A-TOFL iBT5, build your vocabulary
This task aims at making you familiar with Clicktionary as well as able to manipulate its features to support your English learning. First your will learn about downloading, installing and configuring the software, then you will practice using the software to store up your personal vocabulary list. You will then have a good time with the trainer while he give you game-based lessons from your own word list. In the last section, you will write report about advantages and disadvantages of Clicktionary.
As test takers, we all know that we should never pay attention to unknown vocabulary items. Also, we all agree that we do not need to know all the new words in order to answer the questions correctly. However, as a learner, it is a completely different thing. A good learner of English must take even the lightest chance to jot down, figure out the meaning and the use of any new word (s)he may come across, and then try to use it in practice. In order to keep this useful habit, we can either do it traditionally with a notebook and pencil, or technically with a handy software on computer. In this particular class, we will make friends with a software entitled Clicktionary.
First, let's see what you will be able to do after this lesson.
The aims of this assignment
- Critically evaluate Clicktionary to see if it suits your learning style
The tasks
- Install and customizing Clicktionary
- Use Clicktionary in language learning
- Evaluate the software
Further instructions can be found in the next section
Process
Stage 1: WARM UP and FORM GROUPS
[5 minutes]Stage 2: DOWNLOAD and INSTALL Clicktionary
[5 minutes]Stage 3: CREATE an account, CUSTOMIZE and TESTING the software
[15 minutes]Stage 4: BUILD your personal vocabulary (PV)list and TEST portable feature
[15 minutes]Stage 5: LEARN the list
[15 minutes]Stage 6: EVALUATE the softwawre
[30 minutes]
- Make groups of 2 students.
- Decide who will do the timing for each stage
- Decide who will take notes during the task (to make the final evaluation).
The official homepage for Clicktionary can be found at http://cleverlearn.com, but you do not have to go through the website. To save time, the files are already downloaded and put in "H:\Clicktionary".
Double click on the "clxen.exe" and follow instructions to install the main dictionary. After that, do the same procedures to install "UNK_GEN_EN_VI_1.exe", the E-V dictionary.
In the worst case, here are the links to to software:
- English dictionary
- English - Vietnamese dictionary add-on (required for training your vocabulary)
To use all of the software's functions, you need to create an account
- Open Clicktionary by a double click on the icon in the system tray. Now look at the top right section: you will see that "You are not logged in". Click on it, then click "Create an account". A new page will be opened in your browser; fill the form to make an account of your own.
- To activate your account, open the email that you have filled in the form and click on the activation link (you can do this later on)
- To log in, go back to Clicktionary window, enter your email and password and click 'Log in"
Customize buttons
By default, the Clicktionary uses the right mouse button for translating words while working with Microsoft applications. A single click on the icon in the system tray will deactivate (disable auto lookup); if you want to activate it, click on the icon again.
To customize the button, right click on the icon in the system tray and select 'Settings", then in the "Mouse setup" you can choose:
- Right Mouse Button (default)
- Middle Mouse Button (What is it?!!)
- Right Mouse Button with 1 second delay
- Shift + Right Mouse Button (Recommended)
Test Clicktionary
After select the suitable option, click 'Apply' and start testing the software. To do so, go to a newspaper in English, such as VOA news, open one of the headlines and read the article. When you need to look up, use the mouse buttons that has been selected above to open Clicktionary (If you find your buttons not very convenient, you can always come back to settings and choose another option).
In reality, we usually skim to get the main ideas and skip new vocabularies of any reading documents, then we go back to look them up in a dictionary. In this task, because we do not have enough time for skimming, we will look up any new words in the documents by using Clicktionary
Clicktionary works well with a large number of softwares (MS Office softwares...), web browsers (IE, Firefox...), readers (acrobat reader, foxit reader...). Now you open the document that is most challenging to you; when you find a new word, look it up immediately. In the pop window, look for the button 'Learn' on the right: when you click this button, that word will be added to your list. When you accumulate more than 30 words, go on to the next step. (To check your word list, open the software and click on PV button)
Portable feature
Your PV is actually stored on the Internet, so you can virtually bring the PV list with you everywhere you go. To do so, you need to log out and log in on a different computer.
- Right click on the icon in the system tray, select 'Synchronize' (This is done automatically over a certain period of time).
- Open Clicktionary window, go to "User" and select "Log out..."
- Exchange computers with a different group
- Log in with your email, Synchronize again, then go to "PV" to see if your PV is there
- Open Clicktionary windows and click on 'Trainer'
- If trainer has not been downloaded, click on the download button
- When the download process is completed, you will have 4 choices: Flip cards, Who want to be clever, Cleverman, and Idiom game
- Open "Who want to be clever", Choose "Tieng Vi", "Next", "Next" to go to the trainer screen. Let see who can claim the highest score.
Open notepad to write a 200-word essay to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Clicktionary. Do you think it is useful? Why?
When you finish, refresh this page. Use the comment function to submit your essay. What you have to do is to enter your names in 'Your name', copy and paste the essay into 'Your comment', and finally type the security code into 'Security code'.
Evaluation
| Unacceptable | Acceptable | Exemplary |
|---|---|---|---|
Participation | Did not engage in individual or group work. Made no contribution to the group project | Complete each individual task that lead to the completion of the group project. Participate in the group discussion. | Complete individual tasks and actively participate in the team project. Help coordinate among team members to complete the group team. |
Time | Did not complete the assigned tasks on time. Significantly slower than other group. | Take only slightly longer than assigned time. | Finish the tasks on time. |
Quality of the written report. | Did not use the sources. Most of the concepts are not accurate. | Use the resources and most concepts are accurate. | Use and cite the resources. All the concepts are accurate. |
Conclusion
- Peer correction and feedback
- Teacher's feedback
Good luck, and success!
