Cal State Long Beach – Language Center

This is the home of Activity Builder, which is a small collection of Flash based templates used to build learning activities targeted toward students studying foreign languages.

This project has two major goals. The first of which is to provide an easy to use tool for instructors to deliver customized activities to their students. The second goal is to use a modern format which can be easily accessible to both instructor and student. View a presentation on Activity Builder for more information on the project concept.

Current Activity Builder templates include the following types of activities:

• Grouping
• Table Building
• Grab & Drop

The Grouping Activity is the first of the Activity Builder templates. Instructors can modify a text file which is imported into the Flash exercise at runtime. Instructors can modify the title, directions, category titles, category items, and the number of categories and category items to be used during any given session.

The Grouping Activity reads the text file at launch and displays the title and instructions to the user. The program then randomly selects the categories to be displayed from the list provided by the instructor’s text file. The number of items stipulated by the text file are also selected at random and displayed on screen.

If the text file does not provide any values, or a text file is not present the program will first look online for a file to use. If no network connection is available the program will use default values contained internally.

The learner drags all items into their proper category. Incorrect placements are immediately identified. A message is displayed upon completion of the activity. The activity can be repeated over and over again. Since all content is selected randomly the learning experience is slightly different each time. The more values provided by the instructor the more varied the activity.

Try some of these grouping activities:

• French: Group nouns into the proper gender category.
• Spanish Geography: Match the Spanish speaking countries to the continents where they are located.
• Chinese Measure Words: Match the noun with the proper measure word.
• Geography: Match countries to the continents where they are located.

Instructors can modify a text file which is imported into the Table Building Activity exercise at runtime. Instructors can modify the title, directions, column titles, items, and the number of columns and rows to be used during any given session.

The Table Building Activity reads the text file at launch and displays the title and instructions to the user. The program also displays the column titles then randomly selects items to be displayed from the list provided by the instructor’s text file. The number of items stipulated by the text file.

If the text file does not provide any values, or a text file is not present the program will first look online for a file to use. If no network connection is available the program will use default values contained internally.

The learner fills in the missing data from the table by dragging all items into their proper category. Incorrect placements are immediately identified. A message is displayed upon completion of the activity. The activity can be repeated over and over again. Since all content is selected randomly the learning experience is slightly different each time. The more values provided by the instructor the more varied the activity.

Try some of these table building activities:

• German
  • German Irregular Verbs: Match the verb tense with its proper verb and English definition.
  • German Auxilary Verbs: Match the verb tense with its proper verb and English definition.
  • German Nouns: Match the nouns to the proper gender category.
• Chinese Vocabulary: Match the Chinese characters, pinyin pronunciation and English definition.
• Practical Chinese Reader Vocabulary (vol 1): Match the pinyin pronunciation and English definition to the Chinese character.

Instructors can modify a text file which is imported into the Grab & Drop Activity exercise at runtime. Instructors can modify the title, directions, and matching items to be used during any given session.

The Grab & Drop Activity reads the text file at launch and displays the title and instructions to the user. The program also displays the first item in each row from the list provided by the instructor’s text file to display at the bottom of the screen, then randomly selects one of the remaining items in the row to float around the center of the screen. The number of items stipulated by the text file.

If the text file does not provide any values, or a text file is not present the program will first look online for a file to use. If no network connection is available the program will use default values contained internally.

The learner matches the floating text to the corresponding text fixed at the bottom of the screen. Incorrect placements are immediately identified. A message is displayed upon completion of the activity. The activity can be repeated over and over again. Since all content is selected randomly the learning experience is slightly different each time. The more values provided by the instructor the more varied the activity.

Try some of these grab & drop activities:

• Chinese Vocabulary: Match the pinyin pronunciation or English definition to the Chinese character.
• Practical Chinese Reader Vocabulary (vol 1): Match the pinyin pronunciation or English definition to the Chinese character.