The various language-training programs used at SUPINFO were conceived by teachers and pedagogues having a solid background in language training, both in class and from a distance.. The courses and activities (Dialogue, Video, Grammar Explanations, Idioms, Cultural Aspects, Words and functions, Words and thèmes... etc) are organized progressively and are classified at the same time according to their pedagogical interest and to their level of difficulty. At the beginning of the academic year, all SUPINFO students receive a microphone/headset which connects to their portable computers and the students must pass - on line- a placement test in the selected languages (English is obligatory). They keep the microphone/headset to work with for the rest of the year.
"With just an Internet connection, it is possible to practice a language
at any time of the day, doing both written and spoken exercises,
all the while being able to contact an on-line teacher for any needed help"
According to the results of this placement test, the student’s level can be identified and the teacher can then offer the student a personalized training program adapted to his level. Students may then work, at any moment of the day or night, from within the school, at home or on holiday, by simply clicking on the training scheme chosen for him by the teacher and by using a simple access to the Internet. The student remains in permanent liaison with the school and his teacher, to which he can send e-mail questions whenever necessary. The teacher can follow the progress of the student for each activity suggested and guide or encourage him in order to help him progress.
The dialog activities inherent in the system allow the student to work mainly on oral comprehension and expression. This is the central activity of the course. Indeed, all the activities of the course relate to the vocabulary and the grammar points used in the dialogues. The Dialogue activities use videos, conversations and voice recognition to make it possible for the SUPINFO students to practice their chosen languages. The "know more about a word" button gives the student access to a translation of the word as well as its pronunciation, or, if it is a verb, to an explanation of how to conjugate it.
The Pronunciation activities are linked to the sentences in the dialogues. The student’s pronunciation is evaluated thanks to the voice recognition technology which uses graphs and curves to allow the student to visualize the rhythm and intonation of the sentence. It is possible to listen to a recording of model or of one’s own pronunciation. Each attempt is evaluated and a score between 1 and 7 is given to the student. The suggested phonetics exercises make it possible to work on one’s pronunciation more precisely. Using animations in 3D, it is possible to visualize the intonation being worked on.
In the Exercises section, the SUPINFO student constantly has the possibility of correcting his work by clicking on the button "Correction". With the button "Preceding Exercise", he can go back to consult the points which were dealt with in the preceding exercise or re-do the exercise to improve his score. A link to Grammar Explanations is available in a great number of exercises and makes it possible to consult the point of grammar dealt with in the exercise. One can thus refer to the grammatical rule applied in the activity, as well as find applicable examples of the grammar point in question.
In the Cultural Dossiers section, the SUPINFO student has the choice between a general summary of the document or of seeing the complete text. The button "Translation" makes it possible for the SUPINFO student to see a translation of the texts, scripts and the titles (if the teacher has chosen to give him ready access to the translation button). It is available in the activities Dialog, Video, Explanations of grammar, Lexicon, Cultural forms, Words and functions, Words and topics... At any time, from the small arrow at the top right of his screen, the student can access to various resources and functionnalities like grammar explanations, conjugation tool, cultural forms, lexicon, but also tools to communicate with the teacher, helps on the current screen, parameters and printing. All the linguistic activities chosen by SUPINFO in the Auralog Tell Me More system can indeed be printed out to make it possible for the student to continue his work off-line. Students can print out the vocabulary lists, the grammar points to be re-examined or even the cultural dossiers about the country in which the student might even find himself as a part of his educational training.