--- Forwarded Message from "Gabriel J. Webster" <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Tue, 21 May 2002 14:49:55 -0700 (PDT)
>From: "Gabriel J. Webster" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: CALL software idea -- exists?


Hi there.  I have an idea for a cool piece of CALL software, and the
technical ability and desire to implement it, but I don't know whether
something like it already exists.  It's an aid for reading foreign
language texts, where you can import any existing text into the program
(newspaper articles, textbook dialogs, etc.), and then be able to click on
any individual word to get its pronunciation (probably just written) and
meaning.  The program would be designed to be easily modified to work with
different languages, which would require changing the dictionary that the
program uses to look up words in.  The program would allow the user to add
words that are missing from the dictionary.  It would ideally run over the
web, but in a pinch would just run on Mac and Windows instead.
  Does anyone know of an existing program with some (non-zero!) subset of
this functionality?  I'm personally interested in Mandarin Chinese and
French, and making the program work for these languages would make it work
for a great many more.  I strongly suspect that the whole package does not
exist, but that something useful may be lying around somewhere.
Otherwise, anyone with technical know-how interested in collaborating on
such a tool (beginning in a couple of months) is invited to respond to me
off the list.  Thanks,

Gabe Webster
Staff Associate
University of Washington
Language Learning Center