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English for Wizards

Interactive books for easy reading

By John Moore

"Living Books" シリーズの "Arthur's Teacher Trouble"
Regular readers might remember recent columns in which I complained about a computer's inability to understand speech or learn good English. Don't get the wrong idea, I love computers. But here is my computer complaint No. 3: Why is it so hard to read a computer display screen?

Someday, perhaps, we will have so-called electronic paper. It will look and feel just like ordinary paper but function like a computer screen, with scrolling text and animated graphics - kind of like Harry Potter's magical photographs that move and talk. But until we invent electronic paper, many people will still get sore eyes and aching shoulders from working at computer screens. Oh well.

These days my son Peter has been reading books on the computer. This is one of the best ways to build up English vocabulary. And the "Living Books" software series lets him read by himself (See http://www.kidsclick.com/living_books.htm for a good list.)

First the computer reads a page for you, and then you're supposed to read it for yourself. You can click on the hard words to hear them again. After that, you can click on various things in the pictures to see funny animations.

That's all it does. It's a simple kind of software with no special activities or follow-up test questions. The idea is that kids will read books by themselves if the computer helps them and offers fun animations. And it works for us. I just have to remind Peter to actually read each page before playing with the animations.

We have three "Living Books" at home. "Just Grandma and Me" is the easiest, and you can even switch between the English original and the Japanese translation. It's fun to see that Little Critter, the main character, is bilingual, just like Peter. We also have "The Tortoise and the Hare" and "Arthur's Teacher Trouble," which is the most difficult.

Some "Living Books" also come with an actual book version printed on paper, so you can read without the computer, too. If you only have a CD, though, you can make your own printed book by doing the following:

For each page in the "Living Book," press the "Print screen" key (or "PrtScn") on your keyboard. Next, press Ctrl !0+ Esc to get back to the desktop, where you can open a word processor window. Click Edit then Paste from the word processor menu, and you should see your "Living Book" page appear as a graphic image. Just print it out on your printer.


Shukan ST: June 13, 2003

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