A new start

Following a change of hosting service I have had to completely reorganise this site. I am now using Word Press rather than Movable Type, and it seems a lot easier/better to use. I am still working on the design and layout of the site, so for the time being many things may not work as expected.

While many of the CALL activities do work, the navigation links have not been updated, so the done / home buttons will generate errors.

One thing I have not been able to do yet is archive the main page – at the moment every single entry is displayed. There must be a way of doing this.

Also, I have not found out how to set up multiple blogs – having just one page is a bit limiting. One work around would be to use a single weblog but set it up so that different categories are displayed on different pages.

Time Conversion

I am trying to test a snippet of javascript that I want to use to make it easier to arrange on-line meetings with people living in different time zones.

The page should display the time of a meeting in GMT and should then also show it in the local time of the person visiting the page. I am testing this page to see if it works correctly. There will be problems when people have their computer set to a time zone that is different from the place where they actually are – though I am not sure why someone would wannt to do this. But there may also be problems because different versions of windows and different browsers may handle the code slightly different. I would very much like to know whether or not this page works correctly.

Does it show the correct time?

The page can be found at http://mackichan.e-lang.co.uk/javascript/timer.html

Phonemic Typewriter – US English

I have created a version of the Phonemic Script Typewriter for US English.

Because of the different vowel sounds, I have had to use a different keyboard layout. I would be grateful for comments about how this can be improved.

I have also chosen not to use the rhoticized schwa (the one with the little hook) and I would also be glad to hear whether this is a good thing or not.

The link for this tool is http://mackichan.e-lang.co.uk/call/pronus/type.html.

Phonemic Typewriter Updated

The Phonemic Typewriter has been updated. I have changed the keyboard so that it uses buttons rather than graphics, which should make it faster to load.

I have also added a couple of links to the help page: a new Unicode font, and another web based tool for generating code for using IPA symbols in web pages.

The link for the typewriter is unchanged: http://mackichan.e-lang.co.uk/call/pron/type.html.

I would be very grateful for feedback.

Phonemic Hangman

I have had a lot of useful feedback about my ‘Phonemic Hangman’ activity. As a result I have made some changes which I hope will make it easier to use.

First of all, I have included a short introduction to strategy for playing phonemic hangman. Phonemic Hangman is as simple to play as any conventional Hangman activity, but it does require a different playing strategy. The aim of this introduction is to get users to think about the most common sounds in English, so that they can make useful guesses.

I have also incorporated a hints button. This allows the player to get help for one phonemic symbol at a cost of one life, and a further symbol at a cost of two lives. I am not sure whether one or two hints is best.

I have also changed it so that the spelling of the word is shown as well as it’s phonemic transcription.

Hopefully these changes will make the activity easier to use without changing the overall goal of the activity. Please give it a try – I would be grateful for any feedback.

http://users.otenet.gr/~petermac/call/phonhang/phonhang.html