(1999/03/04~)
(A minor modification of this paper appeared in 1997 in On-CALL 11, 3: 40-45.)
Yoshinori Sasaki
University of New South Wales
Vocabulary learning is often a time-consuming and painfully tedious process for classroom foreign language learners. Implementing repetitive practices in the context of a game can convert the pain of rote memorization into a fun, and HI TECH's Word Bingo, along with their several other vocabulary-learning software products, intends to achieve that objective.
Word Bingo is most suitable for reinforcing pair-association (string-string; string-picture). Evidently, establishing associations between visual representation (orthography), sound and meaning is an important and time-consuming subcomponent of foreign language learning.
On the other hand, mastery of a language, vocabulary included, also entails building an intricate network between forms and functions (semantics; pragmatics) beyond sheer pair-associations (Harrington, 199x; Imai & Gentner, 1997). Internalizing such intricacies of vocabulary as a system surpasses the scope of the software, perhaps in favor of such hypertext-oriented products as SemNet and StorySpace).
HI TECH of Santa Cruz
URL: http://www.teachertools.com
202 Pelton Ave., Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Phone:408-425-5654 ; Sales:800-336-2558 ; Fax: 408-425-8041
E-mail: hitech@teachertools.com
Reviewed Version:
Word Bingo (editor) package and Word Bingo Player (browser) package are separately sold. Each comes on a high-density floppy disk.
Word Bingo package comes with a 10-page primer, and Word Bingo Player (Bingo Player in the subsequent passage) package comes with a 6-page primer. Each accompanies a Sample Bingo of approximately 100K. No on-line help is available.
PowerPC-native version is not available.
Macintosh and Apple II (no PC version has been developed).
Word Bingo's installer-driven installation procedure is standard and straight-forward. The total number of installations (Install count) is automatically recorded on the disk, to prevent unorthorized copies. The installer can also remove the software to regain Install count, so that the software can be installed on a different station. The package's serial number must be typed in the registration window to run the software for the first time.
Bingo Player's installation is a simple drag-and-drop procedure, and no copy-protection measures are taken.
Word Bingo provides a development tool of bingo games. Namely, a learner will be presented a bingo matrix of 25 (= 5 x 5) cells, each containing either a letter string (word/phrase) or a picture. When a bingo game file contains more than 25 pairs, only 25 of them will be chosen either deliberately or randomly. On the other hand, in case a bingo game file contains less than 25 Clue-Answer pairs, it is recommendable to create Free Spaces (i.e., give-away cells) so that the total number of cells adds up to 25, to avoid unexpected outcomes (see below for more detail).
There are two possible game-playing modes: paper-based vs. on-line. In the paper-based mode, a hardcopy of a bingo matrix sheet generated by Word Bingo will be given to each learner. An instructor can read aloud a list of the hints printed on a sheet of paper, which, again, Word Bingo provides. Alternatively, a computer can display hint items one by one in a random order, which a teacher can read aloud.
In the on-line mode, a bingo game file developed with Word Bingo will be loaded onto a Bingo Player screen. A hint can be either a string or a picture. Word Bingo can optionally generate synthesized voice of a given letter string (Speak clue) which is presented to a learner together with the visual image of a string. In response to a hint, a learner will mouse-click on a pertinent matrix cell. Clues (letter string) appear one by one in a small Clue window beside the bingo matrix, and a learner is required to click on a cell which corresponds to the clue. Only when a correct choice is made, a round "marker" appears on the cell.
It is possible to print as many as four matrices on a sheet of paper, which can be played concurrently. On the other hand in the online mode, a standard-size monitor can accommodate no more than one bingo screen, unless one is stacked over another.
It is possible to play a bingo game over the network. Namely, Bingo Player on more than one station can load and run a bingo game on a server concurrently.
Furthermore, supposedly learners on the network can compete with each other in playing the same bingo game (Network Play), whereas this reviewer has yet to successfully make this happen in his Mac Lab's local-area network. According to the Word Bingo Player primer, all the participants will play a game under the same rule, even though each sees a different bingo matrix and hints which are randomly chosen. A competition will be terminated when one of the competitors satisfies the winning condition. In that event all other players will be "locked out" of the game.
The operation and authoring procedures of Word Bingo is easy to learn. Perhaps thirty minutes of self-study would be enough for a mildly Mac-literate language teacher to start creating her first bingo game. It may take somewhat longer to master the details of all the software's features.
Word Bingo and Bingo Player on their own cannot display WorldScript, despite the fact that WorldScript fonts may appear in the font selection menu; rectifying it would require an installation of a third-party utility such as Font Patchin' (click here to download it) in the control panel, to override the application's font display setting at the system level. Even in that event, only the former half of the typed WorldScript letter string shows up in a matrix cell: For example, if a word consisting of 6 Japanese characters is typed in, only the first 3 characters will appear. To display the latter half, it is necessary to type 6 more characters after that (perhaps blank spaces).
The primary function of Word Bingo is creating pairs of Clues and Answers, a core of a bingo file (Figure 1). An Answer item can be either a letter string or a picture, whereas a Clue item must be a string. Letters can be directly typed and pictures are pasted in an entry field. In addition, it is possible to import a text file consisting of pairs of strings, each representing a Clue and an Answer. An author can choose the font, style and size of each string.
The authoring software Word Bingo does not provide an emulation mode of the Bingo Player (such emulation is a common feature in many instructional system authoring tools such as Digital Chisel, Question Mark and Libra): To see what a certain bingo game looks like to learners' eyes, it is necessary to save the game on a disk and open it with a Bingo Player, which requires additional operational steps.
Bingo Player is needed to load a bingo file only when a game is played on-line (Figure 2).
The game-over condition is specified with the Bingo Player. Namely, the game is terminated when one of the following conditions is met, depending on the setting in the Option window:
or
or
Bingo Player also allows a user to specify such parameters as:
just to name a few.
These condition parameters are attributes of a session, not a game file: Namely, the settings can be arranged after a game file is loaded, and those settings cannot be saved. Each learner can choose the condition of a game session when s/he plays it.
When two or more learners compete with each other over the network, the condition parameters chosen by the user who has first accessed the bingo game file will be imposed on all other game participants.
Bingo Player can produce a printout of a game result, but it cannot be saved on the harddisk as a file.
Word Bingo, of course, can generate practices of words as well as characters (e.g., reading of Chinese characters, word strings (e.g., proverbs) and various other levels of language components.
Both Word Bingo and Bingo Player provide user-friendly interface. In particular, the metallic non-cluttered screen design of Bingo Player represents functional elegance and simplicity. On the other hand, the dark gray background color of Player sometimes requires efforts to read characters (in black) on the buttons. Moreover, the font sizes in the Bingo Player screen are too small, causing strains on eyes.
Also, it may take several seconds or more after clicking on a button before a resultant effect takes place over the network (e.g., "Network Play connect"). During that period in the absence of visible change on the screen, a user tends to feel nervous whether her/his operation has been in effect. Whereas such a delay as a function of network speed and traffic could be inevitable, a user would feel reassured if the screen shows an immediate change (e.g., button blink) upon mouse click.
Colors of some Word Bingo buttons (e.g., in Bingo Caller window) are faint: They are so faint that it is not easy at a glance to tell whether the button is currently dimmed and inactive.
In comparison with some other courseware-authoring tools, Word Bingo leaves a lot of choices to the learner (e.g., interval between hints; condition to win the game): Accordingly an author/teacher has lesser control over learners' activities. This can provide strengths as well as limitations of the resultant courseware.
Moreover, when a bingo file contains more than 25 Clue-Answer pairs, only 25 cells will be presented on the bingo matrix. Nevertheless, other Clues (those of pairs not in the matrix) can be called. In other words, in response to certain Clues it is the right action not to choose any of the choices. Teachers may and may not consider this suitable to their instructional strategy. It would have been convenient if an author of a bingo game file was allowed to choose either condition as its default setting.
Part of terminology is tricky: A game file contains a series of Clue-Answer pairs, in addition to some parameters (e.g., text font, size and style; positon of Free Spaces). An Answer item can be either a letter string or a picture, whereas a Clue item must be a letter string. In the default setting a Clue appears in the "Clue window" as hints and Answers are displayed each in a bingo cell as choices. Given these explanations, it sounds as if a learner can only practice string -> string and string -> picture associations, but not picture -> string.
In reality, it is possible for a learner to reverse the setting in Bingo Player's Option window so that an item in the "Answer" list appears in the Clue window as hints, and "Clues" are presented in matrix cells as choices. In this scenario, a learner can practice picture -> string associations as well. Given that Clues and Answers are interchangeable with respect to the display location, it would be less confusing to avoid such misleading terms (Clue vs. Answer) and instead call them in a neutral manner (e.g., items 1a-1b, 2a-2b, 3a-3b, ....).
Computer-synthesized reading of text (Speak clue) is a cute feature, but the resultant robotic low-keyed voice ("Fred") hardly provides an L2 learner's ideal speech model. It cannot be changed to a milder voice (e.g., "Victoria") within the application. Furthermore, the Speak clue function is useless when non-English word strings are presented. Therefore, it will be convenient if recorded digital sound can be incorporated. Also, there should be an option of switching-off letter string presentation, so that a learner can concentrate on processing the auditory cue.
When pictures are incorporated in a game, the bingo file will absorb the whole graphic information in it. Whereas this all-in-one approach simplifies the process of transporting courseware from one station to another, a picture-rich bingo file can be fairly large. It would be storage-efficient to provide an option of calling an external graphic file to display it, rather than absorbing it. This will make it easy to recyle ready-made art resources (e.g.,. Corel Gallery) in more than one bingo file.
An anomaly has been identified which merits attention: From time to time after a picture is presented in the Clue Window, Bingo Player fails to renew it with a next hint word (namely, the old picture remains in the Clue window when it ought to be replaced by a string). This glitch has been observed only when Speak clue is turned on.
There is another minor hole in the software. When a player inadvertently starts a bingo game which is impossible to win (e.g., a game with less than 5 Clue-Answer pairs is loaded on a Bingo Player screen and a game is started with a premise that a player has to get 5 answers in row to win), a player can no longer terminate the once-started game on her own: There is no way to escape this deadend, unless s/he resorts to the "force quit" trick to quit the application.
Given the fact that Word Bingo is amenable to practicing discrete language component such as vocabulary and characters, developing curriculum-based activities (e.g., exercise of new vocabulary items) is easy and straightforward. It can be used as a warm-up and/or an ice-breaking activity in class, as well as a review/preview material during a self-access lab time.
Apart from a few minor issues as have been outlined, Word Bingo's flexible functions together with an elegant interface and affordable prices collectively make it very attractive educational software.
It is surprising that this product has not been as widely recognized among the foreign language educator community, perhaps partly because the developer's primary target is the elementary school market. Irrespective of such a historical coincidence, Word Bingo and Bingo Player will provide a useful addition to a foreign language teacher's software arsenal.
I thank Michael Harrington (University of Queensland), Harumi Hayakawa (University of Sydney) and David Summer (HI TECH of Santa Cruz) for comments on an earlier version of this review. All remaining errors are mine.
Harrington, M. (199x). xxxx
Imai, M . & Gentner, D. (1997). A crosslinguistic study of early word meaning: universal ontology and linguistic influence. Cognition, 62, 169-200.
Dr. Yoshinori Sasaki is a Lecturer of Japanese Language Communication and Culture courses at the School of Asian Business and Language Studies at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. He also oversees the School's Multimedia Language Resource Center.
Mailing address:
University of New South Wales
School of Asian Business & Language Studies
Faculty of Commerce and Economics
Sydney, 2052 NSW Australia
E-mail: sasac99@geocities.com
Phone: +61(2) 9385-5884
Fax: +61(2) 9313-6775
Last updated on 1997/12/13
(Y/M/D)
This is a staff member's personal home page and does not represent the opinions of the University of New South Wales.