ABSTRACT
The term Word Guessing Game covers a range of
computer-based packages, which aim to provide interactive instruction usually
in a specific subject area, and many predate the Internet. These can range from
sophisticated and expensive commercial packages to applications developed by
projects in other educational institutions or national initiatives to simple
solutions developed by individuals with no funding or support to tackle a very Interactive
Tutor problem. The amount of time and money invested in development is high and
partly because of the very subject specific nature of the education market as
well as the very personalized nature of the teaching process.
Computerized Word Guessing Game is run either straight from a CD or floppy disk drive, or over a network so the constraint of the internet – slow download times for multimedia materials may not apply. This, coupled with the fact that Word Guessing Game technology has been around a bit longer, means that Word Guessing Game packages have the potential to offer more advanced, interactive, multimedia learning experiences than it is currently reasonable to expect from the Web.
ORGANIZATION OF WORK
This project work is primarily designed to give an insight into Word Guessing Game for English language.
Chapter one
talks about introduction to computer aided learning, Word Guessing Game software
system, study of problem and objectives as well as definition of the scope.
Chapter two
comprises the literature review. Chapter three gives the detailed information
about the existing (old) system, while chapter four and five deals with the
design and implantation of new system.
Chapter six
documents the project work, while chapter seven summaries, conclusion and
suggestions were made.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract v
Table of contents vii
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background
of the study 1
1.2 State
of the problem 2
1.3 Purpose
of the study 3
1.4 Aims
and objectives 3
1.5 Scope
of study 5
1.6 Limitations
of study 5
1.7 Assumptions 6
1.8 Definition
of terms 7
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW 8
CHAPTER THREE
- Description and
analysis of existing system 15
- Fact finding
method used 17
- Organization
structure 19
- Objectives of
Existing system 21
- Input, Process
and Output Analysis 22
- Information
Flow Diagrams 26
- Problems of the
Existing System 27
- Justification
of the New System 28
CHAPTER FOUR
- Design of the
New System 30
- Input
Specification and design 30
- Output
specification and design 32
CHAPTER FIVE
- Implementation 42
- Source Program:
Test Run 59
CHAPTER SIX
Documentation 60
CHAPTER SEVEN
Bibliography 65
1.0 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Computerized Word Guessing Game is similar to
the experiential model of learning. The adherents of experiential learning are
fairly adamant about how we learn. Learning seldom takes place by rote.
Learning occurs because we immerse ourselves in a situation in which we are
forced to perform. You get feedback from the computer output and then
adjust your thinking-process if needed. Unfortunately, most classroom courses
are not learning systems. The way the instructors
attempt to help their students acquire skills and knowledge has absolutely
nothing to do with the way students actually learn. Many instructors rely on
lectures and tests, and memorization. All too often, they rely on
“telling.” No one remembers much that’s taught by telling, and what’s
told doesn’t translate into usable skills. Certainly, we learn by doing,
failing, and practicing until we do it right. The computer assisted learning
serve this purpose.
If the learning environment is focused on background
information, knowledge of terms and new concepts, the learner is likely to
learn that basic information successfully. However, this basic knowledge may
not be sufficient to enable the learner to carry out successfully the
on-the-job tasks that require more than basic knowledge. Thus, the probability
of making real errors in the business environment is high. On the other hand,
if the learning environment allows the learner to experience and learn from
failures within a variety of situations similar to what they would experience
in the “real world” of their job, the probability of having similar
failures in their business environment is low. This is the realm of
simulations-a safe place to fail.
During the past two decades, the exercise of spoken language
skills has received increasing attention among educators. Foreign language
curricula focus on productive skills with special emphasis on communicative
competence. Students’ ability to engage in meaningful conversational
interaction in the target language is considered an important, if not the most
important, goal of second language education. This shift of emphasis has
generated a growing need for instructional materials that provide an opportunity
for controlled interactive speaking practice outside the classroom.
With recent advances in multimedia technology, computer-aided
language learning (CALL) has emerged as a tempting alternative to traditional
modes of supplementing or replacing direct student-teacher interaction, such as
the language laboratory or audio-tape-based self-study. The integration of
sound, voice interaction, text, video, and animation has made it possible to
create self-paced interactive learning environments that promise to enhance the
classroom model of language learning significantly. A growing number of
textbook publishers now offer educational software of some sort, and educators
can choose among a large variety of different products. Yet, the practical
impact of CALL in the field of foreign language education has been rather
modest. Many educators are reluctant to embrace a technology that still seeks
acceptance by the language teaching community as a whole (Kenning &
Kenning, 1990).
A
number of reasons have been cited for the limited practical impact of
computer-based language instruction. Among them are the lack of a unified
theoretical framework for designing and evaluating CALL systems (Chapelle,
1997; Hubbard, 1988; Ng & Olivier, 1987); the absence of conclusive empirical
evidence for the pedagogical benefits of computers in language learning
(Chapelle, 1997; Dunkel, 1991; Salaberry, 1996); and finally, the current
limitations of the technology itself (Holland, 1995; Warschauer, 1996). The
rapid technological advances of the 1980s have raised both the expectations and
the demands placed on the computer as a potential learning tool. Educators and
second language acquisition (SLA) researchers alike are now demanding
intelligent, user-adaptive CALL systems that offer not only sophisticated
diagnostic tools, but also effective feedback mechanisms capable of focusing
the learner on areas that need remedial practice. As Warschauer puts it, a
computerized language teacher should be able to understand a user’s spoken
input and evaluate it not just for correctness but also for appropriateness. It
should be able to diagnose a student’s problems with pronunciation, syntax, or
usage, and then intelligently decide among a range of options (e.g., repeating,
paraphrasing, slowing down, correcting, or directing the student to background
explanations). (Warschauer, 1996, p. 6)
Salaberry
(1996) demands nothing short of a system capable of simulating the complex
socio-communicative competence of a live tutor–in other words, the linguistic
intelligence of a human–only to conclude that the attempt to create an
“intelligent language tutoring system is a fallacy” (p. 11). Because
speech technology isn’t perfect, it is of no use at all. If it “cannot
account for the full complexity of human language,” why even bother
modeling more constrained aspects of language use (Higgins, 1988, p. vii)? This
sort of all-or-nothing reasoning seems symptomatic of much of the latest
pedagogical literature on CALL. The quest for a theoretical grounding of CALL
system design and evaluation (Chapelle, 1997) tends to lead to exaggerated
expectations as to what the technology ought to accomplish. When combined with
little or no knowledge of the underlying technology, the inevitable result is disappointment.
- STATEMENT
OF PROBLEM
Owing to:
- The difficulties people face during learning.
- The vast scope of English language.
- Inability of some people to understand English language pronunciation.
- Improper ways of enlightening people on English language.
- Lack of conducive environment for learning.
- Time wasted in impacting English language knowledge to the people.
The need arise for the development of software for computerized Word Guessing Game on English language in order to solve these problems.
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF COMPUTERIZED WORD GUESSING GAME CASE STUDY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE
