LingoTeach Documentation

Marcus von Appen
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Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
Resources
Installing LingoTeach
Dependencies
Binary packages
Building from source
Using CVS
Additional software
Getting started
Configuring LingoTeach
General preferences
Learning preferences
Training preferences
Editor preferences
Using LingoTeach
Creating a new learn session
Loading a learn session from disk
Working with learn sessions
Training mode
Printing
Export of meanings
Using plugins
Using the LingoTeach editor
Editing lesson
Editing meanings
Creating new lessons

Preface

This documentation gives an overview about the LingoTeach language teaching application and explains how to install, configure and use it. It is meant to be an introduction into LingoTeach.

Whenever this document talks about "LingoTeach", it actually refers to the user application, which is shipped with the lingoteach-ui package. The "LingoTeach Project instead refers to the whole project.

Introduction

LingoTeach was originally introduced in 1999 as a java-based application, but then was rewritten using C and Gtk. At the moment (March 2005) it is still based on C and uses the GTK+ toolkit version 2 as widget set for its default user interface.

LingoTeach's backend, LibLingoTeach, uses an own type definition for the lessons, LingoTeach can use. Though the free language teaching projects out there do not interact very well with each other due to the lack of a common standard, LingoTeach tries to help out with its own format and a library, any other language teaching application can use.

LingoTeach and its main components (LibLingoteach and the 'official' lesson and sound packages) are all free software. They are released under the terms of the GPL and BSD license.

Resources

If you are looking for more information about the LingoTeach project, you should take a look at the resources in this list:

Installing LingoTeach

The following section describes the process to install and run LingoTeach.

Dependencies

You will need the following dependencies before you can install LingoTeach or one of its necessary components:

  • libXML2

  • liblingoteach

  • [GTK+ version 2.x]

Please refer to the documentation of the respective package about how to install it.

Binary packages

The LingoTeach project team does not officially offer binary packages. However, it will link user made packages, if there are no equivalents for that specific opaerting system or distribution. It is recommended that you check those first, if they provide those packages.

You can check the LingoTeach download page for third party binary packages, if you do not have any official binary package from your vendor or for your distribution. You also can build and install LingoTeach from source.

Building from source

After donwloading the component packages from the LingoTeach website and unpacking their contents, it is quite simple to build and install them. While being in the top source directory, just type:

./configure && make && make install

The packages can have some special extra configuration options, so assure, that you read either the README file shipped with the package or look at the output of ./configure --help.

The components depend on pkg-config, liblingoteach additionally on libxml2 and lingoteach-ui optionally on GTK+ >= 2.6.0.

Using CVS

Using the latest development sources is possible via CVS.

You can get information about how to use the Sourceforge CVS repository from the LingoTeach CVS page.

Warning

Keep in mind that using the development sources can cause higher risks to your environment than the usual releases can do. Thus it is highly recommended, that you subscribe yourself to the lingoteach-translation mailing list, where actual development ist discussed.

Additional software

The LingoTeach project offers some additional software packages, which enhace LingoTeach by adding new lessons and sound files. Those can be downloaded at the LingoTeach project website.

Getting started

To start LingoTeach, simply type the command

lingoteach

in your shell and execute it. Assuming that you configured and installed LingoTeach with Gtk2, the graphical user interface of LingoTeach will start now.

Important

If you changed the installation prefix to be somewhat not included in your $PATH environment variable, you have to input the complete path to the lingoteach executable.

Shows the LingoTeach application after the first start.

Figure 1. LingoTeach after the first start

Configuring LingoTeach

The following section will deal with the configuration options you can adjust in LingoTeach to fit the application to your needs. As you can see in Figure 1, “LingoTeach after the first start”, you will be noted to set the preferences first. Simply click on that button or use the Preferences entry of the Edit menu.

Note

If you are coming from a prior version, it is recommended, that you read the UPDATING section of the README file shipped with the lingoteach-ui package.

General preferences

Shows the general preferences for LingoTeach.

Figure 2. General preferences

Soundpath

The path to look for sound snippets.

Example 1. Sound path adjustment

If you installed LingoTeach to the prefix /usr/local, you usually will find its data files in /usr/local/share/lingoteach/data. If you install the lingoteach-sound package now to the prefix /usr/local, the sound files will be installed to /usr/local/share/lingoteach/data, too. Thus your path for the sound files would resolve to /usr/local/share/lingoteach/data.

Sound player

The sound player to use for playing the sound snippets. The player can take additional arguments as shown in Figure 2, “General preferences”.

Web browser

The web browser to use for various operations within the application (e.g. displaying this help). The setting can take additional arguments, too.

Learning preferences

Shows the learning preferences for LingoTeach.

Figure 3. Learning preferences

Words to learn

The default amount of meanings to learn in a session. This is a default value, which can be overriden within the learn session wizard.

Enable hints

This toggle enables or disables the display of addtional descriptions and images within a session. This is a default value, which can be overriden within the learn session wizard.

Access method

What kind of access method should be used for fetching the meanings from a lesson.

Default languages to use

The languages used by that session. There are two possibilities for each language:

Use: Treat the language as one you want to learn. The translations would be dispayed in the bottom of the learn session.
Learn from: Treat the language as the one you want to learn from. The meaning of that language will be displayed at the top of the learn session.

Training preferences

Shows the training preferences for LingoTeach.

Figure 4. Training preferences

Words to test

The default amount of meanings to test for in a session. This is a default value, which can be overriden within the train session wizard.

Enable hints

This toggle enables or disables the display of addtional descriptions and images in a session. This is a default value, which can be overriden within the train session wizard.

Access method

What kind of access method should be used for fetching the meanings from a lesson.

Default languages to use

The languages used by that session. There are two possibilities for each language:

Use: Treat the language as one you want to test yourself in. The translations would be dispayed in the bottom of the train session.
Train with: Treat the language as the one you want to train from. The meaning of that language will be displayed at the top of the train session.

Editor preferences

Shows the editor preferences for LingoTeach.

Figure 5. Editor preferences

Editor language

The main language to use for the language translations can be adjusted here. This setting will influence the translation of the meaning languages in the editor.

Using LingoTeach

Creating a new learn session

By selecting New from the Lingoteach menu you can create a new learn session.

Shows the "New Session" dialog.

Figure 6. Creating a new learn session

After selecting the New learn session item and clicking on OK, a wizard dialog will start and guide you through the process of setting up a new learn session.

Note

Read the dialogs of the wizard carefully. All of them are self-explanatory. If you made a wrong selection in one of them, you can go back anytime to a previous step.

Loading a learn session from disk

By choosing Open from the LingoTeach menu, you can choose to open an existing learn session.

Shows the "Open Session" dialog.

Figure 7. Open a new learn session

After selecting the Open learn session item and clicking on OK, you can select a previously saved learn session file from disk.

Working with learn sessions

The learn sessions of LingoTeach are - as the name already says - used for learning languages. The following paragraphs will cover the things you can do while being in a learn session.

Shows a learn session.

Figure 8. A learn session

After you set up your learn session using the friendly wizard, you will have several possibilities within that learn session. First of all you can step through the meanings using the Next and Previous buttons in the lower right corner (4). The Cancel button lets you abort (and optionally save) the session. The topmost section (1) displays the meaning in the language you selected to learn from. Below that (2) you might find more details about that meaning, if you enabled the checkbox at the last page of the wizard. The last part of the learn session is the translation section (3). Here you will find the translations for the languages you selected to learn. By double clicking on one of the translation rows, you can play the sound for that translation (if installed and available).

Training mode

Currently not implemented.

Printing

Currently not implemented.

Export of meanings

Currently not implemented.

Using plugins

LingoTeach has an interface to load and use plugins.

Shows the plugin preferences.

Figure 9. Plugin preferences

Using the LingoTeach editor

Editing lesson

Editing meanings

Creating new lessons