How to use our Active Language©
Lab
Welcome to Eurocosm's Active Language© Lab! We will
help you learn phrases that will enable you to cope in
everyday situations in the languages that most interest
you.
Introduction
1. What is
the Active Language© Lab?
2. How can
the Active Language© Lab help you?
3. Menu Bar
Learning Tools
4. Simple
Mode
5. Play Mode
6. Dialogue
Mode
7. Games
and Exercises
Learning Materials
8. New Lesson
9. Create
your Own Lesson
10. Create
a lesson using random phrases
Other Functions
11. Choice
of Languages
12. Searching
for Phrases and Words
13. Have
you found a mistake?
Introduction
1. What is the Active Language©
Lab?
The Active Language© Lab is an online foreign language
learning program developed by Eurcosm. Based on the
principles of a classic language laboratory, it brings
additional advantages made possible by the Internet
and new multimedia technologies.
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2. How can the Active Language©
Lab help you?
Eurocosm offers a modern and innovative language laboratory
enabling personalised learning. What makes it
special, is that it incorporates some of the best aspects
of the Internet: multimedia and interactivity.
Thanks to a language database containing over 50,000
phrases, you will be able, if you wish, to learn several
languages at the same time, and not one after the
other, as required by most courses - this is especially
useful for those wishing to develop and maintain their
knowledge in a range of languages. Our learning modules
and units are grouped by everyday subjects, allowing
targeted learning based on your immediate needs: from
simply going shopping, meeting friends, answering the
telephone, expressing your opinion, to finding a job
or even going fishing! You are also given a number of
innovative and modern learning tools. The Active Language©
Lab contains more than 10,000 audio recordings,
as well as a number of innovative and modern learning
tools, such as one that allows you to create your own
language units so that you can prepare better for a
particular situation or event.
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3. Menu Bar
All of the features of the Active Language© Lab
are available by clicking on the menu bar at the top
of the screen. The "Learning Material" menu allows you
to select either a standard lesson, a personlaised lesson,
or random learning content. The "Learning Tool" menu
contains the learning tools that are then available
to you, such as phrase lists with recorded sounds, games
and exercises.
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Learning Tools
4. Simple Mode
This mode displays a table containing all the lesson's
phrases in the languages you wish to learn (including
your mother tongue). To select this mode, simply click
on "Simple Mode" in the "Learning Tool" menu.
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5. Play Mode
If your PC is equipped with loudspeakers and a sound card,
you will be able to hear recorded phrases.
Instructions
- To select this mode, click on the "Play Mode" option
in the "Learning Tool" menu. A musical note sign will
appear on the right of each phrase. To listen to a
single phrase, simply click on the musical note. If
you wish to hear a number of phrases played one after
the other in succession, simply highlight your chosen
phrases by clicking on the round button next to each
musical note, and then click on "Play" near the top
of the screen. To stop playback, click on the "Stop"
button to the right of the "Play" button.
Playback Options
- You can regulate the speed of playback (from 1 to
4) using the "Speed" option.
If you wish to hear all a lesson's phrases in a particular
language, you can select all the relevant phrases
by clicking on the green arrow at the top of the corresponding
column. To listen to a phrase in all the languages
you have selected to learn, click on the green arrow
on the left of each row.
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6. Dialogue Mode
This mode comprises all he functions described in the
"Playback Mode", but combines audio playback with a visual
display. To select this mode, click on the "Dialogue Mode"
option in the "Learning Tool" menu.
You are able to choose from 4 types of playback
Selecting Type of Playback
- The dialogue box is a window in which phrases you
have selected for playback are displayed. By default,
the dialogue box shows the text of the phrases to
which you are listening. This type of playback is
called "Text in Original Language". If you wish to
to read the phrase texts in your mother tongue as
they are played in the languages you wish to learn,
, select the "Subtitles" option. If you want to see
all marked phrases, including those not having a sound
file, displayed in the dialogue box, select the "Play
all Phrases". Finally, if you just want to read the
phrases you have marked, without hearing sounds played,
select the "Only Text" option.
Playback Speed
- You can regulate the speed of playback by clicking
on the "speed" option at the bottom of the dialigue
box. Choose a speed between 1 (slow) and 4 (fast).
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7. Games and Exercises
The Active Language© Lab offers both games and
learning exercises. You will find "Hangman", "Comprehension",
and "Phrase Puzzle" in the "Learning Tool Menu".
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Learning Materials
8. New Lesson
To select a new lesson, click on the "Learning Material"
menu, and select the "New Lesson" option. Then selct
a course module from the list that appears on the left
of the window. A list of lessons contained in your chosen
module will then appear on the right of the window.
Click on one of the lessons in this list. If you cannot
find the lesson you are looking for, you may enter a
search keyword at the bottom of the screen.
9. Create your Own Lesson
The Active Language© Lab allows you to personalise
your learning by creating your own lesson, which will
be saved between visits to our site. The advantage of
personal lessons is that you can prepare better for a
particular situation better, because you have the possibility
of working with phrases belonging to a range of standard
lessons.
Adding a phrase to your personal lesson
- You may add phrases to your personal lesson when
you are working in "Simple Mode", "Play Mode", or
"Dialogue Mode". To add a phrase, simply click on
the book at the end of each phrase row. These phrases
will then be saved automatically into your personal
lesson.
Taking your Own Lesson
- To take your own lesson, you need to choose the
"My Lesson" option in the "Learning Material" menu.
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10. Create a lesson using random
phrases
If you don't want to learn expressions grouped by our
standard lessons, you have the possibility of creating
lessons containing a random selection of phrases and
words from our database. This is particularly useful
for established linguists who simply want to test themselves
on a broadrange of subjects. To use this function, select
either the "Random Phrases and Words" or the "Random
Words" options in the "Learning Material Menu". Each
time you call this function, 15 phrases will be selected
from our database, which contains more than 50.000 phrases.
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Other Functions
11. Choice of Languages
To select the language(s) you wish to learn, click on
the "Active Language© Lab" menu and select the
"Languages" option. You can select up to four languages
to learn in addition to the language you have selected
as the "website" language (in this case English). In
the "Languages" menu, languages you wish to learn are
marked "yes" and those that are turned off are marked
"no". To change a setting, simply click on the language
you wish to turn on or off. If the previous setting
was "yes", the new setting will now be "no" (and vice-versa).
When you first visit our site, all languages are set
to "yes". Should you change these settings, the changes
will be saved between visits.
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12. Searching for Phrases and
Words
The option "Search for Phrases and Words" in the "Active
Language© Lab" menu enables you view all phrases
in our database. You may input a number of searchwords
at the same time, and you can select whether you want
to include all phrases containing at least on of your
searchwords, or only those phrases containing ALL your
searchwords. Your searchword(s) can be in any of the
available languages, and you should specifiy the language
used (the default language is the "website" language
you have chosen (in this case English). When you are
ready, click on the "Search" button. A list of phrases
will then appear on the screen if the search has been
successful. If you have found the phrase in the list
that you have been searching for, you may click the
lesson code at the end of the corresponding row to see
more phrases of that type. You may also click on the
book to the left of the lesson code to save the phrase
to your personal lesson (see section 10 above). An additional
benefit of the search function is that you can use it
to see the various uses of a particular word in a foreign
language.
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13. Have you found a mistake?
If you think you may have found a mistake on our website
- it is possible! - be it a translation error, spelling
mistake or grammatical error, or even if you have a
remark or comment to make, please don't hesitate to
let us know! To do this simply click on the "I found
a mistake" option in the the "Active Language©
Lab" menu. We are very grateful for any feedback you
give us.
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