Patent Application
20100248194
The present patent application relates generally to a teaching system and method and, more particularly, concerns using an array of graphics and images related to an inquiry to immerse the student in the subject matter and enhance learning and retention of information.
Traditionally, learning a language involves a great deal of memorization. Interest can be added by introducing stories, presenting pictures and learning songs, but ultimately, the student must do a great deal of memorization in order to be successful. That includes not only memorizing words but memorizing rules of grammar and proper usage.
Then, oral and written communication becomes a chore of translating mentally from one's native language. Spoken communication becomes particularly difficult, as a student translates a phrase mentally from the foreign language, composes an answer in his native language, and translates, again mentally, to the foreign language. Carrying on an intelligent conversation becomes difficult, because the student is preoccupied with these mental gymnastics and searching for words. Instead of interacting with the other person, the student speaks haltingly, and often ungrammatically. His success is greatly dependent upon the quality of his memory.
In contrast, when we first learn to speak our native language, we are totally immersed in the experience. Any object around us, every experience, every interaction and every memory is a reminder of the words we learn and reinforces the learning experience. Words come to us naturally because of those associations, which place all of the words we learn into context.
If a student learning a new language could be similarly immersed in the experience, it would not only become more enjoyable, but the student could learn more quickly and more efficiently, and would be likely to retain more of what he learns.
Systems for teaching language through such immersion techniques are marketed by the assignee of the present invention. However, there exists a need for improved methodologies of more completely immersing a student in a target language to be learned.
In accordance with the present invention, a student using a teaching system, for example, to learn a language, selects a concept which he does not recall. The selection may be a single word, or a phrase comprised of plural words.
On a display, he is immediately presented with an array of images or graphics related to the selected concept. For example, the graphics or images may be from previous lessons which involve the concept. If the student then selects one of the images or graphics he is presented with a list of all the concepts, for example, words and phrases, associated with that image or graphic. The student is thereby able to recollect the selected concept in the context of all of his previous experiences with it. If that does not restore the selected concept to his recollection, he is able to select additional images and graphics, in each case being presented with an additional list of related concepts, making it likely that the originally selected concept will be recalled.
As importantly, the process of forcing the user to again associate images with the word or phrase results in further reinforcement of the association between the images and the word or phrase at issue. This is turn, emphasizes the immersion in the target language being learned.
The foregoing brief description and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be understood more completely from the following detailed description of a presently preferred, but nonetheless illustrative, embodiment in accordance with the present invention, with reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which:
In a still further embodiment of the invention, the system automatically retrieves a record of any and all lessons that are part of the language curriculum, which include the word Hund, and which the student has successfully completed. The student is then forced to recall the prior lessons, and correlate the item they have in common, reinforcing the student's knowledge of the particular word or phrase at issue.
At this point, the student will, in all probability, recall the meaning of the word Hund. However, if he does not, he can continue to click on additional graphics/images to view additional lists. For example, suppose the student clicked on image 12-2, which shows Fritz standing in front of his doghouse sniffing Felix the cat, who is in the process of jumping onto the doghouse. The drop-list for image 12-2 might include: Felix, Fritz, Hund, Hundhause (doghouse), Katz (cat), snuffeln (sniffing), and stehen (standing). By clicking on a particular image, the student may be presented with a list of words from all prior lessons that were taught using the specific image.
After viewing the array of images/graphics and one or more drop-down lists, just about any student will have received a sufficient amount of immersive reinforcement to inscribe the word Hund well into his mind. Moreover, it will have been obtained in a very natural, intuitive manner, much the way a child first learns to speak a language.
It should be appreciated that the originally selected objects (and any other selected objects) need not be a word but may be a phrase. Similarly, the drop-down list may include one or more phrases associated with the images. Also, the objects need not be written but may be spoken words or phrases to teach a student the spoken language. For example, the student might click on an icon that causes a word or phrase to be spoken. The word or phrase may or may not be printed on or near the icon. Similarly, some of the objects may be printed and others audible.
Although the described method of teaching is particularly effective for teaching language, it is not that limited and is, in fact, applicable to teaching virtually any subject. For example, it could lend itself very well to teaching history, economics, mathematics, or science. It is useful in any situation in which the same image or set of images are used in connection with teaching different concepts.
Information related to a specific student is stored in a unique Student Module 52. It will be appreciated that there will be a module 52 for each student, so a plurality of such modules would typically be present. Computer C would also typically include a plurality of Curriculum Modules 54, one for each subject being taught.
Each Curriculum Module includes curriculum information storage 56, which includes the content and sequence of all the lessons, test questions and answers, and instructions on how to proceed, based upon test results. The actual information related to the lessons, such as stories, graphics and images is stored Teaching Data Storage 58. When the curriculum module is first created, an index 60 is created which relates the words in each lesson with the corresponding images/graphics.
An Interface Module 62 permits teaching module 50 to interface with Student Modules 52 and Curriculum Modules 54. Interface Module 62 includes a database manager which permits the generation of queries and efficient transfer of information between Teaching Module 50 and Student Modules 52 and Curriculum Modules 54. In operation, when the student acts to create an interrogation of the type that causes the array of images/graphics, Interface Module 62 generates a database query for the search term that is addressed to the index 60 and will cause storage 58 to return the appropriate images and graphics. Subsequently, should the student select one of the images/graphics, Interface Module 62 generates a database query for the image that is addressed to the index 60 and will cause storage 58 to return the appropriate, related words or phrases.
Although the preferred method has been described in terms of a teaching machine, in the modern context, it is preferably in the form of a personal computer running a teaching program. As is typical, the computer will include a display, a keyboard, a pointing device, a processing unit programmed to run the program, and one or more mass storage devices.
Preferably, at least some of these images are from a lesson that the student has already had. In one embodiment, the images are all from lessons the student previously completed. Alternatively, if the student has only completed a prescribed number of lessons (e.g.; 1 or 2) that have used the word, then images from other lessons not yet completed can be used to supplement. Or, if the student has not completed any lesson that has used the word, the images can all be from lessons never completed.
It is likely that the student, upon seeing image cluster 12′, may very well recall the meaning of “perro” or alternatively, deduce it from the common features of the images. However, should he still not recall the meaning of the word, he might select image 12′-1, at which point the screen takes on the appearance of
The student might then return to image cluster 12′ and select image 12′-2. The screen would then take on the appearance of
The student might then return to the word cluster for image 12′-2 and select the word “no.” The display will take on the appearance of
The student might then select the word “gato” (cat), and the display will take on the appearance of
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the described process of constructing the tree of
In defining the words or phrases to be used in the concept, it becomes important to avoid common words, like “the.” This could be achieved in a number of ways, including providing a specific list of excluded words or excluding words which appear more than a prescribed number of times in the lesson curriculum. Similarly, it would be beneficial to define word clusters, so that if a student selects a common word, the machine would recognize the entire associated phrase.
The above description is largely directed to the user action on the image triggering a list of corresponding words or phrases to be displayed, and to a user action on a word or phrase triggering a corresponding set of images. However, the “correspondence” may be by way of synonyms, related words, antonyms, or text.
For example,
Although preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that many additions, modifications and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as defined by the accompanying claims.
