but there are too many of them to be of much
practical use in the heat of conversation. The only way to learn this
is the old fashioned way - drill till you are blue in the face. The following
program will help you do just that. Click on por/para
and get down to it!
Ser or estar? That is the question! Why have two versions of the same verb?
For one, makes very efficient Gringo Traps! Unless you want to use the
random approach and assume you will be correct 50 percent of the time,\
try the following Gringo Trap Ser or Estar?
This is the latest module, still hot from the software kitchen. It deals with the
prepositions a, de, en. Lot of it is simple stuff, but you will be shocked
how often you get tripped up when you least expect it.
En - a - de?
I suspended this little project more than 5 years ago when I moved to London. In organizing my files I found I had made a few more modules which I never posted on the web. So here they are: Article
and about half of the rules dealing with the Subjunctive - I never finished the second part. Subjunctive - part 1
How to download the programs
How it works
Why it works
How to Download the programs to your computer.
These program will not work on Apple. Sorry.
When you click on the highlighted words the browser will come up with
a dialog box similar to the one shown below and ask you whether you
want to downoad the program or run it from its present location.
You can do
both, but I would recommend you download it to your computer. It will work
faster and you will be able to use it even when you are not connected to
the internet.
Once you decide to download it, it will ask you where you want to put it, I
believe the default on most computers these days is the desktop. You can
choose any location you want by clicking on the folder you like. But in any case
remember where it is so that you can later find it your explorer. Once
you find it you can simply drag it onto your desktop and use it from there.
The programps have an icon of a mexican hat propped up by a T - a GringoTrap.
You can also choose to run it from its present location, it usually works
fast enough - it will depend on the speed of your connection. If you decide to go
this route you will see a warning message:
The publisher cannot be determined due to the problems below.
Authenticode signature not found.
Well, since I am not a commercial developer I do not have one.
But you know me and that is your best guarantee that I am not
using it as a vehicle for nefarious purposes.
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How to use the programs.
This is what the program looks like (this is just a picture, it will not work
here. To see it work you actually need to download it by clicking
on the highlighted title of the program as explained above).
You will see a sentence (1) with a word missing
indicated by dots ... Below the sentence will be two to three buttons (2) with
possible answers. Click the one you think is correct. If you are not sure what
some of the words mean, click on Translate (3) and a little box with
a translation will show up. Click on OK in the little box, it will disappear
and you can continue with the program.
If the answer was
correct several things are going to happen: the answer is identified as
correct in a little window (4)
the correct answer counter (5) increases by one
the sliding bar on the bottom (6) advances to the right.
( Each program has a different number of question which must
be answered, the sliding bar on the bottom gives you an idea of
how much farther you have to go.)
and finally you overall score up to this point is shown in (7).
Of course you can terminate the program at any time by pressing Exit (8).
If the answer was wrong the hat drops down(1)
the answer is identified as wrong in window (2)
the wrong answer counter(3) at the top advances by one
the score (4) is recalculated
and the sliding bar on the bottom (5) does not move.
Most importantly a "WHY?" button (6) shows up.
You can click it and a small box will show up
explaining why your answer was wrong.
At the same time the next sentence already appears in the question window (7).
In order to make this more interessing I did not shy away from more examples with more demanding vocabulary. Any time you come across a word you are not sure about or want to verify your understanding of a sentence, click on the translate button. If you stick with it and correctly asnwer the required number of questions you can check the score window to see how well you have done. You can, however, stop the program any time you get tired or your boss shows up, by clicking on the exit button.
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What goes on inside the program.
There is actually more going on than meets the eye. The program is designed to come as close to the best method there is, that is a human tutor. A human tutor will quickly find out what you know well and will concentrate on those aspects where you are weak.
These programs do the same thing. This is one of the main reasons why they are superior to the old fashioned way - drills in textbooks which force you to spend the same amount of time on what you already know as on the parts you need to practice more.
To start, the program divides each application into several classes, typically coinciding with the different gramatical rules governing usage of the words in question. After the first few answers the program starts to learn what your weak and strong points are and will start giving you questions related to your "soft spots" with increasing frequency. In this way it is very efficient. It will not stop until you have correctly answered five of each type of question. Consequently, if you stick with it until the program stops, you will have in fact learned the correct usage during the session.
This of, course, does not mean you have completely conquered it. To do that you must practice several times. In order to make it more interesting, the program has a larger number of questions than it will ask in a typical session. So if you start it again, there will be many new questions and the order in which questions appear will be totally different from the previous session.