instant

English

user reference A

Catalog: curriculum components 2 8 Instant Tutor Typing Mode

Program requirements and installation 3 9 Instant Tutor Listening Mode

Program Install Problems 4 10 Instant Tutor Dictation Mode

Authoring suite components and credits 5 11 FAQS: Navigation

Instant Tutor Icon Navigation 6 12 FAQS: Troubleshooting

Instant Tutor Page Navigation 7 13 Registration card

website > http://www.iconlanguage.com email > iconlang@core.com

A > user reference > catalog Page 2

Instant English Curriculum – CD and 10 books

Instant English for Windows 24 sessions of English dictation. See next page.

This book A Orientation to Instant English for teachers and students.

Project book B Computer extensions for Instant English curriculum.

Grammar book C Self-tests for Instant English lessons.

Drill book D Take-home practice on pronouns and verbs.

Story book E Reader

Phonics book F Pronunciation and spelling reference and practice.

Vocabulary book G Graphic dictionaries

Text Reference H Index of Instant English lesson texts.

Icon Reference I Index of icon names, by part of speech.

Authoring Manual J How to edit and create dictionaries and lessons.

A > user reference > requirements and applications Page 3

Instant English Program Requirements and Installation

Space and memory

The program needs 200 megs of hard drive space and a minimum of 32 megs of RAM memory.

Operating system

Windows 95, 98, 98SE, Millennium (ME), 2000, XP.

Windows 2000 has its own setup folder. It does not include the text-to-speech engine because 2000 has its own. Instant English will work with the installed text-to-speech engine. Only one TTS engine should be present.

Install files:

CD has 2 setup folders. Choose the one for your machine. WAIT for it to self-open.

The wizard installs program, text-to-speech engine, and, using the update utility, it loads the lesson and dictionary data. The Books folder has the workbooks. Drag them into MY Documents.

Look for the Tutor shortcut icon on your desktop. Shortcuts to Author and Dictionary are in the Windows Start menu in the Instant folder.

Adding Files:

The update utility can be used alone to add lessons or dictionaries. If the files have the same name, they will replace the old files. If they have a unique name, they will be added. Lessons can be moved from one sub-folder to another, but do not change the name of the lesson folder (lessons) or the dictionary folder (library).

To identify new sub-folders with an image, create a bitmapped image 54 pixels high, name it image.bmp and put this file in your new folder.

A > user reference > requirements and applications Page 4

Instant English Program Install Problems

Before: Be sure to wait for the entire install process. Reboot your computer.

After: If you get nothing when you click on the shortcut, there are two places to check:

LOOK AT THE CD Open the CD contents in Windows. There should be two setup folders, one for 98-XP, the other for 2K. Each folder should have a DATA folder that contains lessons and dictionaries. If you click on the data folder and get an error message, or see nothing, please return the CD, because it is corrupt.

LOOK IN PROGRAM FOLDER

C:\program files\Instant Look for the following sub-folders:

LESSONS Folders for hours 1-25

LESSON TEMPLATE 11 program files

LIBRARY Parts of speech dictionaries

PREFERENCES 7 program files

If folders are missing data, but there’s data on the CD, you can replace

the empty folders with the full ones on the CD.

TEMPLATE 41 program files

Go to START > INSTANT > AUTHOR and click on file > set directories. Check, or type in these paths. DICTIONARY TEMPLATE C:\Program Files\Instant\Template

PREFS C:\Program Files\Instant\Preferences

LIBRARY ROOT C:\Program Files\Instant\Library

LESSON TEMPLATE C:\Program Files\Instant\LessonTemplate

If correcting the path doesn’t work, email us

for a new CD.

LESSON LIBRARY C:\Program Files\Instant\Lessons

A > user reference > requirements and applications Page 5

Instant English Authoring Suite Components

Tutor (students)

Currently, the Tutor has 72 lessons in 24 “hours” (sessions). New lessons can be added anytime.

Author (teachers)

The author creates and edits lessons. Text to speech (TTS) will be added to the lesson automatically. Recorded sound will override the TTS.

Making new lessons is as simple as dragging words from the floating dictionary browser to the sentence panel. The new lesson will appear as you add words. Step by step instructions for creating lessons are in the authoring manual.

Dictionary (teachers)

Creates and edits “icon blocks” used in Author. There are 52 dictionaries organized by part of speech. There are about 3000 root words and extra icons for tense, plurals, punctuation, phonics and numbers. New dictionaries are simple to create.

Icons The icon collection is separate and includes 3200 bitmap images, 54 pixels high. Icons from this collection can be inserted in any document. Icons can be created using photo images of students or other real people and places.

Credits Instant English is copyrighted and patented by Mary Beth Guinan, President, Icon Language Systems, Inc. Programmers are Dennis Startsev, Evelyn McHugh, Xun Ding and Leo Kong. Business manager is Suzie Issacs.

A > user reference > tutor > icon navigation Page 6

Instant English Features – Tutor Icon Navigation

Menupage

Open program. Click on clock to see drop-down lesson menu for that session. Each clock hour is one session. Each session is approximately 1½ hours. If class meets twice a week, the program will take 12 weeks.

Menu Bar:

On each screen, see menu bar.

Open menu

Caps off/on Text on/offlamp on = show textlamp off = hide text

Turn page Exit

A > user reference > tutor > page navigation Page 7

Instant English Features – Tutor Page Navigation

Click on book stack to choose new lesson

Page title can be customized

Icon row On mouse-over, see grammar for each icon-word. On mouse click, hear speech for each icon-word. On button click, hear recorded sound of sentence.

Input row Click on triangle button to start dictation.

Type, and use space bar to move to next word. Program capitalizes and waits for second space bar hit.

If input is incorrect, program will not move forward.

Text row Text is below input boxes. Circle button toggles text off and on.

A > user reference > tutor > begin > typing mode Page 8

Using Instant English - Begin

1 An open books shortcut is on your desktop. Double-click to open it.

2 Now you see a row of clocks. Click on HOUR 1.

3 A list of lessons is under the clocks. Double click on any lesson.

4 To get a new lesson, click on the book stack on the task bar.

Typing mode

1 Click on the triangle button.

2 A word is below the box. Copy the word. Type it in the text box. Click space bar, to move forward. Continue typing, and spacing. Don’t forget the period.

3 Click space bar after the period. The program speaks the sentence. Then the cursor goes to the next sentence.

A > user reference > tutor > listening mode, Page 9

Using Instant English Tutor - continued

Listening mode

1 Click the rectangle button

Listen to the sentence.

2 Look at the top of the screen. Do you see a lamp?

It is ON when you open the lesson.

Click it OFF to hide the words.

Listen to the sentence.

Speak the sentence OUT LOUD.

(In the listening mode, you don’t read. You don’t type. You just listen and speak.)

3 Click on the next rectangle.

Do not type. Just listen and speak.

Is this too difficult?

Click on the icons one by one and speak each word.

Now try the whole sentence again.

Repeat until you speak it perfectly.

user reference > tutor > dictation mode Page 10

Dictation mode (advanced, for learning how to spell.)

1 Turn the spelling light OFF (on the task bar) to hide the text.

2 Click the rectangle button.

Listen to the sentence.

3 Click here. The triangle button starts the dictation.

4 Don’t type until you click the triangle button. The speech won’t work without this button.

5 Try to type the words without looking.

Is this too difficult? Try this: Mouse over the icon. A small tag pops up and shows the word. The tag goes away after a second. Move your cursor away from the icon, and then back on the icon. You will see it again. Now try again to type the word.

A > user reference > FAQS > navigation Page 11

FAQs about using Instant English: Navigation

Q I can’t find the letters on the keyboard. They don’t match the text.

A Turn on the Aa button on the task bar. This will put all captions in capital letters. When you type, the letters will show up in small letters, so you can learn lower case.

Q I wanted a new lesson, so I clicked the button that showed a man going out, but then I lost the program.

A Don’t exit the lesson to change lessons. Click on the book stack on the task bar (top left) to open the menu again.

Q I finished the page, now what?

A If you hit the space bar after the last punctuation mark, the program will go to the next page for you. Are you on the last page? You can check if you click the OPEN BOOK icon on the task bar. Look for the check mark next to the lesson.

Q I don’t know how to use the computer.

A Use the typing mode.

Q I know how to read, but I can’t speak.

A Use the l istening mode.

Q I know how to speak, but I can’t spell.

A Use the dictation mode.

A > user reference > troubleshooting Page 12

FAQs about using Instant English: Troubleshooting

Q I don’t hear any sound. Click on the rectangle or triangle. Nothing happen?

Check the SOUND ICON on the bottom of your screen. (It looks like a megaphone.) Does it have a red “cancel” slash over it? Yes? Click on the icon. Remove the check on “mute”.

Now, check the volume. Push it all the way to the top. Then try the sentence sound again. You can also check the volume on your headphones and on the computer.

If it still doesn’t work, maybe you have to restart the computer. Go to the Start menu and click SHUT DOWN.

Q I click and type but nothing happens.

A Maybe the program is frozen. Hold down the ALT and CTRL together, and at the same time click the DELETE key. When the CLOSE PROGRAM box opens, click END TASK. The program will close.

Now, look at the task bar at the bottom of your screen. Are Instant English icons there? Any other programs open? Close all of them. Then open the program again. Instant English will freeze if other programs are open.

Q The lips get in the way when I try to type.

A Click the top of the lips window and push it away, or click the “X” and close the lips

Please register with us to receive email notices of new materials. Cut out this sheet and fold in three sections so the information is inside and the address is outside. Staple or Tape shut. Don’t forget a stamp!

Comments about the program, the workbooks, or the website: Thanks for sending this! Mary Beth Guinan

Name________________________

Email________________________ Address:_____________________

Check one: I am a:

student at _________________

teacher at__________________

other _____________________

My first language is____________

ILS phone number is 847-328-9525 ILS email is iconlang@core.com ILS website is www.iconlanguage.com

TO:

MB Guinan Icon Language Systems 940 Michigan Evanston, IL 60202