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LEARNING MODERN GREEK ON THE WEB: THE 'FILOGLOSSIA' SOFTWARE

Conference Paper · February 2005

DOI: 10.13140/2.1.2181.3129

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 LEARNING MODERN GREEK ON THE WEB:
THE ‘FILOGLOSSIA’ SOFTWARE

Nick Hatzigeorgiu, Nikolaos Sidiropoulos and Frieda Charalabopoulou

Institute for Language and Speech Processing

Epidavrou & Artemidos 6, 151 25 Maroussi, Greece

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract
In this paper we describe the construction of an on-line learning course for Modern Greek. The Web application was
developed by the Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) and is accessible on the Web, free of charge. It is
based on commercial CD software, also developed by ILSP. We present the software and we commend on the differences
between the CD and the Web development, and the advantages and disadvantages of each medium.

Keywords: Web-based Education, Design and Development of Online Courseware

1. Introduction Easy and quick access to global information networks,

communication with native or non-native peers in the
The use of computer-based instruction is a well target language and distance learning are just a few of the
established and expanding field. Computers in education possibilities provided by the Internet and the World-Wide
are quite popular and as a result all areas of education are Web technologies. The Internet is becoming a valuable
undergoing changes in the way teaching and learning is educational tool for tutors and learners in the field of
perceived. Language learning is no exception [1]. foreign language learning [6][7]. It enables both groups to
Technology has become a widespread reality with retrieve authentic material in the target language, which is
important implications for second language acquisition. not only restricted to plain texts, but may also involve
audio-visual material (i.e. sounds, images or video files).
The design and development of a computer-based course Enhancing foreign language learning via the Internet also
is more difficult and time-consuming than the design of a provides opportunities for genuine communication in the
traditional book-based course [2][3]. In traditional target language [8]. However, there are still only a few
language learning courses there are pedagogical aspects available structured foreign language courses in the Web,
that have to be taken into consideration. In computer- especially for languages with a limited audience, such as
based courses there are additional challenging questions, the Modern Greek language.
such as the effectiveness of the new media and the choices
over the available technologies to be used [4]. Of course, The growth of the Internet usage led ILSP towards the
there are also numerous advantages in computer-assisted creation of a Web-based application for teaching Modern
language learning, especially in self teaching situations. Greek. For this purpose, instead of creating an entirely
new course, ILSP produced an online version of
The Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) ‘Filoglossia’ CD-ROMs. The Web software attempts to
has developed an interactive multimedia CD-ROM based include all the main features of the original multimedia
course, called ‘Filoglossia’, for teaching Modern Greek as application, presented to the Web user in a similar manner
a foreign language [5]. ‘Filoglossia’ targets English as the CD-ROM course, even through the Web version
speaking adults who are beginners in the Greek language. includes only a subset of the material of the CD-ROM
It can be used either as a self teaching or class teaching version. It retains all the pedagogical and design
tool and its purpose is the acquisition of an adequate characteristics of the CD-ROM based software. Although
knowledge of the Greek alphabet, grammar and useful many of the technical features of the multimedia
phrases. All material is presented under situations that a application were also converted to the Web version
foreigner might encounter during a visit to Greece. without any differences in appearance or functionality,
there are still some divergences and limitations due to
Language is communication and the Internet technology Internet technology restrictions. Furthermore, the Web
has dramatically altered the concept of communication.
based course is accessible to all Internet users free of there is also the option to view the English subtitles to
charge. make comparisons and improve understanding of the
spoken language. Every text sentence is a link that allows
the playing of the video for the specific time duration of
2. Description of the CD-ROM software the particular sentence. Dialogue section is accompanied
by comprehension exercises which are usually multiple
In the traditional formal instruction of a foreign language choice or word completion exercises.
learners often receive impoverished or insufficient input
in the target language [9] and quite often learning The ‘Vocabulary’ section contains two subsections
involves mainly memorizing grammar and syntax rules (‘Basic’ and ‘Advanced’) with the Greek language
followed by extensive practice. This method was vocabulary relevant to the specific dialogue. In the ‘Basic’
pejoratively referred to as the “drill and kill” practice. On subsection the user can listen to specific words taken from
the contrary, ‘Filoglossia’ provides the potential to help the ‘Dialogue’ section. The ‘Advanced’ subsection
the second language learner access authentic language contains an additional set of words (always accompanied
material and thus receive high quality language input. by audio files and images or with animations) along with
Using technology, the conditions which are thought to more exercises.
beneficially contribute to foreign language learning, may
be replicated [10][11]. The ‘Grammar’ section (Figure 2) includes the
grammatical phenomena of the Greek language that
Towards the goal of accessing good quality and large appear in the specific dialogue. Examples are presented in
amounts of language input and acquiring communicative text and audio files, while a set of exercises helps the user
competence, multimedia technologies were used (i.e. to establish a sufficient level of comprehension for the
audio files, video files, self-evaluation and corrective specific grammatical phenomenon.
feedback), along with some specialized speech tools (i.e.
speech synthesis, speech recognition) developed by ILSP.

The complete ‘Filoglossia’ course spans four CD-ROM

disks. The first two have been available for some time
now, the third CD-ROM has been just published while the
last one is still in development and will be available
sometime in 2005. The CD-ROM version of ‘Filoglossia’
was developed using the Asymetrix ToolBook.

Figure 2: CD-ROM version: A ‘Grammar’ section

Exercises in ‘Filoglossia’ are interactive exercises, often

Figure 1: Structure of 'Filoglossia' accompanied by relevant audio and video material. Many
of the exercises belong to quite common types of
computer-based exercises, such as multiple-choice, fill in
The first two CD-ROMs include 10 chapters with topics
the blank, and drag and drop exercises (Figure 3). There
taken from everyday situations a foreigner would
are also some less common exercises, usually found in
encounter in Greece. Each chapter has the same structure
sections ‘Dialogue’ and ‘Grammar’, that are more
and it consists of four major sections (Figure 1). Only the
animated and interactive. For example, there are exercises
first chapter has a different structure due to its
where user has to click with his mouse words in order to
introductory role and it contains only two sections, one
form sentences or the user listens to audio and then clicks
with the Greek Alphabet and one with the Genders and
on the relevant image. All exercises give feedback
Articles.
marking the correct and the wrong answers.
The first section in each chapter is the ‘Dialogue’ where
everyday situations are presented in a video dialogue.
User can watch simultaneously the subtitles in Greek and
Figure 3: CD-ROM version: A drag and drop exercise in the ‘Vocabulary’ section

Figure 4: Web version: A ‘click and show or hide word’ exercise

The ‘Useful Phrases’ section is slightly different, So we decided to develop a free Web version that can be
combining theory and exercises. Its purpose is to help the used as a first course in Modern Greek. It also serves as a
user accumulate a sufficient knowledge of the use of promotional tool for the CD-ROM version. For this
particular phrases. Questions and answers are presented, reason, the Web version contains only about the 1/3 of the
based either on images or in the subtitles of a video, and original material of the first two CD-ROMs of
the user is asked to provide the oral input. By using a ‘Filoglossia’. Also, the Web version does not include the
voice recording tool, the user’s voice overlays the video specialized tools. Apparently, it wasn’t our intention to
dialogue. replace the original multimedia application. Even with
those limitations we have found almost no other
Developing speech is an important aspect in foreign comparable free courses in the Web for language teaching
language learning and teaching. Learners’ ability to (Greek or any other language) that can be compared to the
engage in meaningful conversational interaction in the ‘Web Filoglossia’ in terms of richness of the material and
target language is considered one of the most important completeness in design and features.
goals of foreign language learning. To this end, speech
technology has been incorporated in ‘Filoglossia’ with the
use of two additional speech tools, Speech Synthesis and
Phonetic Transcription.

The Speech Synthesis tool was developed by ILSP and it

produces an audio output from its textual input using a
digitized voice. The speech synthesizer [12] provides
acoustic feedback of how a particular word, phrase or
sentence is pronounced and offers to the user an oral
feedback for the written Greek language. This speech
synthesizer can works with arbitrary input and not just
with sentences found in a particular dialogue included in
the CD-ROM.

The Phonetic Transcription tool is used to translate a word

or a phrase from Greek to the International Phonetic
Alphabet. This tool can be proven very useful for learning Figure 5: Web version: A ‘Grammar’ section
Greek, taking in consideration the fact that the Greek
Alphabet is quite different from the Latin alphabet. The
Designing the Web version we initially considered
tool is based on a set of rules, describing all possible
transforming the initial Toolbook pages into Web pages
features of every sound unit in specific phonetic
using an automated process. In theory, this is something
environments. This tool was also developed by ILSP and
that can be done. However, in practice this proved to be
it can accept arbitrary input.
impossible due to the different types of interactivity in
many CD-ROM parts. The required interactivity could not
Finally, ‘Filoglossia’ includes a bilingual Greek-English
be successfully transferred to the Web without extensive
dictionary. This is more of a glossary than a general-
re-writing of complicated code. So, we decided to develop
purpose dictionary, since it includes mostly the words that
the Web version from the ground up as new software. Due
appear in the ‘Filoglossia’ material. The glossary contains
to budget and time limitations we decided to omit some of
the lemmas, their translation and an easy-to-use example,
the more complicated parts of the CD-ROM version.
which in its turn is translated to English. In cases of
Also, we wanted to develop lightweight software,
polysemy, the most common meanings of the word are
accessible to as many Web users as possible, even through
presented and their corresponding translations.
slow Internet connections. These considerations also led
us to decide avoiding technologies such as Macromedia
Flash or Java.
3. Description of the Web course
The Web version of ‘Filoglossia’ can be found at the URL
Before developing the Web version of the ‘Filoglossia’ address ‘http://www.xanthi.ilsp.gr/filog/’. The
software, we searched the Web trying to find something development of ‘Web Filoglossia’ was based on Active
similar but we found nothing comparable to ‘Filoglossia’. Server Pages (ASP) technology, with embedded
Most of the courses for teaching Modern Greek that exist JavaScript for client side interactivity. Advanced
today in the Web offer very little in terms of interactivity Streaming Format (ASF) files are used for streaming
or multimedia material. Most of the material is quite video publication using a Windows Media Server. Media
similar to a book, and very few of them contain some Server provides automatic quality adaptation to different
audio files as well. connection speeds, so the use of ASF files provides
adequate quality of streaming videos to users with 56 Kbs
PTSN connections, and there is no need for large video The ‘Useful Phrases’ section has also lost some
file downloads. On the other hand, the audio files used in interactive aspects, since we removed the recording-voice
‘Web Filoglossia’ usually contain only single sentences option which would be difficult to implement. Now
and thus they are quite small and there is no need for Internet user can only watch the relevant video dialogues
streaming. Audio files are offered in two formats, WAV and just read the question and answers.
and MP3, and the user can select which one he prefers.
Due to volume and speed limitations, the use of the MP3
audio format offers an advantage of high quality audio 4. Difficulties in the construction of an on-
files with high compression ratio. line course
‘Web Filoglossia’ follows the same structure as the Just as there is a diversity of programming languages
original CD-ROM application. Ten chapters constitute the available and suitable for conventional programming
content of ‘Web Filoglossia’ and each one contains four tasks, there is also a diversity of languages available and
discrete sections: ‘Dialogue’, ‘Vocabulary’, ‘Grammar’ suitable for Web programming. The Web does place
and ‘Useful Phrases’ as shown in Figure 1. some specific constraints on our choices: performance
(both speed and size); security; platform independence;
The ‘Dialogue’ section contains the same video files of multi-user considerations; protection of intellectual
the CD-ROM. The Web user can view them using the property. Often, these issues are not independent of each
Windows Media Player. The video presentation offers one other. A choice which seemingly is optimal in one aspect
example for the differences between multimedia CD- may be sub-optimal in another. Regarding the tools and
ROM and Web application development. In the CD-ROM technologies a Web developer has to its disposal today,
the video viewer resides inside the application and the the situation has improved considerable during the past
subtitles (and the translation of the subtitles) reside in a few years. However, it is still a lot easier to develop a rich
text box and are synchronized to the video segment shown CD-ROM based application than a similar Web based
at the moment. The CD-ROM user can only view the one.
subtitles for the particular segment he is currently
watching. On the contrary, in the Web such a The value of ‘Web Filoglossia’ is the fact that it was, and
synchronization of text with streaming video is quite probably is, the only free of charge online conversion of a
difficult to achieve and we did not attempt it. The user can multimedia application. Other Greek learning courses are
view the transcript of the dialogue of the video (and usually Web versions of a book or very limited
optionally its translation) in its full extent in a table form. demonstrations of CD-ROM commercial applications.
Again, each of the sentences is a link to the particular ‘Web Filoglossia’ is the only language learning course
audio file, so the user can catch up with sentences that he combing audio and video material, exercises with
wasn’t able to hear well. corrective feedback, together with a user-friendly and
attractive interface and a structure enabling a English
The ‘Grammar’ section contains material without using speaker to learn basic modern Greek without buying or
any animations, which are common in the original installing anything.
‘Filoglossia’. Preference was given to a less ‘animated’
presentation of the material, although there is an extensive Because the primary role of ‘Web Filoglossia’ was to
use of audio examples and images (Figure 5). promote the original multimedia application, it was
decided that not only should the Web version contain a
Regarding exercises, a selection was made of those which part from the original material, but should not also try to
could be transformed to a Web page without great loss of be a strict replica in terms of behavior. This has eased the
functionality. Obviously, multiple choice exercises are development hassle. However, we have encountered a lot
easy to transfer using HTML forms. Word completing of limitations in the simple ASP-HTML tools we used.
exercises were also transferred without any major
changes, using textboxes instead of blanks. Exercises that One obvious example is animation. From the technology
demanded clicking words or images were included also perspective, the use of DOM (Document Object Model)
without significant changes, using either links of would be a good solution for some simple animations that
JavaScript. Drag and drop exercises required bigger could further enhance the Web version of our software.
changes, and often they were excluded from the ‘Web However, even through there is now an official W3
Filoglossia’. When drag and drop exercises were recommendation for the DOM, different browsers have
included, ‘drag and drop’ behavior was replaced by a implemented different parts of the official
‘click and show or hide images’ behavior. For example, recommendation. To use simple interactive animations on
Figure 4 shows the same exercise as in Figure 3. However a Web page one still has to resort to tools like the
the animated ‘drag and drop’ is now replaced by a simpler Macromedia Flash.
behavior. As in the CD-ROM, the user can instantly
check whether his/her answers to the exercises are correct.
 Browser independence remains a problem that had to be bottom line). Each page hit can result in several server
dealt with. The need of having video files, which would requests as the images for each page are loaded.
add a lot of load if they remained at their original AVI
format, produced a necessity for streaming videos. It was Even thought the audience for a Modern Greek language
necessary to convert all AVI files to ASF files with the learning course is smaller than other more widely spoken
use of Media Encoder. It was very helpful that the languages, requests have been made from about 82
Windows Media Server provides the automatic detection Countries. We believe that this proves the wide interest
of user connection speed and behaves accordingly. Web for such free on-line language learning courses.
pages use a Windows Media Player plug-in embedded in
the HTML code. Although most browsers (Internet 6. References
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