Autonomous Learning Tools Demo

Autonomous Learning Tools Demo

Click me, then retype this word:
The word can be drawn from a vocabulary list, a text the student is reading, or a 'history' list of dictionary queries.  This text box gives simple clues (nope), but more informative help (try a vowel) can be generated automatically.
Listen, then type this word:
As above, these question do not have to be hard-wired.  Although the availability of sound files varies greatly, recording 5-10,000 dictionary headwords enables a wide variety of sound-based queries.
What's the missing collocate?
on-       -truck       -house       -man
What's the missing collocate?
on       truck       house       an

These questions (shown in English for example purposes) can be drawn from either dictionary subentries, or from text corpora.  Their relative difficulty can be roughly evaluated by considering text frequency.  Note that the first version is much easier because it gives a hint as to the left- or right-hand binding of the missing word.
Which four are likely collocates of "fire"?
green       run       on       truck       singer       arithmetic       house       man      
Clicking the proper word changes the background color.  These are drawn from dictionary or corpus data, then 'salted' with false hits.
What's the missing word? Choices are "house, fire, dog, run"
but when I got there the --- had already spread beyond
announced plans to --- more than 3,000 other employees
site provides information on --- data, safety, prevention, public education
had an unusual --- in his belly for such a young
Where does the missing word "fire" go?
but when I got there the had already spread beyond
announced plans to more than 3,000 other employees
site provides information on data, safety, prevention, public education
had an unusual in his belly for such a young
Examples that might be drawn from a text corpus. In the second, harder, example, clicking in the proper slot inserts the word.
Re-order the sentence (window is +/- 1 word)
I rushed home, fire the but had already spread out of control.
Many cities have safety fire developed programs.
Clicking on the words reorders them (reload the page to start over).  This is a perfect example of data-driven drill. The sentences can be automatically extracted from any text the student is reading, the window can be varied to increase difficulty, and the original center word can come from either a vocabularly or dictionary-lookup history list.
Which sentence is properly ordered?
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty
conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation
our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
These sentences are jumbled at the phrase level.  Queries like this are both important and effective when working with complex-script non-segmented writing systems.  They can be drawn from any text, and engage the student without exhausting him or her.
Which is the translated sentence?
    The house must have fallen on her.
ฉันจะทำบ้าน ... เธอพูดกับ ตัว เอง
บ้านคงตกลงมาทับเธอแน่ๆ
เจ้าของบ้านตก ใจร้องลั่น
ดูซิ''เธอกล่าวต่อ แล้วชี้ ไปที่ มุมบ้าน
Which is the translated sentence?
  บ้านคงตกลงมาทับเธอแน่ๆ
The owner of the sand house cried out.
I'll make a house, she told herself.
See! she continued, pointing to the corner of the house.
The house must have fallen on her.
These two examples draw on bitext data (as in the SEAlang Library bitext corpus).  The proper items light up. 
Find each instance of this word: ทราย.   You can make it easier by splitting the text:
ก่อ​กอง​ทราย​ ลำ​น้ำ​นั้น​ไหล​มา​จาก​ทิศ​ตะวัน​ตก​ ทอด​ตัว​เลื้อย​เลี้ยว​เข้า​เขต​หมู่​บ้าน​แบ่ง​แผ่น​ดิน​ออก​เป็น​สอง​ส่วน​ ฝาก​ฝั่ง​สอง​ข้าง​มี​บ้าน​เรือน​ตั้ง​อยู่​เป็น​หย่อม​ๆ​ สลับ​กับ​สวน​ยาง​พารา​และ​สวน​ผลไม้​ ริม​คลอง​ด้าน​หนึ่ง​มี​ทาง​เดิน​ลาด​ลึก​จน​ถึง​หาด​ทราย​ใต้​คุ้ง​น้ำ​ที่​หัก​โค้ง​เป็น​ข้อ​ศอก​ ลำ​น้ำ​ยาม​แล้ง​ตื้นเขิน​แต่​สาย​น้ำ​ยัง​คง​เอื่อย​ริน​สม่ำ​เสมอ​ หลุม​พอ​ต้น​ใหญ่​งอก​ง้ำ​ชิด​ตลิ่ง​ แผ่​กิ่ง​ก้าน​สาขา​ทอด​เงา​ไป​ยาว​ไกล​ปก​คลุม​หาด​ทราย​และ​ลำ​น้ำ​ช่วง​นั้น​ด้วย​เงา​เย็น​ร่ม​รื่น​
Developing automaticity, or the ability to instantly recognize word boundaries, sounds, and meaning, is critical to fluent reading.  Using prompt words drawn from required - or newly acquired - vocabulary in contexts like these helps provide learning load, without wearing the student out.
Find each instance of
    this word:
    these words:
the next word you hear:
You can make it easier by splitting the text:
ก่อ​กอง​ทราย​ ลำ​น้ำ​นั้น​ไหล​มา​จาก​ทิศ​ตะวัน​ตก​ ทอด​ตัว​เลื้อย​เลี้ยว​เข้า​เขต​หมู่​บ้าน​แบ่ง​แผ่น​ดิน​ออก​เป็น​สอง​ส่วน​ ฝาก​ฝั่ง​สอง​ข้าง​มี​บ้าน​เรือน​ตั้ง​อยู่​เป็น​หย่อม​ๆ​ สลับ​กับ​สวน​ยาง​พารา​และ​สวน​ผลไม้​ ริม​คลอง​ด้าน​หนึ่ง​มี​ทาง​เดิน​ลาด​ลึก​จน​ถึง​หาด​ทราย​ใต้​คุ้ง​น้ำ​ที่​หัก​โค้ง​เป็น​ข้อ​ศอก​ ลำ​น้ำ​ยาม​แล้ง​ตื้นเขิน​แต่​สาย​น้ำ​ยัง​คง​เอื่อย​ริน​สม่ำ​เสมอ​ . . .
Fluent speakers can easily remember prompts of varying styles and complexity; learners can't.  The ability to automatically generate an endless number of essentially equivalent tasks is the great hidden benefit of autonomous learning tools: they enable research into how students learn.