CALICO Software Review. Portuguese Now: Transparent Language Reviewer: Mikle D. Ledgerwood State University of New York at Stony Brook

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1 CALICO Software Review CALICO Journal, Volume 17 Number 1, pp Portuguese Now: Transparent Language 1.01 Reviewer: Mikle D. Ledgerwood State University of New York at Stony Brook Product at a Glance Product Type: General public (adult tourist or business person) Language: Portuguese Level: Advanced-Beginner/Intermediate Activities: Reading/Listening/Speaking Media format: 2 CD ROMs Computer Platforms: Windows: 3.xx/95; MacOS 7.1+ Documentation: Installation Guide; Self-Testing Booklet General Description Portuguese Now, produced by the Transparent Language company, is another program in the company's Language Now series which includes titles in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Latin, Russian, Swedish, Dutch, and English for Spanish speakers as well as Portuguese. As one of the titles in this series it resembles the rest of the titles and, in certain respects, reflects the whole series. Building upon its success in producing software aimed at the general public attempting to improve its reading knowledge of foreign languages, Transparent Language has tried with the Now series to expand to improving listening and speaking skills as well as reading. However, the interface of the program and much of its content shows clearly its reading-based heritage. This program is a welcome addition to the very few commercially-produced titles available for learning Portuguese. Although Portuguese is the world's seventh most commonly-spoken first language (more than French or German) with important commercial markets on three continents, it is still a less commonlytaught language and has a very reduced presence in the commercial language learning software market. As a result, almost any program produced for learning Portuguese must be greeted with pleasure. The two CD-ROMs in the Portuguese package are targeted at all levels and kinds of learner, although as a commercial program it is targeted at least as much (if not more) at the adult tourist or business person than at a traditional academic learner. Yet it would be safe to say that absolute beginners studying the language

2 would have difficulties using this program without any other instructional source, unless they were knowledgeable in Spanish, a language very closely related to Portuguese, (especially the written language). Nevertheless, for the advanced beginner up to the advanced intermediate there is a great deal of material in this program which can be successfully adapted for his or her needs. It contains over sixty pages (20,000) words of Portuguese, 150 minutes of native speaker pronunciation, including simple audio files as well as motion video sequences, slower sound production, and compare and contrast audio recording possibilities. Portuguese Now runs on most personal computers including Macintosh and various forms of Windows. The program includes a useful short printed installation guide which gives troubleshooting help as well as installation and navigation help. The set also has another printed booklet which contains selftesting material and a one page introduction to using the CD ROM material. In addition, the CD ROM has its own help screens and there is a web site with yet more help as well as the same testing material contained in the printed booklet. The two CD ROMs contain several separate programs which can all be accessed under the general rubric of Portuguese Now. They include 1) The Most Common Words in Portuguese, 2) Survival Phrases for Portuguese, 3) Portuguese Alphabet Reference, 4) Portuguese Grammar Pro 1.1 as well as two separate programs composed of written texts with accompanying images and sound, 5) Brazil and the Samba and 6) Rio de Janeiro. These programs also lead to activities and exercises including games such as scrambles, crosswords, and other fill-in-theblank matching as well as allow the user to record his or her own voice and compare a voiceprint of the recording with the master voiceprint. The bonus CD includes the Grammar Pro program mentioned above as well as two Windowsonly programs, Berlitz Interpreter Word Translator and Accent Multilingual Word Processor.

3 Evaluation Portuguese Now, like the other Transparent Language titles, has a long history of satisfying its users. Its success is so well known that one of the more traditional textbook publishers, (Houghton Mifflin) has decided to use the Transparent Language Now series as a template for its own CD ROM titles accompanying its textbooks. I liked a lot about this program. I liked most of the ideas behind the programs it included. The booklet with the program had good suggestions on which program to begin with and how to proceed from there. The on-line help with the program is heartily to be commended as well. It explains a great deal about all of the CD's programs, how to use them in a variety of ways and how to manage the interface. Perhaps the best part of the CD's help is where it explains to its users what types of approaches they can use to inform their learning in the Getting Started section. I especially liked the explanation of the immersion approach in contrast to other approaches. For the most part I found the material in the programs to be good and I found the level of language and accuracy of the language quite acceptable. Still, I did not

4 enjoy the program and found it a bit lacking in creativity. I also have very strong reservations about the amount of translation that most of its users will be forced to do to work with the program. Yet it is quite thorough in most respects and its users will be happy with that thoroughness. I would have no qualms assigning the program to my Portuguese students as an extra-curricular help. Indeed I plan to use this program that way the next time I teach the language. This is not to say that the program is without problems or irritations. First of all, as someone who uses Macintosh computers as often as Windows computers, I was a bit irritated that most of the programs on the bonus (second) CD were Windows-only. These were the Berlitz program and the Accent word processor program. Thus the bonus CD was much less of a bonus for Mac users than for Windows users and advertising (on the box and elsewhere) could reflect this difference. I decided to try the program on both of my home computers, one a Macintosh 6100 DOS with 40 MB of RAM and a 2x CD ROM drive running System 7.6.1, secondly on the Mac's 486 DOS card which has 16 MB of RAM and runs Windows 3.11 and thirdly on an upgraded Pentium 166 MMX with 48 MB of RAM, a 2x DVD ROM drive and a Sound Blaster AWE 64 audio card running Windows 95 OEM SR2. I also ran it on one work computer, a Macintosh G3 in one of my multimedia classrooms when I demonstrated the program to my graduate class in Technology and Education. I had no problems installing the program. However it users will likely need to install Microsoft's 32 bit drivers on their 3.1 machines. These drivers are on the CD-ROM and installed well on my DOS card. On the machines where I did install it, it usually ran well up to a point. It proved extremely reliable on the Macs, never crashing and performing well despite the age of the home machine. The sound in both listening and recording modes worked quite well and was clear. It also ran slowly, but reliably, on my 486 DOS card. However, the reading and viewing programs managed to crash my Pentium intermittently, usually when I was trying to move back and forth between the reading program and other activities such as games associated with the reading program. It also managed on two occasions to promote a conflict between my sound card and the program itself, causing Windows to bring up an error message. This was frustrating. My guess, though, is that the problems I had with my Wintel machine are idiosyncratic, if real. In addition I found the interface to be cumbersome at times and non-intuitive. I never did manage to find the words and phrases in the survival series easily. The index for this series was quite nice, but getting from the index to a particular topic was not a simple point and click activity as I expected. Instead I had to scroll down the screen to find the proper part of the survival phrases I wanted.

5 With the main or more advanced program, the screen becomes quite cluttered. There are so many windows open and so many controls for the windows that it is a challenge to figure out which window to read and which button to click on to get the sound byte desired. I disliked most of the recorded voices used on the CD. The speakers often sounded artificial and stilted, not at all the way native Portuguese speakers speak. I was also unimpressed by the screens in the grammar and survival programs with their old-fashioned small black text on white screens. Another problem the learner will encounter with this program is that it nearly ignores the fact that there are two rather different varieties of Portuguese: Continental or European Portuguese (spoken in Portugal, the Atlantic islands, in Continental emigrant communities all over the world, and, with some differences, in Africa) and Brazilian Portuguese. While the written and grammatical differences between Continental and Brazilian Portuguese are not that great, the phonetic and rhythmic differences are. Some listeners of the two types of Portuguese even believe they are hearing two separate languages. Yet this crucial difference is mentioned in one sentence in the exercise booklet only. Making matters worse, the main introductory program (the survival phrases) uses Continental Portuguese while the first survival word program and the two more advanced reading programs use Brazilian. Most of my Portuguese students are Continental in background and interest, for example.

6 Summary On the whole this program is a solid one (unless you experience the crashes I had with Windows) with a great amount of material that can be adapted by a wide variety of users. Users whose learning style emphasizes the written word and who like learning language via the grammar/translation method will likely be happiest with the program. Users looking for oral immersion will likely be the least satisfied. Grammar/translation learners will find all of the tools they need to approach the language in an organized way. With a built-in dictionary, grammar book, and grammatically- and lexically-based games and activities, they will be very pleased. On the other hand, oral immersion users will have to empty the more advanced programs' screens of grammar, translation, and notes windows, making for a very empty computer screen with small video windows and little in the way of a story. They will lack useful visual cues due to the small screen size in the video windows and the fact that the people in the video are not speaking themselves. Despite the reservations I have about the program I recommend it to all users above the level of rank beginner and believe that most users will be quite happy with the program. When I add in the factor that this program has few (if any!) competitors in Portuguese language learning, its purchase becomes even more compelling. Scaled Rating (1=low - 5=high) Pedagogical Features 4 Socio-linguistic accuracy 4 Use of computer capabilities 4

7 Technical performance (5 on Mac, 3 on my Wintel machine) Ease of use 3 Documentation 4 Value for Money 4 (5 when on mail sale) Overall 4 (5 when considering lack of competition) Technical Details Distributed by Transparent Language, Inc. 22 Proctor Hill Road P.O. Box 575 Hollis, NH info@transparent.com WWW: Media format: 2 CD ROMs, two booklets Hardware requirements: Windows: 3.1 or higher, Windows or better, 16 MB RAM minimum, 15 MB HD space (20 recommended), 2x CD ROM drive, sound card, speaker, VGA, 256 colors (microphone). Macintosh: System 7.1 or better, processor minimum, or Power Mac for video, 4 MB RAM free, 4.5 for Power Mac, 12 MB HD space (17 recommended), 256 color monitor, 2x CD ROM drive, (microphone). Price: List price on web site: $ Previous versions of Language Now have been advertised via mail as low as $39 or even less. Site license pricing available from web site. Reviewer Information Mikle D. Ledgerwood is Director of the Language Learning and Research Center as well as Assistant Professor of French and Technology and Education at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is affiliated or associated faculty with three other departments including Hispanic Languages and Literature for which he teaches elementary Portuguese. His research interests are in a variety of areas including technology for language learning and the semiotics of literature and textuality (including multimedia textuality). Reviewer Contact Prof. M.D. Ledgerwood N-5007 Library Univ. at Stony Brook Stony Brook, NY USA Phone: (516) (office with voice mail) Fax: (516) MLedgerwood@ccmail.sunysb.edu WWW: