An invaluable learning aid for beginners, O-level and CSE students. The cassette includes a tuition control program and a comprehensive series of lessons, each covering a different subject in vocabulary or grammar. Individual lessons may be loaded and used in a variety of self- paced learning and test modes. All words and phrases are displayed complete with accents and special characters and gender learning is assisted by colour coded displays. Simple commands enable users to create and edit an infinite number of new lessons which may then be saved on tape for later use. THE FRENCH MISTRESS LEVEL B SPECTRUM THE FRENCH MISTRESS LEVEL B SPECTRUM A FRENCH LANGUAGE LEARNING AID. kosmos SOFTWARE The cassette contains a powerful control program and a series of self-contained lessons. The control program is recorded as the first item on side 1, the remainder of the cassette contains 16 sequentially recorded lessons. The control program is NOT recorded on side 2 of the cassette. Each lesson covers a different topic, a full list of which appears in section 14. 1. LOADING AND STARTING THE PROGRAM After switching on the computer the first task is to load the control program. Insert the cassette into the tape player and rewind if necessary to the start of side 1. Type in the command LOAD "" then switch the tape player to PLAY and the program will start to load. After a few minutes when the screen shows the control program's command menu, STOP the tape player. At the bottom of the screen the message LESSON STORE EMPTY will be seen. The lesson store is actually the part of the computer's memory in which a lesson is stored while it is being used. Only one lesson may occupy the lesson store at any time. 2. PROGRAM FACILITIES The facilities listed in sections 3 to 11 are available whenever the screen shows the command menu. Individual facilities are requested simply by pressing the key indicated. Your first command will probably be to load a lesson into the lesson store. 3. LOADING A LESSON FROM THE CASSETTE (Key L) The program requests the filename of the lesson you wish to use. Key in a filename from the list given in section 14, end with ENTER. If you wish to load the next sequential lesson on the cassette the filename may be omitted. The loading process may be aborted at any time as described in section 12. 4. RUNNING A LESSON (Key R) Lessons may be run in a variety of ways according to your personal preference. The words and phrases which make up a lesson are presented on the screen first in one language, then the other, at a speed which you select. By running each lesson a number of times and pronouncing the words as they are displayed, you will soon find you know the translations before they appear. To help you learn genders, masculine words are displayed in blue and feminine in magenta. To run the lesson, answers to four simple questions must be provided. End each answer with the ENTER key. The first two questions request display times for the lesson material. For the first lesson tried it is suggested that display times are set at 3 seconds, other values (0.1 to 99) may be tried later. The third question allows you to specify which language appears first on the screen; the fourth question enables you to request automatic repetition of the lesson or just a single run through. You may pause at any time during a lesson simply by pressing the SPACE key. This enables a particular entry to be studied for as long as you like before proceeding to the next. Whilst the lesson is in the "paused" state the screen display also shows your position in the lesson, i.e. the "Entry" number. (You only need to be aware of entry numbers for editing purposes, described later). To check your progress with a lesson, try running it with one of the language display times set to 0 seconds. This will suppress display in that language altogether. 5. TEST LESSON (Key T) The test facility provides a means of thoroughly testing your knowledge of a lesson. The computer displays each word or phrase in one language only and you must key in the translation. Each time you press a wrong key, the computer will emit a "beep". If you need help press the > key to display the next letter of the translation. Note: it is not considered appropriate to use the test facility for lessons containing six line verb conjugations, but you can if you wish. 6. CREATING A NEW LESSON (Key C) You can create a new lesson of your own by successively keying in words or phrases together with their translations in the spaces provided. The program needs to know the gender of each word entered in order to display it in the correct colour. If the program cannot deduce a word's gender from the definite or indefinite article, you will be asked to key M or F (ENTER) to specify it. If the word has no particular gender simply press ENTER. The English and foreign texts should be terminated using the ENTER key and you can at any time use the > key to move down to the next line. Accents should be entered in the text immediately after (and on the same line as) the character to which they apply, using the keys listed in section 13. They will automatically appear in the correct position during lesson displays. It is also permissible to enter foreign language text in the English text position; this is very useful for entering verb conjugations where six lines are required. Mistakes in entering text can be corrected with the DELETE key provided the ENTER key has not been pressed, or by keying X (ENTER) as the first character of the English text or as the gender. Entries can be repeatedly keyed into the lesson store- up to a maximum of 200; you can terminate creation at any time however by keying END (ENTER) as the final entry. Having created a new lesson it may be run in the learning or test modes as many times as you like and saved on tape if required (section 7). 7. SAVING A LESSON ON CASSETTE (Key S) The Save command is only used when a permanent copy is required of a newly created lesson or a previous lesson which has been modified. Enter a filename for the lesson (up to 7 characters). Enter a title for the lesson (up to 24 characters). Insert a blank cassette and switch the cassette player to RECORD when the "Start Tape, press any key" message appears. On completion of recording the tape should be rewound and the Verify facility requested (section 8). 8. VERIFY A SAVED LESSON (Key V) This facility should ALWAYS be used to check that a newly saved lesson has been successfully recorded. Enter the filename of the lesson to be verified and switch the cassette player to PLAY. The program confirms that all is well by printing "Lesson verified OK". If verification fails, it may be necessary to stop and restart the program (section 12) before saving the lesson again. 9. ADD TO CURRENT LESSON (Key A) This facility may be used to add further entries to a lesson occupying the Lesson Store. Instructions for using the Add facility are identical to those for the Create facility (section 6). 10. DELETE ENTRY FROM LESSON (Key D) To delete a particular entry you will need to know its position within the Lesson Store, ie. its Entry Number. Entry Numbers are displayed whilst running a lesson whenever the pause facility is used (section 4). 11. INSERT NEW ENTRY (Key I) This facility allows you to insert a new entry at a particular point in a lesson. You must first specify the point of insertion required, the entry currently occupying that position will then be displayed. After confirming that this is the correct place, the new text can be entered. 12. STOPPING AND RESTARTING THE PROGRAM It may sometimes be necessary to stop the program to recover from awkward situations, e.g. you may have keyed in the wrong filename of a lesson to be loaded from cassette; or the verification procedure may not find the lesson you have just saved, etc. In such cases the program can be stopped by pressing the BREAK key and restarted by keying GOTO1 ENTER. 13. ACCENTS & SPECIAL CHARACTERS The following keys are used for entering accents and special characters. Accents should be entered immediately after (and on the same line as) the character to which they apply. character key character key ˊ / ˋ * ̂ (up arrow) ˚ @ 14. LESSON FILENAMES Level A Cassette Level B Cassette File- File- name Title Name Title L1 Family L17 Colours L2 The dwelling L18 Pastimes L3 Furniture L19 Tools L4 Household items L20 Countries L5 Foods L21 Medical L6 Vegetables and fruits L22 Verb Infinitives L7 Shops and trading L23 Adverbs and preopositions L8 Living creatures L24 Adjectives L9 Vehicles L25 More adjectives L10 Clothes L26 Conjunctions L11 Parts of the body L27 Phrases L12 Substances L28 Verbs - Present tense L13 Countryside L29 Verbs - Perfect tense L14 Weather L30 Verbs - Future tense L15 Numbers L31 Verbs - Imperfect tense L16 Days months and seasons L32 Verbs - Conditional tense KOSMOS SOFTWARE LTD 1985 KOSMOS SOFTWARE LIMITED 1 Pilgrims Close, Harlington Dunstable, Beds. LU5 6LX Tel: (05255) 3942