Functional Specification

Cara Greene 98609491

Katrina Keogh 98399195

Supervisors Dr. Josef Van Genabith

Ms. Monica Ward

Project Title Web-based interactive language learning

tool – Teaching children basic French and German.

Introduction

Our functional specification will discuss the program we are developing in conjunction with the teaching aspect of our fourth year project. We have been teaching sixth class students in Virgin Mary primary school in Ballymun since October. We have already encountered many difficulties owing to the social background of the children. We have had to go at a slower pace than anticipated and spend a lot of time doing constant revision. This forms the basis of our research into teaching methods and what should be on the curriculum. The curriculum we use in class is being implemented in our program. Through our work with the children to date, we have realised our project will now be geared more towards children from this type of background.

This specification will also discuss our implementation as a result of this research, problems anticipated and a realistic work schedule.

Scope and Purpose

Overview of Project

The project will be a web-based interactive language learning tool to teach sixth class children basic French and German. The aim of this project is to develop accessible software to aid children in conjunction with the classroom curriculum. We hope this will help them with the transition between primary and secondary school by making the foreign language class easier. We are hoping this could possibly be implemented in primary schools in the years to come. As part of the project, we have been keeping a log of each class session in the school and each lab, which describes what happened in each class, what we learned, and any difficulties that arose.

Objectives

• Implement all aspects of the syllabus covered in class in java (or java script), along with exercises for each section.

o Sections of the curriculum for both languages (e.g. pets, hobbies etc.)

o Possibly develop different types of exercises such as multiple choice questions (to date, they are all fill-in-the-blanks)

o We have to make our existing program more resilient (e.g. to accept extra spaces in an answer, as this caused some problems during the first lab session with the children).

o Possible universal “Teacher.java” code that will evaluate the defined answers against the ones entered by the user (at the moment within Teacher, there is a separate function for each question in the fill-in-the-gaps exercises).

• Try to gear the learner pages more towards the type of student we have
• Add sound files to help with pronunciation as the children seem to learning phonetically and possibly some hints on how the French or German words sound somewhat similar to English words (e.g. German Drei sounds similar to the English dry, the French word Merci sounds similar to the English word Mercy).
• More graphics rather than pure text, as the children seemed to find it a little tedious (maybe use some Flash).
• Extra modules to occupy those children who finish faster than the others. This would take the pressure off teachers to find extra material to keep them occupied along with the children who take longer, as they wouldn’t feel bad not being finished as fast.

• Create a “What’s this all about?” section.

o This would be a general page describing the project and will include some pictures of the children, classroom etc.

o This will also contain information on how to implement the software into the classroom curriculum for teachers who would like to use the site (e.g. a link to possible class plans and handouts that we actually used with the children).

o Contact information for new usernames and passwords.

• Possible bulletin board/newsgroup for the children where they can post their opinions, along with the option to email us.
• We hope to improve the general appearance of the page.

Functional and Data Description

We are using the Tomcat Server version 3.2.2. We are coding all our exercises in java. They are displayed on a web page developed using Microsoft FrontPage. These .html files were/will be converted to .jsp’s and the java was/will be plugged in. The exercise pages become interactive in this way.

Subsystem Descriptions

• Cara will be developing the French aspects of the course and the software.
• Katrina will be developing the German aspects of the course and the software.
• We are hoping to each develop one new type of exercise, both of which will be used in both the French and German modules.

Sept 2001 – Jan 2002

Two weekly class sessions – each 45 mins in duration · Preparation of class plan · Preparation of class material (handouts and worksheets) · Correction of homework and tests · Write up class logs (French and German are separate) · Preparation for lab sessions (permission slips etc)

Projected Schedule

Jan 21^st – Feb 4^th 2002	Preparation for oral presentation
Feb 5^th – Mar 15^th 2002	· Class work as during Sept 2001-Jan 2002 · Web page design (appearance of page) · Think about exercise types · Implement new material from class
Mar 16^th – Apr 13^th 2002	Exam period

Cara

WEEK 1 15-21.04	Compile all syllabus data and implement learner pages for French, Implement the “What’s this about” page French handouts and class plans General information on the project as we developed it Contact information
WEEK 2 22-28.04	Adapt the Teacher.java code to the universal form discussed above
WEEK 3 29.04-5.05	Possibly develop a new type of exercise and add French sound files
WEEK 4 6-12.05	Fix any errors encountered and implement new ideas (e.g. extra modules). Put it all together
WEEK 5 13-19.05	Testing + write up Documentation
WEEK 6 20-24.05	Testing and polishing

Katrina

WEEK 1 15-21.04	Compile all syllabus data and implement learner pages for German, Implement the “What’s this all about page” German handouts and class plans How to implement the courseware into the classroom (Installation guide)
WEEK 2 22-28.04	Adapt the Teacher.java code to the universal form discussed above
WEEK 3 29.04-5.05	Possibly develop a new type of exercise and add German sound files
WEEK 4 6-12.05	Possibly develop the bulletin board/newsgroup element. Put it all together
WEEK 5 13-19.05	Testing + write up User manual
WEEK 6 20-24.05	Testing and polishing

References

Blin, F., Chenik, N. and Thompson, J. (1998) CALL Courseware development: a Handbook Hull, UK: EUROCALL, CTI Centre for modern Languages

Higgins, J. (1998) Language Learners and Computers London: Longman

Levy, M. (1997) Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Context and Conceptualization Oxford: Clarendon Press