The 1995 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, Mindscape, Inc. (listening, reading, student research)

• This popular compact disc is a great resource for our students. The encyclopedia contains thousands of topics, supplemented with sound, picture, video, animation, and multimedia map files. Students can deepen their understanding of various topics by browsing through the Knowledge Tree and Knowledge Explorer options, or learn more about the famous names and dates in history by frequenting the Timelines and Pathfinders options. Not only is it fascinating and visually appealing, it is also extremely user-friendly. Student typicall use this program when they need to do some research for a class presentation or report.

1995 Time Almanac, Compact Publishing, Inc. (listening, reading, student research)

• This compact disc provides general information on a selected number of topics and news events. It provides access to a wide variety of issues in U. S. and global politics&endash;&endash;past and present&endash;&endash;as well as landmark events which shaped the course of history. The program also provides an in-depth look at a few of the issues, providing an assortment of pictures, charts, graphs, and so forth to illustrate and clarify. Another "plus" is the large collection of historical video clips ranging from excerpts of election speeches to the Wright Brothers, to the end of prohibition, to the O. J. Simpson car chase. These clips literaly bring history to life.

Expeditions Into English (listening, speaking, reading)

• This is a multimedia program developed at BYU.  It is based on the same book title series published by Prentice-Hall. It provides lots of practice in the listening skill.  It's an audio-interactive, multimedia program designed to teach English listening and speaking skills to beginning ESL students. It contains colorized pictures, digitized sound, a quiz package, vocabulary module, voice recording and comparing mode, listening comprehension mode, show and tell component, sound search, and other miscellaneous items such as maps, family relationship paradigms, rooms in a house, menus, giving directions, and parts of the body. Each chapter includes several lessons including a vocabulary building section and a listening comprehension section, as well as opportunities for the student to record his/her own voice and compare it with that of a native speaker. The software also has user record capabilities which allow the instructor to closely monitor student progress as well as a "Teacher's Assistant" to help the instructor tailor the program to his/her individual class needs. This is a 160 meg multimedia computer software program based on the text series of the same name.  It is self-access completely.

  Program:   Level:   Publisher:   Address:   Platform:

  Expeditions Into English  Beginning to Intermediate   Softec International  P.O. Box 184  Orem, Utah 84059-0184   Macintosh  For information on  availability of program,  please e-mail Glen Probst at:  glen_probst@byu.edu

Quick English (Listening, Reading, Grammar)

• Quick English is a family of interactive CD-ROMs for intermediate to advanced students of English as a second or foreign language. Each CD-ROM has 10 lessons, over 15 minutes of Quick Time/AVI video, 30 minutes of "slow audio," and the ability to record and compare your voice with slow or normal audio. The version 1.5 QE package contains 1 CD-ROM and a user's manual

  Program:  Level:  Publisher:  Address:  Phone:  E-mail:  Web Page:  Price:  Site License:   Platform:

  Quick English  Intermediate to Advanced   LinguaTech  1113 South Orem Blvd.   Orem, Utah 84058   (801) 226-2525  linguatech@compuserve.com   http://www.linguatech.com  $89.00  Available  Macintosh, Windows

SoftRead (Authoring/Playback program for reading and writing)

• Developed at BYU, this is a multimedia authoring/playback program for treating text.  It is extremely easy to use. It allows you to create multimedia readings using any passage of text in any language that uses a Romanized alphabet. SoftRead allows you to create dictionaries to be shared by many readings. It also allows you to select specific vocabulary items and expressions from a reading to be presented to users. It helps you create quiz items, writing exercises, and crossword puzzles based on the reading text. It allows you to link graphics and QuickTime movies to the reading. Any text that is dumped into the program can be used to develop reading skill and comprehension by letting the user determine the pace and speed of the material passing through a reading window. Educational games based on the reading content are automatically created by the program.

  Program:  Level:  Publisher:  Address:  Platform:

  SoftRead  All Levels  Softec International  P.O. Box 184  Orem, Utah 84059-0184   Macintosh  For information on  availability of program,  please e-mail Glen Probst at:  glen_probst@byu.edu

E-CAPE (English Computerized Adaptive Placement Exam)  (testing)

• This test is now in development at BYU. It is used as a placement and promotion exam for the six levels of study at the ELC. The test contains grammar, listening, and reading sections. It is used in conjunction with an oral proficiency interview and an written essay exam. This placement process has been very accurate. More information to follow.

  • Program:  Level:  Publisher:  Address:      Phone:  E-mail:  FAX:  Web Page:  Price:  Site License:   Platform:

    E-CAPE  All   Brigham Young University  Technology Transfer Office  A-268 Abraham Smoot Bldg.  Orem, Utah, USA 84059-1050   Provo, Utah 84602  (801) 378-2138   giovanni_tata@byu.edu    (801) 378-6266   http://www.WriteExpress.com/    (Not released yet)  Available  IBM-compatible PC

WriteExpress Rhymer and Phonetic Finder (pronunciation, vocabulary, materials development)

• This program has just been released. It was developed by BYU and WordPerfect personnel. The Rhymer component allows the user to search a 90,000 plus data base of words to find rhymes on any syllable. The Phonetic Finder component allows the user to retrieve lists of words that share specific sounds in specific positions within the word. It is invaluable for pronunciation practice, vocabulary studies, sound-to-spelling studies, sound-combination studies, minimal pairs, morphology studies, and English materials development in general.

  • Program:  Level:  Publisher:  Address:    Phone:  E-mail:  FAX:  Web Page:  Price:  Site License:   Platform:

    Rhymer and Phonetic Finder  Intermediate to Advanced   WriteExpress  WriteExpress Corporation   P.O. Box 1050  Orem, Utah, USA 84059-1050   (800) 974-8339  rob@WriteExpress.com      (801) 226-1291   http://www.WriteExpress.com/http://www.WriteExpress.com/http://www.WriteExpress.com/   $29.95  Available  DOS,Windows 3.1, Windows 95

WriteExpress Interactive Business Letters (writing)

• This program is perfect to help you write like a native speaker of English. It's like having a professional writing coach by your side. It provides helpful tips and step-by-step instructions on 500 writing topics. It gives sample sentences and phrases for each writing step, as well as 1650 sample letters. It works with your word processor and integrates directly into Microsoft Word 7.0, Word 97, and Corel WordPerfect 7.

  Program:  Level:  Publisher:  Address:    Phone:  E-mail:  FAX:  Web Page:  Price:  Site License:   Platform:

  Interactive Business Letters  Intermediate to Advanced   WriteExpress  WriteExpress Corporation   P.O. Box 1050  Orem, Utah, USA 84059-1050   (800) 974-8339  rob@WriteExpress.com     (801) 226-1291   http://www.WriteExpress.com/http://www.WriteExpress.com/   $49.95  Available  DOS,Windows 3.1, Windows 95

American College Reading Skills (reading)

• This program supports a textbook of the same title and is aimed at helping students improve skills necessary for successful academic reading. It provides valuable practice beyond the textbook in developing skill areas such as Understanding Vocabulary in Context,Recognizing Main Ideas, Recognizing Major and Minor Details, Transitions, Argumentation, and more. It also has user record capabilities which allow the instructor to closely monitor student progress.

ClarisWorks, Claris Corporation (writing, word processing)

• Claris Works is a word-processing program similar to Microsoft Word and WordPerfect. It has many of the same options as the above mentioned programs like columns, centering, line spacing, Speller, Thesaurus, Layout optons, Style options, etc.

WordPerfect, Corel (writing, word processing)

• This program allows the students to write and print anything they need to. It is semi-user-friendly and provides many options for improving the form of the writing (Speller, Thesaurus, Layout optons, Style options, etc.)

Encore Typing Tutorial (typing)

• Encore provides indepth practice and fun activities to improve typing skills and speed. The students learn to touch- type, increase accuracy, learn about word processing, and have fun. Both beginning and advanced keyboardists can use this program. For beginners there are three options to help them get started. The first is How to Use Typing Instructor. Next is Typing Basics for Beginners, and last is Learning Key Locations. It includes simple explanations and exercises concerning finger placement on the keyboard.
  

Raiders of the Lost Ark (listening)

• This program has been used in the ELC with great success since about 1985.  The authors repurposed the laserdisc version of this Lucasfilm movie. It provides the student with immense amounts of interesting, motivational listening experience. It was aimed at the intermediate level, but we have never been able to keep our beginning students off it. The program is not avialable commercially.  BYU has special permission from Lucasfilm to use the program in the ELC.

  Program:  Level:  Publisher:   Address:  Price:  Phone:  Platform:

  Raiders of the Lost Ark  Intermediate, Advanced  None  2113 JKHB  Brigham Young University   Provo, Utah 84602  Not Available   (801) 378-2691  Macintosh

Netscape Navigator 3.0 (listening, reading, student research, culture)

• A number of students spend quite a bit of time "surfing the net" with the help of this user-friendly, web navigation program. It provides easy access to a number of the most popular net searching services including Excite, Infosearch, and Yahoo!. They increase their reading and writing skills by browsing different sites, participating in chats, and writing e-mail. It is also a convenient and powerful source of information when they need to prepare for reports or other class assignments. Now that they have it, they never want to be without it again.

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