Seeing glossary links as you type

Seeing glossary links as you type

by Glenys Hanson -
Number of replies: 17

Hi there,

As an English as a foreign language teacher, one of the things I use a Glossary for is grammar/vocabulary/captialisation corrector for common mistakes. Unfortunately most students don't seem to notice the underlined/highlighted words in their published posts. I feel it would be pedagogically more effective if the underlining/highlighting were done in real time as they type - as is done in spelling correctors. In TinyMce I can't even recommend they install and use the Firefox spelling corrector - far too complicated to explain how to do it.

Am I asking for the moon? Is it just a pipe dream like the possibility of delivering a (small) electric shock over the Internet every time students write, for example, "since two years"?

Cheers,

Glenys

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In reply to Glenys Hanson

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by Nicholas Walker -

Hello Glenys,

I understand what you mean. You want students to attend to formal aspects of English while they are in the process of producing a meaningful message. Sound L2 pedagogy. 

I have an alternative solution. I have embedded virtualwritingtutor.com's index page into a metacourse. Virtualwritingtutor.com is the only free online grammar checker I know of that specifically addresses L2 writing errors. Try embedding this code into either a label or webpage:

<iframe width="100%" height="1200" src="http://virtualwritingtutor.com/index.php"></iframe>

It is a whole lot faster that using a glossary to check text. 

Virtualwritingtutor.com

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In reply to Nicholas Walker

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by Mary Cooch -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Sorry - I don't understand what this is meant to do? Students can't check their spellings in a a label or a webpage and when I added that code to this forum post it just gave me the page but no possiblity of adding my text to check for errors. How do you see it working? I went to the isite itself but I couldn't get it to highlight my deliberate errorsmixed

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by ben reynolds -

Hi Mary,

It worked in a label for me. Just like the picture in the OP. I inserted the i-frame tags in the html view, not the wysiwig.

Of course, I was posting Word junk, and it took the "smart" apostrophe to be a \' black eye

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In reply to ben reynolds

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by Itamar Tzadok -

I think that active spellchecking is a bit of digression from what Glenys wished for and the subject is about.

Nevertheless, intrigued by this issue I've just hacked the Moodle tinyMCE editor (2.2) to perform active spell checking. This is just an initial rough hack and it requires a bit more work but it looks promising

smile

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In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by ben reynolds -

Wow, Itamar!

Now I have to learn how to get my git to upgrade?

I admit to being intimidated by git.

Your simple user,

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In reply to Mary Cooch

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by Nicholas Walker -

Hello Mary,

>Students can't check their spellings in a a label or a webpage

Sorry for my delayed response. The code is intended for Moodle users with editing privileges. My suggestion about the iframe was to add the code to a label you create and that students have access to. You set it up using your role as teacher. Students use it to check their text. 

I also noticed that it has trouble with apostrophes and wants to escape them. Perhaps, this issue will be resolved. There is an email address for suggested improvements.

I am tempted to say that this limitation doesn't matter as the goal seems to provide corrective feedback, not to spit back error-free text--a pedagogical advantage to my mind since it provides the location of the error, the nature of the error, and a suggestion for correcting it. The job of actually correcting errors remains with the learner. With Word, when it catches an error, learners can simply right-click and the correction is automatic.

>I couldn't get it to highlight my deliberate errors

What were your deliberate errors? I am eager to see the limitations of this resource, both in terms of language pedagogy and usability. 

Thanks,

Nick

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In reply to Nicholas Walker

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by Itamar Tzadok -

I asked the virtual writing tutor if I am better of using it to check me writing and he says nothing. big grin

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In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by Nicholas Walker -

Try this: 

My name its Nathalie. I live at Toronto since two years. I have 19 years. I am a relax person. I have brown short hair. Me, I like to dance. Some of my friend speak English more better then me, but I thing that is okay because I am learning. Do I will study hard for know how to speak the best I can? You knows it! 

 

20 typical errors for my students found in less than a second. approve

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In reply to Nicholas Walker

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by Itamar Tzadok -

I

...lie. I live at Toronto since two years. I have 19 years. I am a relax person. I have brown short...

--------------------------------------------

virtualwritingtutor.com

You wrote: ...lie. I live at Toronto since two years. I have 19 years. I am a relax person. I have brown short...
Feedback: Did you mean I have 19 years 'old'?

---------------------------------------------

@ virtualwritingtutor.com

You wrote: ... Did you mean I have 19 years 'old'? ...
Feedback: Did you mean I 'am' 19 years 'old'?

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In reply to Nicholas Walker

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by Itamar Tzadok -

I'm just wondering if forms such as 'I am 19 years old' are not better learned the "old fashioned" way, that is, by memorising and chanting short passages. smile

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In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by Joseph Rézeau -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

@Itamar: Yes, memorising and chanting "I am 19 years old" all your life long is a sure way of keeping young.Yes

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In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by Nicholas Walker -

Considerable Applied Linguistic ink has flowed into your question.

Currently thinking on good pedagogy has it that  languages are learned most efficiently through a combination of attention to form and the exchange of meaningful messages in communicative contexts. Attention only to form through rote learning outside of a communicative act is not expected to lead to what we call creative automaticity.

In other words, learners are unlikely to be able to deploy memorized chunks in new contexts as they arise in the heat of conversation because knowledge is adapted to the environment in which it was acquired. Cognition is situated. Therefore, teachers try to situate learning in contexts that more closely resemble the communicative contexts in which the knowledge will be needed. 

Moodle forums, chats, wikis, peer-reviews and its many other marvelous features help to situate learning in communicative contexts. Adding automatic corrective feedback on errors to communicative exchanges allows learners to test and revise their hypotheses about the form of their messages in situ. The old-fashioned way needs an update. 

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In reply to Nicholas Walker

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by Itamar Tzadok -

Yes, cognition is situated, the only problem is that no one yet knows what that means, least of all pedagogists whose claims about learning (as a situated coginitive capacity) are merely by questionable implications from questionable social observations.

In other words, the claim "learners are unlikely to be able to deploy memorized chunks in new contexts as they arise in the heat of conversation because knowledge is adapted to the environment in which it was acquired" is useless. This may work for some and not for others. And one doesn't know until one makes a considerable attempt (and one can't even know for sure what counts as considerable).

I, too, think that adding automatic corrective feedback on errors to communicative exchanges allows learners to test and revise their hypotheses about the form of their messages in situ. But automatic corrective feedback may be as simple as 'sorry, you got it wrong, please try again'. And then Moodle forums, chats, wikis, peer-reviews and other marvelous features, just like forests, hiking, whitewater rafting, hunting and sausages eating around the campfire, may (or may not) show their usefulness. It may be just the same very old-fashioned way in situ. smile

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In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by Joseph Rézeau -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers Picture of Translators

Nice try, Itamar, but please pay attention: in situ should be italicized. Now go eat your barbecued sausages in situ around the campfire one more thousand times in order to remember that spelling rule. tongueout

Joseph

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In reply to Joseph Rézeau

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by Itamar Tzadok -

I must have pressed the wrong button on virtualwritingtutor.com because it didn't automatically correctively fed me back this or sausages in situ for that matter. big grin

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In reply to Glenys Hanson

Re: Seeing glossary links as you type

by ben reynolds -

Hi G,

I vaguely remember starting from scratch with this Win 7 laptop (last summer, 2011), and getting spellchecking with installing FF. I didn't need to do anything, except maybe it is an issue of specifying English as the language?

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