LANGUAGE TEACHER by Andrew Bartorillo Distributed by Micro Tutor Products 103 Baughmans Lane, Suite 303 Frederick, Md. 21701 Copyright 1982-Released to the Public Domain LANGUAGE TEACHER is a series of menu-driven language tutorial programs designed to be run on the IBM PC/XT/AT/jr or any compatible clone. Each program in the series contains hundreds of word combinations and verb conjugation forms. A line printer can be used with LANGUAGE TEACHER to take advantage of its versatility. Also included is the capability to select language-to-English or English- to-language combinations, choose multiple choice answers, be retested on misses, print a multiple choice test, and to run a full quiz diagnostic routine with line printer output. Of particular interest to non-English students is the capability to select the direction of the combinations. All word, phrase, and verb conjugation selections are done randomly by the program the the user being unable to predict what the next selection will be. The program package is not designed to teach conversational language or pronunciation but, instead, to provide practice drills in order to increase your working vocabulary and to enhance your use of the conjugation forms. The LANGUAGE TEACHER series was originally published by Acorn Software Products, Inc. of Washington, DC. Since then the company has gone out of business and the author is releasing the series to the Public Domain. If you find any of the programs in the series to be usefull, a suitable payment ($5 to $10) would be appreciated so more programs of this quality can be developed. PROGRAM SPECIFICATIONS: Minimum system configuration: LANGUAGE TEACHER is written in Microsoft Basic and requires a minimum of 64K bytes of RAM and Advanced Basic, one disk drive and a suitable high resolution monitor. Preferred monitors are the IBM Monochrome Display attached to the IBM Monochrome Display and Printer Adapter or a green screen or "direct drive" RGB monitor attached to the Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter. In most cases, only a high quality color monitor or green screen will provide the resolution necessary to display the special chaaracters used with LANGUAGE TEACHER. All other program functions will be suitable, though, if a low quality color composite monitor is used. Optional equipment includes an 80 column line printer. LOADING INSTRUCTIONS: Power up your system with a DOS diskette containing BASICA in disk drive "A". Load BASICA into memory and remove your DOS diskette from the disk drive. Insert your copy of LANGUAGE TEACHER into disk drive "A", type RUN'TEACHER" and press the Enter key. NOTE: Due to the large amount of string space used, your computer will occasionally seem to "hang up" or "go to sleep". This is due to Microsoft's Basic string manipulation (better known as "garbage collection") and is not a machine or program malfunction. The time rarely exceeds 8-10 seconds. The occurrence of this phenomenon decreases in systems having more than 64K RAM. SPECIAL CHARACTER SET: LANGUAGE TEACHER utilizes the special function keys to input the special characters used in the language. These keys are active only when a non-multiple choice drill is selected in which you must enter the direct equivalent of the required answer. The 25th line of the screen will display which function key is associated with which foreign character. NOTE: Due to the inability of the average line printer to be able to recognize these special characters, programming is implemented to convert these special characters to their "normal" letters before being output to the line printer. Once you have obtained your printout, insert the special marks by hand. MISCELLANEOUS: If a multiple choice type quiz has been selected, you will only be given 15 seconds (25 seconds for verb conjugation) to input your answer. If the time expires before you make your choice, you will be credited with an incorrect answer. NOTE: If the computer performs its "garbage collection" routine while timing is in progress, program coding is implemented to prevent your time remaining from falling to zero. If you have not chosen a multiple choice type of quiz, you will have to type in the exact answer. In the case of being quizzed with a noun, you must also type in the definite article ("the") that proceeds the noun. If your original option was the verb conjugation drill, no retesting can be performed. Also, the diagnostic display will let you know how many of each person and tense you missed. If you missed more than 3 of any person/tense, an "*" is displayed beside the applicable person/tense, indicating you need more practice. ADDITIONAL NOTES: The extent of the vocabulary of each program is given below. Since the program randomly selects from its contents in each option, you truly have a thorough drill in each language! SPANISH I: 750 Spanish/English word combinations, 1488 verb conjugations and 150 Spanish/English phrase combinations. SPANISH II: 800 Spanish/English word combinations and 2108 verb conjugation forms. FRENCH I: 784 French/English word combinations, 1600 verb conjugations and 196 French/English phrase combinations. FRENCH II: 864 French/English word combinations and 1600 verb conjugation forms. GERMAN I: 800 German/English word combinations, 1860 verb conjugations and 160 German/English phrase combinations. GERMAN II: 800 German/English word combinations and 2015 verb conjugation forms. ITALIAN: 816 Italian/English word combinations, 1500 verb conjugations and 114 Italian/English phrase combinations. We hope that you have many enjoyable and informative hours working with your LANGUAGE TEACHER program. If you have any suggestions or problems with using LANGUAGE TEACHER, feel free to correspond with the author using the address listed below. Please make your comments as specific as possible and enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope: Andrew P. Bartorillo c/o Micro Tutor Products 103 Baughmans Lane, Suite 303 Frederick, MD 21701