Here is a suggested strategy for how to proceed through the lessons:
- Read the introduction to get a sense of the action. Imagine yourself in a similar situation. Think about what you would say.
- Now go to the Glossary section. Review the vocabulary. Listen to the associated sound files.
- Now go back to the clip. You might try playing it first with the sound turned off, and then with the sound turned on.
- Replay the clip as many times as you like. The audio clips below the video clip may help you comprehend the scene. You can drag the sliders to any point in the scene.
- Consult the glossary again. Take notes about what is being said in the scene. Your notes will help you when you do the exercises.
- When you feel ready, go to the Exercise section, and complete either the English or the Iraqi comprehension exercises.
- The General Lesson Exercises are related to each lesson as a whole. Do the Comprehension exercises for each scene first. Then try the General Lesson Exercises.
The Lesson Buttons take you through all the lessons.
Lessons are made up of 1 or more scenes, and have Glossaries and Exercises linked to each.
You can go from scene to scene by using the Scene Buttons.
The Clip, Exercise and Glossary buttons are all related in each scene.
As an aid to navigation, many of the buttons and other elements display a message in the status bar of your browser when moused over.
Here are some useful tips for playing the clips:
- Press the Space bar to start and stop a movie.
- Play a movie backward by holding down the Shift key and double-clicking the movie image.
- Use the Up and Down Arrow keys to change the audio volume and the Right and Left Arrow keys to step the movie forward and backward.
- Another method to scrub through the media clips is by placing your cursor over the clip and using your mouse's scroll button. Double click on the clip to start or stop the clip.
- Play a movie with the audio muted by holding down the Control or Alt key and clicking the Play button.
Browsers, Plug ins and monitor screens:
This site is best viewed with the latest version of Explorer or Netscape browsers on Windows XP. On Mac OS 10.3x, use Safari and Netscape browsers. It has also been tested successfully on Firefox, Opera, Omniweb and Camino on both platforms.
Version 4 browsers are not recommended and may produce errors or unpredictable results.
These web pages are optimized for 800 X 600 or larger screen resolution.
If you find that the Iraqi Tutor page is cropped even with the browser window maximized, you should try hiding the Task bar and the Personal bar (Netscape) or the Links bar (Explorer)
The video and audio clips require Quicktime to be installed on your system.
If Quicktime is installed but the video or audio clips still do not play, then most likely another program like RealPlayer or Windows Media Player has modified the Quicktime File Type Associations.
To correct this, open the Quictime settings in your Control Panel and go to the "Mime Settings" window. Make sure that Quicktime is set to handle "Video" and "MP3" file types.
If you have an earlier version of Quicktime installed and are having problems, upgrade to Quicktime version 6 or newer.
Setting up your computer to handle Arabic characters
The Arabic script has two features which make it unique in terms of encoding. One is that it is written from right to left (or RTL). The other feature is that the shapes of individual letters change forms depending on whether the letter is alone, at the beginning of a word, the middle of a word or at the end.
In order to process Arabic correctly, a software must be able to display text from right to left and make sure the letter forms are displayed correctly depending on their positions within a word.
In order to integrate foreign scripts into your computer, you must set up "keyboard" utilities in your operating system. Keyboards will allow you to switch between typing English and other languages in word processors and Web tools. This process will also make sure the correct fonts are installed are availble for Windows or Macintosh.
For older Windows systems, if the Arabic characters do not display properly, the first thing to check is that your system has the necessary fonts installed. On the PC these are: Lucida Sans Unicode, Arial Unicode MS, Tahoma. If they do not appear in the Fonts folder on your boot drive, you can download Lucida Sans Unicode and place it in the Fonts folder in the Windows folder on your C drive.
On Mac OS 10 versions earlier than 10.3, you may have to install an updated version of the font Lucida Grande. You can download LucidaGrande version 4.1d9 here and install it in /System/Library/Fonts.
If you would like to set up your computer to type Arabic characters, there are many resources on the web for installing and using Arabic keyboard and fonts. A good place to start is at Microsoft's Arabic Support Page
For questions or help with interface and technical problems, please contact Rahul Bhushan
For questions or help with Iraqi Arabic, please contact Yasin Alkhalesi
