Kolibri Education Student s Guide to English-Attack English-Attack is a video based and language integrated online learning platform based on film clips and games which help you to practice authentic language within its authentic context. Here s what the Welcome page looks like. You can easily access the contents of the other two main menus; the Photo Vocabulary menu and the Verb Dash Game screen by clicking on the icons in the left margin. On the tool bar at the top of the page, you can access the following three tabs: All Exercises- takes you back to the welcome screen My school- takes you to Assignments and Results Kolibri User- takes you to Couch, Dashboards, My Account and My Profile. ALL EXERCISES TAB SUB MENU 1- VIDEO BOOSTER Let s get to know the items on this menu. You can see; - The title of the continuously streamed Featured Video Booster - Short notes introducing the content of the featured videos - The language level (difficulty) - The key vocabulary from the video - The grammar focus. Whenever you see three dots on the screen, you can quickly add that video to your To Do List. You will find the explanations to the following quick links below: 1
1-a. In progress Icon: When you click on this icon, you can access all the video boosters you have been studying. You can also classify the video boosters into Started (for video clips you have just started studying), Practice More (for video clips on which you could improve your average score), or Learned (for video clips you have completed with an excellent score). This page also lets you sort the results into scores (High-Low-High) or Latest played. 1-b To Do: This icon displays video clips that you have added to your to do list. 1-c New Releases: This icon shows the weekly released video clips with their language levels, duration and titles. You can also check if the new releases have karaoke versions. 1-d Video Karaoke: In this submenu, you can access the movie, song and other vidoes featuring a video karaoke. You can practice the karaoke content with both an easy mode and expert mode according to whether you prefer to complete the easier or more difficult language tasks. 1-e Beginners Pack: This sub menu consists of a large archive of beginner (A1), elementary-easy (A2), intermediate (B1) and upper-intermediate (B2) video, music and movie clips 1-f Business Lounge: This sub menu consists of video clips with a wide range of language levels focusing on business. Moreover, some of these videos are presented in the karaoke version. version. 1-g Kids Corner: This sub menu mainly focuses on video clips that appeal to teenagers and younger learners, such as animations and cartoons as well as teen movies. In addition to its fun and entertaining content, some of the videos presented here are in the karaoke 2
1-h Serious Stuff: This sub menu focuses on more serious topics like politics, business, and global issues. Some of the videos presented here are in the karaoke version as well. 1-i Advanced Search: This icon helps you to find the most appropriate video booster content with well-designed search filters. On the Video Booster page, you can view all the video clips presented in English Attack classified by labels such as: Movies, TV Series, Music, News and Society and Leisure You can also see which video booster is in progress, added to the to do list and has an associated karaoke version. 2- PHOTO VOCABULARY The Photo Vocab page presents a thematic classification of all the albums and gives you the opportunity to directly select the theme and practice the related vocabulary items. The themes are Abstractions, Body and Health, Business and Education, Clothing and Fashion, Culture, Food and Drink, Hobbies and Technology, Nature, Places, Society, Sports, The House, Transportation and Travel. More than 5000 words are illustrated and practiced with various tasks under these themes. On the same page, there is a continuously streamed Featured Dictionary to help you with the new vocabulary that provides a quick link for you to add it to your to do list if you wish. The links on the Vocabulary main page function as: 2-a In Progress: When you click on this icon, you can access all the photo vocabulary albums you have been studying. You can also classify the photo vocabulary albums into Started (for albums you have just started studying), Practice More (for albums on which you could improve your average score), or Learned (for albums you have completed with an excellent score). 2-b To Do: The albums that you have added to your to do list are easy to locate, monitor and revise. 2-c Latest Dictionaries: As the photo vocabulary albums are continuously revised and new visual dictionaries are added, you can access the newest items with this icon. You can also quickly add these items to your to do list. 3
2-d Essentials: This icon presents the most commonly used and essential vocabulary items with their illustrations. These words are expected to be learned by English learners at basic level. 2-e UK: You can learn many culture-related vocabulary items that you come across and need to know when travelling to the UK. This is in fact the cultural aspect of learning a language. 2-f Advanced Search: This icon helps you to find the most appropriate Photo Vocabulary albums with well-designed search filters. 2. Activities The Photo Vocabulary menu has both basic and advanced level illustrated vocabulary. All vocabulary items are pronounced clearly for you to listen to. Each vocabulary item is categorized by; the type of expression, its definition and an example, where a clear example sentence is given. When all picture cards are revised, you can go on to play a fun game named Swap Mania. Swap Mania is a kind of game where you unscramble the target vocabulary of the album you have just studied. It gives instant feedback when you make a mistake. This is really good for improving your spelling. When you have completed all the activities, you can go on to the next game; Speed Pix. Speed Pix: This game focuses on the same vocabulary content studied and aims to revise the vocabulary items again. It has a fun, eye-catching design and you will love playing this game. Word Rescue: It is the final vocabulary practice activity. In this game, you are expected to type in the names of the illustrated vocabulary items. You can get instant feedback after each word is completed. When you complete all these activities, you can get a score for each game and a total score for the whole section. 4
3-VERB DASH GAME (Irregular Verbs) The last sub menu under the All Exercises menu is the Verb Dash Game. This sub menu specifically focuses on irregular verbs and their practices. When you log on to this page, you can see the graphic design shown below. This lets you choose the level of language you want to practice. You can either practice at Expert level or Essentials level. The content and difficulty of language change depending on your choice. If you want to CUSTOMize your own verb list, you can arrange a list by clicking on the verbs you want to add to it. WHEN YOU COMPLETE 10 PRACTICES AT EXPERT LEVEL, YOU CAN ACTIVATE THE COACH BUTTON. 5
MY SCHOOL When you click on the link, My School, on the toolbar, you can access Assignments and Results. 1-a Assignment helps you monitor what Video Boosters clips or Photo Vocabulary albums your teacher has assigned you. You can also view the completed ones with due dates. 1-b Results page helps you see/evaluate your performance. When you go to this page, you see both video boosters played and photo vocabulary albums studied. When you scroll down the same page, you can see your assignment performance expressed in graph form as well. 6
KOLIBRI USER When you click on the link, Kolibri USER, on the toolbar, you can access to Coach, Dashboards, My Account and My Profile. 1- Coach: This link has a few sub-menus: Daily Goal, Difficulty Levels and Translation Language. 1-a Daily Goal: Here are given some parameters to help you set your own standards in your English learning experience. It is possible to change your goal at any time by adjusting the parameters here. 1-b Difficulty Levels: The difficulty of Video Booster clips depends on many factors, among which are the complexity of the vocabulary, the accent of the actors, the ambient sound quality, and the highlighted grammar point. In English Attack! you can choose between two different Difficulty Level scales. Most learners will prefer the English Attack! scale, which is simpler, while some students will be more comfortable using the CEFR levels. 1-c Translation Language: When you study a Video Booster clip, you come across the target vocabulary items of the excerpt. If you double click on any of these target vocabulary items, you can access the definition in the language of your choice (including Turkish) 7
2- Dashboards: When you click on this link, you can access Grammar Rules, Learned Expressions, Learning Frequency, Progress Tracking and Assessment Tests. 2-a Grammar Rules: On this page, you can see a list of grammar items. As each video features a grammar rule, you can access all of the Video Booster clips related to that specific grammar item by clicking on the icon next to the grammar rule. In addition, you can see how much practice you have done on each grammar point. You can also see all the related video booster clips by clicking on the see all button below. 2-b Learned Expressions: You need to revise a word or phrase more than ten times in order to learn it and commit it to memory (actually 17 times, according to some experts). Kolibri Education aims to provide a variety of different contexts for you to practice similar vocabulary and language items in to help you learn them meaningfully and commit them to memory. This page provides a 4-scale measurement with the use of different colors for the Learned Expressions: Green for memorized; Yellow for learned; Orange for practice more and Red for newly started ones. When you click on each expression, you can monitor not only the word category of each item but the video title where the expression is studied as well as an authentic sentence in which the expression is presented. 8
2-c Learning Frequency: English-Attack provides a graph to help you view and assess your performance. When you click on the Learning Frequency link, you can access the grade for English Boosts earned, the weekly objective and the percentage of your learning objectives. In the top right - hand corner, the time parameter also lets you change the duration of your learning frequency. When you scroll down the page, you can view your daily learning average. 2-d Progress Tracking: When you want to see your progress on both Photo Vocabulary and Video Booster clips, you can go directly to the Progress Tracking page. Here, you access a report for both contents telling you the number of exercises, which need more practice, and which you have learned. This page also lists all the exercises started and completed with their types (video or photo dictionary), categories (abstractions, movies, actions, etc), playing time and rating. When you click on an exercise, you can view the content of it as well. 9
ACTIVE SESSION PAGE When you log on to English-Attack, the welcome page displays a Video Booster. On this page, you can see your own Video Booster performance, your daily goal in the right margin and Video Booster activities that you do when you start studying a video clip. The activity icons that you need to use are introduced below. Vocab QuickView helps you get familiar with the vocabulary items of the video before you start watching it. Video helps you watch the video clip. There is a short note about the source of the video. Comprehension provides some multiple choice questions to check if you understand the video clip well. You can go back to the video if you need. When you click on an answer, you get instant feedback. Listening Lab asks you to pick the correct word from three similarsounding options to complete the gaps in the transcript. Instant feedback is provided again. Vocab Academy requires you to use the key words and expressions from the Vocab QuickView to complete a paragraph. This is a drag and drop activity. Grammar helps you revise the grammar focus of the video clip. You can access a short explanation of the grammar focus and two-option questions. Swap Mania helps you remember the target vocabulary of the video. It is a spelling game. Word Rescue is the vocabulary game that helps you revise the target vocabulary items again. Advanced Comprehension helps you check your listening skills focusing on the main idea, specific information or inference. 10
When you complete a Video Booster, you get a report of your performance for each activity introduced above. If you click on More Video Booster, you can watch more video booster clips. If you click on Close, you go back to the welcome page. 11