from "Ng, Alan" <[log in to unmask]> The University of Wisconsin announces the public, unrestricted availability of Syntax Untangler, a new, online tool that lets you "teach your students how to figure out tricky texts in any language." http://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/untangler/ Syntax Untangler is an online activity that asks the learner to visually mark up a short primary text in any language, in order to improve small-scale reading skills. Any instructor can easily create and publish their own Syntax Untangler content. Players get instant feedback about whether they found the right answer(s). Syntax Untangler is particularly designed for training language learners to recognize and parse linguistic features. But potential applications extend to any field requiring students to read and parse any kind of code or language. Example uses: * Ask students of German to identify the parts of a separable-prefix verb within a German sentence. * Ask students of Chinese to draw where a syntax structure begins and ends in a short Chinese text. * Ask literature students to locate and differentiate between instances of alliteration and assonance in some lines of poetry. * Ask students, particularly future K-12 language teachers, to create new Syntax Untangler content. Here's a demo of the above examples: http://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/untangler/play/demo Here's an example of a beginning unit for a German for Reading Knowledge course: http://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/untangler/play/german391u1-syntax Any instructor in the world is welcome to create an instructor account at any time for any purpose: http://courses.dcs.wisc.edu/untangler/ Please pass the word. __________________________________________________________________ Alan Ng, PhD - [log in to unmask] http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/bios/ang.htm Director of Outreach Technology Division of Continuing Studies University of Wisconsin-Madison 21 N Park St #7248 - 5-9529 Google chat, Skype, YahooIM, and WiscChat: ask me