Software simplifies learning a language
Michael Everson, 56
Associate professor of foreign language education
University of Iowa
The Chinese language requires knowledge of 2,000 characters for limited literacy and 3,500 for functional literacy, says Michael Everson, a professor of foreign language education at the University of Iowa.
And the highly respected Chinese language education expert doesn’t have them all memorized.
“The Chinese language is not an alphabet. There’s no way for people to look at a character and be able to pronounce it,” Everson said. “You just have to do brute-force memorization to learn the language.”
So Everson and his students turn to computer software that has revolutionized the way language is taught. “We’re no longer emphasizing drilling and textbook-based grammar exercises in language education,” he said.
Instead, educators are utilizing tools like the Clavis Sinica software, which is available for download for $45 at www.clavisinica.com (a demo is free).
Clavis Sinica is a dictionary program that accepts Chinese text copied from the Internet or other software.
“When the text is in Clavis, I can point to and click on the characters I don’t know, and the program will tell me what it means,” Everson said.
Not only that, it offers a pronunciation guide as well as audibly pronouncing the character, simultaneously helping the reader with the two most important aspects of language: meaning and pronunciation.
Everson also overlays his Microsoft Word software with a program called Chinese Partner from California-based Twin Bridge Software Corp., which allows him to create word-processing documents in Chinese.
Chinese Partner uses a process Everson calls “Romanization,” which is the process of writing Chinese using Roman (English) letters. Spelling out the pronunciation of a Chinese character in English triggers a pop-up menu listing the Chinese characters that match the pronunciation.
It sells for about $130 at www.twinbridge.com.
Everson also said the U.S. government-backed LangNet Web site (www.langnet.org) is a collection of language-learning resources, including materials for studying Chinese, Spanish, Arabic and Hindi.
What got Everson, who grew up in Oak Park, so interested in Chinese?
His father, who brought back memorabilia from Japan after serving in World War II, was responsible for his early interest in Asian languages. And Chicago’s Chinatown was responsible for making it a lifelong passion.
“When I was about 12, I would navigate the `L’ and city buses by myself to Chinatown. I would just go there to walk around,” he said. “The interest children develop early in life often turn into things they carry with them their whole lives.”
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