JPH09281880A - English learning device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve learning efficiency by reporting the wrong learnt result of a user to the user corresponding to the non-coincidence of two sounds selected by the user. SOLUTION: A system is composed of a CPU 1, system memory 2, HD 3, keyboard 4, pointing device 5, CRT 6, voice synthetizer 7 and speaker 8. An image to be used for designating a position on a display screen is displayed in initial state. Two pieces of the same kind of audio data are prepared for each kind, and the relation of correspondence between the designated position of the image on the display screen and the prepared audio data is arbitrarily allocated. Arbitrary two positions on the display screen image are designated. Based on the corresponding relation of allocated positions and the designated positions, the audio data corresponding to these designated positions are outputted in voice. It is decided whether the kinds of two pieces of audio data as the objects of this voice output are equal or not and when the negative decision is provided, it is guided that these kinds are different.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an English learning device for learning English pronunciation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an English learning device using a computer, a picture representing the meaning of a word is displayed on a display screen of a display device, and when the picture is designated, a voice of the corresponding word is played from a speaker. What has been done is proposed.

[0003]

However, in the conventional apparatus, even if the user learns pronunciations of words having similar pronunciations such as right and light, the degree of the learning cannot be known. There was a problem to be solved.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an English learning device which allows the user to know the degree of learning.

[0005]

In order to achieve such an object, the invention of claim 1 is a display means having a display screen, and a plurality of sets of voice data for synthesizing voices of a plurality of words, respectively. And a storage means for storing an image used for position designation on the display screen, a display control means for displaying the image in an initial state, and two pieces of the same audio data for each type. Determining means for arbitrarily assigning a correspondence relationship between the designated position of the image on the display screen and the prepared audio data,
A designation unit for designating any two positions on the display screen image, a correspondence relationship between the positions assigned by the determination unit, and a voice corresponding to the designated position based on the position designated by the designation unit. A voice synthesizing unit for extracting data from the storage unit and outputting the voice, a determining unit for determining whether or not the two voice data output from the voice synthesizing unit are of the same type, and a negative determination are obtained. And a guide means for guiding the user to indicate that they are of different types.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the English learning apparatus according to the first aspect, the image is an image in the form of a card, and the plurality of images of the card are displayed by the display control means. Is specified by the specifying means.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the English learning apparatus according to the second aspect, the image of the card form is different from the notation, and the image of the front face corresponding to the voice data and the image of the back face commonly used are the images. The display control means displays the image of the rear surface by the number of the prepared audio data stored in the storage means, and the image of the rear surface corresponding to the position designation of the designating means is displayed on the corresponding front surface. It is characterized by switching to an image.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the English learning apparatus according to the third aspect, if the determination result of the determination means according to the first aspect is a positive determination, the guiding means according to the first aspect is: The image of the front surface switched and displayed by the display control means according to claim 3 is left as it is, and when the determination result of the determination means is negative, the guiding means changes the image of the front surface to the image of the back surface. It is characterized by displaying changes.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the English learning apparatus according to the third aspect, the notation includes a character string representing a word.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the English learning apparatus according to the third aspect, the notation includes phonetic symbols.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the English learning apparatus according to the third aspect, the notation includes a picture.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the English learning apparatus according to the third aspect, the notation includes a character string of a word and a picture having the same meaning as the character string.
Two pieces of the same voice data are prepared for each type, and one of the two pieces of the same voice data is made to correspond to the image of the surface having the notation of the character string. It is characterized in that a surface image having a pictorial notation having the same meaning as a character string is associated.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the English learning apparatus according to the first aspect, after the position is designated by the designating unit, the next position is not designated by the designating unit within a predetermined time. In this case, the correspondence between the voice data and the position is changed.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the system configuration of an English learning device to which the present invention is applied. A general-purpose personal computer can be used as the English learning device. CP
U1 not only executes system processing, but also executes information processing related to the present invention. System memory 2 is ROM, RAM
And stores data used for calculation and a system program that defines the system processing executed by the CPU 1.

Hard disk storage device (abbreviated as HD) 3
Stores a system program, an application program that defines information processing according to the present invention, and an image used by this application program. According to the present invention, the back side of a card in which a word is written is displayed in advance on the display screen, and the front sides of two cards are displayed according to the user's designation in the manner of a card game called nervous breakdown. At this time, play the voice of the word written on the card,
When the voices of the two words do not match, the selected card is turned over. As a result, it is possible to inform the user of the degree of learning of words having similar spellings and words having similar pronunciations.

For this reason, the HD 3 stores the images of the front surface of a plurality of cards, the images of the back surface of a commonly used card, and data for synthesizing the voice of a word (hereinafter, voice data). Further, a table (reference numeral A in FIG. 2) describing the correspondence between the card type (front side) displayed on the display screen and the display position, and the correspondence between the card type and its image storage address and audio data are described. A table (reference B in FIG. 2) is provided on the HD 3.

The keyboard 4 is used for operation instructions and character input to the CPU 1. A mouse can be used as the pointing device 5 and is used to specify a card on the display screen. A plurality of cards are displayed on the display device (CRT) 6 to carry out English learning related to the present invention. The voice of the word produced in association with the designation of the word is created by the voice synthesizer 7 and output from the speaker 7.

The English learning process executed in such a system configuration will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 shows the contents of information processing executed by the CPU 1. The user activates the application shown in FIG. 3 by using the keyboard 4 or the pointing device. As a result, the CPU 1 performs shuffle processing of the card and determines the position of the card to be displayed on the display screen (step S1). When 16 cards and 8 types of cards (two images of the same surface for each type) are arranged in 4 rows × 4 columns as shown in FIG. 5, 16 cards are provided with identification numbers. In this example, 1 to 16
Up to. The numerical values from 1 to 16 are set in a random number generator (usually provided as a system function), and an arbitrary number from 1 to 16 is generated by the random number generator. The front card corresponding to the acquired number is assigned to the first display position (reference numeral 201 in FIG. 5). CP
U1 stores the correspondence by describing the identification number of the acquired card in the position column of table A in FIG. In addition, in FIG. 2, a character string written on the surface of the card is shown as the type of the card instead of the identification number for easy understanding. Note that the designated range of the table A in FIG. 2 represents the first card display position by diagonal coordinates on the outer circumference of the card, and is fixedly set in advance. When the pointing device 5 designates the inside of the rectangle represented by the diagonal coordinates, it is considered that the corresponding card is designated.

Hereinafter, the CPU 1 will display the second display position (see FIG. 5).
No. 202) is determined by a random number generator in order to determine the type of card to be assigned, and the number of cards determined in the card type column of table A of FIG. Enter the identification number. Further, a flag indicating 1/0 whether the card is displayed on the front or the back is set to 0. Such a process is performed for all cards to determine the card display position.

Next, the CPU 1 displays the 16 cards on the back side on the display screen of FIG. 5 (step S2). More specifically, FIG. 2 shows the storage position of the cart image for the back side.
Then, a desired image is read from the HD 3, the image for display for one screen is combined in the system memory, and the image is delivered to the CRT 6. This allows CR
On the display screen of T6, the card is displayed with the back side.

The user designates a desired card among the cards on the back side with the pointing device 5. This designated position is accepted by the CPU 1 (step S
3). The CPU 1 refers to the table A of FIG. 2 to obtain the card type corresponding to the designated position, and then refers to the table B to obtain the storage address of the card surface image and audio data. The voice data is read using this storage address and delivered to the voice synthesizer 7. As a result, the voice of the word written on the specified card is output from the speaker 8. When the CPU 1 reads the image on the front surface of the card using the acquired storage address, the image for one screen in the system memory 2, that is, the image for the specified card is changed from the current image for the back surface of the card to the image for the front surface. Create the image replaced with and deliver it to CRT6. As a result, the front surface of the card is displayed on the display screen of the CRT 6 as if the card on the back surface was turned over. Further, the designated card type is temporarily stored in the system memory 2.

The CPU 1 resets the count value of the internal timer and starts it. In this embodiment, the internal timer is reset when the user specifies a card, and if the user does not specify a card for a certain period of time, the internal timer counts up and the currently displayed back side card is shuffled and is currently assigned. Change the display position. For this purpose, the CPU 1 executes a fixed cycle interrupt to execute the processing procedure of FIG.

That is, the CPU 1 determines whether or not the timer is counting up, and when an affirmative determination is obtained, the shuffling process is performed for the card type whose flag in the table A of FIG. 2 is 0. In this case, the number of flags indicating the back side is acquired, and an arbitrary number between the acquired number and 1 is determined by the random number generator.
The number of cards determined in order from the top of the flag indicating the back surface of the table A is the same as the number of cards that correspond to the flag of the first card in the flags indicating the back surface. Thereafter, similar processing is performed to update the card type description column for flag information indicating the back side. (Steps S100 → S101 → S102 in FIG. 4).

As a result, it is possible to improve learning efficiency by eliminating the problem that the user matches the cards only by storing the display position.

After the first card designation, the user next makes a second card designation using the pointing device 5. In response to this, the CPU 1 causes the speaker 8 to output the sound corresponding to the designated card, changes the display of the designated card on the display screen from the back surface to the front surface, and resets the timer. , Start (step S6).

Judgment of the type of card designated for the first time and the type of card designated for the second time stored in the system memory 2 (also determining whether the generated voice data is the same). Is performed by the CPU 1 in step S7. When a negative determination is obtained, the two designated cards are changed to the images on the back side. Since this processing may be performed by referring to the tables A and B in FIG. 2, detailed description will not be required (step S8).

Finally, it is determined whether or not all the cards have become the front by the flag information of the table A to determine the end of the learning process (step S9). If the learning process has not ended, the execution procedure is returned to step S3, and the user's card designation is accepted. When the above process is repeated and the user matches all the cards, the process of FIG. 3 ends (step S9 → end).

As described above, the user can know the degree of learning as if playing a card game with nervous breakdown, and can learn English while having fun, so that learning efficiency is also improved.

The following example can be implemented in addition to this embodiment.

1) In the present embodiment, the correspondence relationship between the type of card to be displayed and the display position is stored in the form of a table, but this table is not limited to this embodiment and can be of any desired form. For example, in the table A of FIG. 2, the display position is fixedly set and the card type corresponding to the display position is written, but conversely, the card type is fixedly set and the display position is written correspondingly. Good.
In this case, the display position assigned to each card is determined by the random number generator.

2) As the front surface card used in this embodiment, one having a character string and a phonetic symbol as shown in FIG. 5 is used.
Prepared as a pair (2 sheets), but only a character string,
Alternatively, only phonetic symbols may be described. Further, as shown in FIG. 6, one of the pair may be a character string and a phonetic symbol (naturally only the character string is acceptable), and the other may be a notation form of a picture showing the meaning of the character string.

3) In addition to the pronunciation of a character string, the voice output when the card is turned over may be, for example, voiced by adding a word having the same pronunciation of the character. Of course, the sound effect may be output when the two cards match or when they do not match.

4) In the present embodiment, the card display control on one screen has been described, but when all the cards on one screen match, the screen is switched and the learning process is re-executed for the card in which another character string is described. It is also possible to do so.

5) After the user starts card selection, the time for matching all the cards is measured by an internal timer, and when all the cards are matched, the measured time is displayed as a numerical value or a clock graphic. Then, the user can further understand the degree of learning.

6) In the above-mentioned embodiment, English learning is performed in association with the game of nervous breakdown in order to target infants and elementary school students. However, for higher grades, it is possible to specify the card only on the back side in the embodiment. In this case, the user has to memorize the output voice and the position of the designated card, which further improves the efficiency of learning English. In this case, only the back side image of the card is stored in the HD 3 as the image for specifying the position. Then, the voice data and the card position on the display screen are made to correspond to each other, and this correspondence is assigned by the random number generator. The CPU 1 may be controlled by voice or characters to guide whether the voice data of the two designated cards match or do not match. In this form, if the card with the matched voice data is an image different from that of the back card, for example, a blank sheet, the card with the designated matching can be identified. In addition, not only cards but also square images resembling Othello or Go can be used for position specification. The user specifies the squares to generate a voice,
If they match, the grid is changed in color to guide the user to the completed grid.

[0036]

According to the first aspect of the invention, the user can learn the pronunciation of English by comparing the voices generated by the position designation, and the two voices selected by the user do not match. The user can know that the learning result is incorrect.

In the inventions of claims 2 and 3, since the position is specified by the user selecting the card, the specified position and
The user can easily recognize the correspondence of voices and store the correspondence.

According to the present invention, the voice selected by the user can be associated with the notation, and the learning effect is improved. In addition, an English learning device according to the age of the learner can be provided by setting the notation form to any combination of character strings, phonetic symbols, and pictures.

According to the ninth aspect of the invention, if the user does not perform an operation for a certain period of time, it is possible to obtain the same effect as if the user starts over from the beginning.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing contents of a table used in an English learning process.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the contents of an English learning processing program.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the contents of an English learning processing program.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 system memory 3 HD 4 keyboard 5 pointing device 6 CRT 7 voice synthesizer 8 speaker

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A display unit having a display screen, and a storage unit for storing a plurality of sets of voice data for synthesizing voices of a plurality of words and an image used for specifying a position on the display screen. Display control means for displaying the image as an initial state and two pieces of the same audio data are prepared for each type, and the correspondence between the designated position of the image on the display screen and the prepared audio data Determining means for arbitrarily assigning a relationship, designating means for designating any two positions on the display screen image, and correspondence of the positions assigned by the determining means,
A voice synthesizing unit that extracts voice data corresponding to the designated position based on the position designated by the designating unit from the storage unit and outputs the voice data, and two voice data that are output by the voice synthesizing unit. An English learning device comprising: a determination unit that determines whether or not the types are the same, and a guide unit that guides that the types are different when a negative determination is obtained. 2. The English learning device according to claim 1, wherein the image is an image in the form of a card, and the display control means displays a plurality of images of the card,
An English learning device, wherein the plurality of cards are designated by the designating means. 3. The English learning device according to claim 2, wherein the image of the card form is different in notation, and the image of the front surface corresponding to the voice data and the image of the back surface commonly used are stored in the storage means. The display control means displays the back side image by the number of the prepared audio data according to claim 1, and switches the back side image corresponding to the position designation of the designating means to the corresponding front side image. Characteristic English learning device. 4. The English learning apparatus according to claim 3, wherein when the determination result of the determination means according to claim 1 is an affirmative determination, the guide means according to claim 1 The image of the front surface switched and displayed by the display control means is left as it is, and when the determination result of the determination means is negative, the guide means changes and displays the image of the front surface to the image of the back surface. Characteristic English learning device. 5. The English learning apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the notation includes a character string representing a word. 6. The English learning apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the notation includes phonetic symbols. 7. The English learning device according to claim 3, wherein the notation includes a picture. 8. The English learning device according to claim 3, wherein the notation includes a character string of a word and a picture having the same meaning as the character string, and in the claim 1, two pieces of the same voice data are used. For the same two pieces of audio data prepared for each type, one of them is made to correspond to the image of the surface having the notation of the character string, and the other one has the same meaning as the character string. An English learning device characterized in that an image of a surface having a notation is made to correspond. 9. The English learning apparatus according to claim 1, wherein after the position is designated by the designating unit, the next position is not designated by the designating unit within a predetermined time. An English learning device characterized by changing a correspondence between data and the position.