Trial Program Guide ESL DEMONS (for students of American English) Skill levels: Beginner-low intermediate Trial version: Level 3 (Limited sample) Complete program: 3 sets, 2 levels per set Set A: (Levels 1 and 2) for the student who has mastered some conversational English and is ready to move on to standard written English Set B: (Levels 3 and 4) for the student completing beginners' material and moving on to second-level work Set C: (Levels 5 and 6) for the low intermediate student Windows or MS-DOS (VGA display) The program is designed for students whose knowledge of English ranges from beginner to intermediate in standard written English. It is also useful for Special Education students, from third grade on, who need help in using simple, clear English. Each level contains many ESL Demons, or topics. The program helps students cope with troublesome points of English grammar, usage, and spelling. Sentences contain up to four highlighted choices, one of which is an ESL Demon, such as a word or phrase that would not be appropriate in standard written English. The material helps students recognize language that is clear and correct. The program provides explanations that teach the underlying grammatical concepts. Each lesson is self-directing. NOTE: The program includes a game and an individual Demon drill. We recommend that students play the game first so that the teacher can identify those Demons that present problems to the student. The Record Management program will show the number of times the student has played each Demon. The drill may then be used for extra help for those students who need it. For the School version of the program there is a hide/show feature that permits teachers to activate or deactivate the Customized Drill. OVERVIEW The ESL Demons program provides practice at different levels of difficulty. The program consists of six levels with twelve ESL Demons, or topics, per level. Set A texts provide two highlighted words or phrases per sentence; Set B, three highlighted words or phrases; Set C, three or four highlighted words or phrases. MOUSE OPTION You may use the mouse, or the keyboard, as soon as the first exercise appears on the screen. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION The student is asked to use the mouse or Tab key to select a highlighted, incorrect word or phrase in a sentence. After the student responds s/he is shown the correct sentence and is given the grammatical reason(s) for the correct answer. If the student answers correctly, s/he receives a congratulatory word or a graphic reward. After logging in his/her name the student is offered two options: 1. Play a round of Demons (game). 2. Work on a customized drill. Demons Game: The Demons are presented to the student in the same order in which they are listed in the program guide. In each round, the student is given twelve sentences which cover the material for three Demons. There are four randomly selected sentences per Demon. To master a Demon, the student must choose the correct answer for all four sentences in the round. Until the student gets the four sentences correct, s/he will continue to receive sentences for that Demon in subsequent rounds. For the final round, if fewer than three Demons remain unmastered in the game, the round will include only those Demons still unmastered. PROGRAM HELP FEATURES The program provides three help features. First, the sentence appears in its correct form, regardless of the student's answer. Second, the computer gives the grammatical reason(s) for the correct answer. The third feature, the individual Demon drill, gives the student the opportunity to focus on specific troublesome Demons. From the drill menu, the student may choose up to three Demons to work on per round. There are four sentences for each Demon. A star next to a Demon on the menu indicates that the student has mastered that Demon. Starred Demons may be chosen for additional drill. SCORING Scores for mastered Demons in the game and drill are recorded. When a Demon is mastered in the game it is starred on the customized drill menu and will not reappear in the game. Starred Demons may be chosen for additional drill. However, if the student does not remaster the Demon the star is removed and the Demon reappears in the game. Students may choose to exit the program at any time during a round. Even if the round is not completed, a Demon is scored as `mastered'if the student's answers are correct for that Demon's four sentences. If a student masters all Demons and chooses to play again, the record manager will add `M' for `mastered' after the student's last name. The student's name will then appear again for subsequent rounds. RECORD MANAGEMENT To see student records or to configure the program, run RECORD from the directory, or press [CONTROL]T while at the title screen. The default directory for the windows trial version is: c:\MAVDEMO\ESL*-D\RECORD.EXE This version saves records for only two students. A third name will automatically replace a previously entered name. (The single user School version saves records for as many students as disk space allows. The Network version saves records for 1,000 students.) The records can go to the screen or the printer. You may see the records of the entire class, or choose an individual student's scores. If you choose to look at the scores of the entire class, you may have them displayed in alphabetical order or from highest to lowest. Use the following keys to make your selections: ALT: Allows you to choose items in the Top Menu: (1)Order (2)View (3)Select (4)Print (5)Delete (6)Exit. In each of the first three options, you will have the choice of selecting records from the Pull Down Menu by name, date, skills mastered, or class code. TAB: Changes the category of information that is displayed in a fixed cycle, e.g., from students' names to last dates played, to highest mastered skill levels, to class codes, to a student's entire record and then back again to the students' names. ENTER: Selects or deselects any piece of information on which the cursor is placed. Selected items can be viewed, printed, or deleted as a group. They appear on the screen highlighted in red. Screen Layout: Instructions are placed in color boxes at the bottom of the screen. The number appearing at the end of the last line of instructions on the screen indicates the position of the cursor in the total number of records. Just before this number is a description of what information is being displayed, e.g., name, date, etc. Moving the Cursor: To move the cursor use the arrow keys. To see preceding screens, use the Page Up key. To go to following screens, use the Page Down key. To go to the beginning of a list, press the Home key. To get to the end of a list, press the End key. To See Records: All information may be viewed on the screen or printed out. To clear previously selected records, choose Select from the Top Menu and Deselect from the Pull Down Menu. Note that your viewing selections are cleared each time the program is restarted or the computer is turned off. Examples 1. To print out the records of one class, follow these directions: Top Menu Pull Down Menu Other Keys Remarks/Actions ALT Select Class Cursor keys Find the beginning of the class ENTER Mark the beginning of the class Cursor keys Find the end of the class ENTER Mark the end of the class ALT View Selected Now only that class is displayed. (Repeating this step would restore screen as it was.) ALT Order Name Class now alphabetized ALT Print Selected Printing is optional Information can be viewed on the screen. 2. To print the highest (or lowest) skill level, follow the steps above, replacing Class, from the Pull Down Menu, with Mastered. 3. To see the records of all students in a range on the screen, choose View from the Top Menu and choose Entire from the Pull Down Menu. 4. To see the records of an individual student on the screen, place the cursor on the name of the student whose records you want to view, and press TAB to change the information displayed. ERROR FIX If the program runs but does not keep student records properly, or if some streaks appear in the Demons graphics, access the RECORD program and delete all records. ESL DEMONS LEVEL 1 (Set A-1) 1. Regular noun plurals, I (-s, -es) 2. No article with certain nouns 3. This, these 4. Regular noun plurals, II (-s, -es, -ies) 5. That, those 6. Contractions - pronouns and verbs 7. Possessive pronouns (its, your, their) 8. Articles (`a' and `an' with singular nouns) 9. Possessive of singular nouns ('s) 10. Prepositions of place, I (in, on, at) 11. Prepositions of time, I (in, at) 12. There is, there's, there are LEVEL 2 (Set A-2) 1. Contractions - verbs + not 2. Irregular noun plurals, I 3. Possessive pronouns, I (mine, hers, ours) 4. Possessive pronouns, II (yours, theirs) 5. Simple present and present continuous tenses 6. Simple past tense (to be) 7. Indefinite articles with adjectives 8. Irregular noun plurals, II 9. Loose, lose 10. Correct use of `at' 11. Many, much 12. Possessive of regular plural nouns LEVEL 3 (Set B-1) 1. Adverbs of manner 2. Simple past tense, I Regular verbs 3. Prepositions of time, II (in, on) 4. Regular noun plurals, III (-f, -fe to -ves) 5. Simple past tense, I Irregular verbs 6. Possessive of nouns ending in -s 7. Articles (a, an) 8. Doubling a consonant before -ing or -ed 9. Comparative and superlative of adjectives 10. Terms of quantity and their plurals 11. Try to (not `try and') 12. Double negatives, I (not/n't + no or nothing) LEVEL 4 (Set B-2) 1. Simple past tense, II Regular verbs 2. Then, than 3 Simple past tense, II Irregular verbs 4. Comparison of adjectives 5. Good, well 6. Double negs., II (not/n't + nobody, no one) 7. A few, a little 8. Nouns used as adjectives - singular form 9. Better, best - worse, worst 10. Past continuous tense 11. Whose, who's 12. Make, do LEVEL 5 (Set C-1) 1. Simple past tense, III Irregular verbs 2. Double negs., III (alternative correction) 3. Present perfect continuous 4. For, since 5. Prepositions of time, III (in, on) 6. Superlative of adjectives 7. Passed, past 8. Agreement of subject and verb, I 9. Less, fewer 10. Past participles, I Regular verbs 11. Almost, most 12. Prepositions of place, II (in, on, at) LEVEL 6 (Set C-2) 1. Simple past tense, IV Irregular verbs 2. Past participles, II Irregular verbs 3. Comparisons (more and most, less and least) 4. Double negs., IV (barely, scarcely, hardly) 5. Ordinal numbers 6. Agr. of subj. & verb, II (intervening phrase) 7. Agr. of subj. & verb, III (collective nouns) 8. Verb plus infinitive or gerund 9. Different from (not `different than') 10. Agreement of pronoun and antecedent 11. Confusing word twins 12. Case of pronouns Copyright 1994-1996 Merit Audio Visual All rights reserved GTDR ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- We hope you enjoy previewing ESL DEMONS. The School version of the program contains the following: 1. Six levels of exercises 2. Record management for as many students as disk space allows. 3. A hide/show feature for the Customized Drill 4. A teacher's guide Merit offers a full range of educational software for writing, reading, grammar, vocabulary, ESL, and math. Merit also offers networking for Novell and other LAN, and licensing. School or Institutional Purchase Orders accepted. We will be happy to answer any questions you might have. MERIT AUDIO VISUAL (800) 753-6488 (212) 675-8567 FAX: (212) 675-8607 Call us Monday through Friday between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM Eastern Time. Or write MERIT AUDIO VISUAL, 132 W. 21 Street, New York, NY 10011 for free software catalog. This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 USA, FAX 616-788-2765 or send a Compuserve message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.