(Guest Review)
Review of English
Hero,
Texthelp's English Language Learning software
By Chris
Pim, Independent ICT & EAL Consultant
Following
the release of English Hero, Texthelp’s latest version of its English Language
Learning suite of tools, this article considers what makes this product stand
out from the crowd.
The name English Hero
conjures up the image of the archetypal ‘knight in shining armour’,
metaphorically ready to defend learners in their skirmishes with this ‘new’
language. Hinting at cultural tradition and the very roots of English, this
simple notion will appeal both to international students coming to live in the
UK or those living abroad, studying English as foreign language
(EFL).
English
Hero comprises a set of access tools
situated on a floating toolbar that seamlessly integrates with applications such
as Microsoft Office and common web browsers. The software is easy to
install and upon opening I was immediately impressed by the simple interface,
with clear icons and simple explanatory words that pop-up as a user hovers their
mouse over the toolbar.
One of the main strengths of
English Hero is its flexibility and ease of use. The toolbar is
unobtrusive, floating above a working document or docked to the sides of the
screen, a click away from a range of tools that variously support speaking,
listening, reading and writing. Each tool has its own individual merits;
consequently certain tools will have more relevance than others depending upon
the context for learning and the individual language needs of the user.
What English Hero does
well is to move English language learners beyond acquisition of social and
conversational language into more academic realms. The tools can open up texts
for learners whose speaking and listening skills tend to naturally precede
reading and writing. There are a range of supports for emergent writers as well
as those getting to grips with grammar. Teachers will also appreciate the ease
with which they can produce learning materials for their
students.
One of the most significant
features in English Hero is the ‘text-to-speech’ feature which
allows a learner to listen to a text read aloud in a natural sounding voice. The
clever software can read at a customisable pace and even makes allowance for
punctuation. A user can select from a range of voices, both male and female, as
well as those with accents from other English speaking countries such as
Australia and USA. For those wishing to improve pronunciation, perhaps one of
the last linguistic features to be mastered, students can employ the
Pronunciation Tutor, which does a good job of orally showing where the
phonetic stress within words needs to be placed.
Students (or teachers) can use
the Speech Maker feature to select a body of text and create an audio
file that can be played back at a later time. This is particularly useful for
21st century learners, constantly on the move, who have access to a
range of mobile technologies like phones, mp3 players and tablet devices. It
also has resonance for the notion of ‘flipped learning’ where students can
internalise content and academic language prior to a more formalised teaching
session.
Whilst reading, or perhaps
listening to a text, a student has access to a full Dictionary that not
only provides a clear definition but places the word into a contextualised
sentence, which aids understanding. There is also a Picture Dictionary
containing thousands of pictographic images that help to convey meaning in a
more instantly accessible way. A user can use the Highlight tool to
select individual words and passages of text and then click the Collect
Highlights icon. This pastes the text into a new document, along with a
reference, which is extremely useful for research purposes. Using a similar
approach, a teacher can collect individual words and then click the
Vocabulary tool to create a revision worksheet containing the words,
their corresponding images and a notes column that could, for example, be used
to write a translation in a stronger first language.
When it comes to writing there
are several tools that can unshackle students from the problem of drafting work
that contains a demoralising number of errors, enabling them to tackle the more
important aspect of learning how to write cohesively. There is a comprehensive
Spell Check that can be used as a student types or employed later, after
the initial drafting phase. The Prediction tool is incredibly useful as
it brings up a list of potential words as a user types. They can then click
their intended word from the list and enter it directly into their text,
avoiding the worry of spelling it correctly. The Sounds Like and Confusable
Words tool helps students with homophones and homonyms, for example the
typical confusion between ‘they’re, there and their’. Finally the Verb
Checker allows a student to feel more confident about maintaining tense
throughout their writing.
English Hero
doesn’t purport to teach English in the
traditional sense. What it does well, is to provide a range of tools to support
student’s developing use of language across the curriculum. Whether for just one
student or perhaps implemented on a site licence basis, institutions finally
have an innovative product that can genuinely meet the individual needs of their
English language learners.
