GB2521486A

GB2521486A - Apparatus for assistance in learning a language

Info

Publication number: GB2521486A
Application number: GB1404669.2A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Peter John Charles Spurgeon
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2013-12-23
Filing date: 2014-03-14
Publication date: 2015-06-24
Also published as: GB201404669D0; GB201322861D0; GB201400529D0; GB201401582D0

Abstract

Apparatus for displaying flash card to assist in the learning of a language, comprising a triangular prism that has at least one of its three faces adapted with a retaining means for mounting or dismounting of one or more cards on the face of the prism. At least one of the cards is marked to include a representation of at least one alpha-numeric character, may include a picture or braille. Preferably the retaining means are in the form of two grooves that are parallel to the axis of the prism, and positioned at opposite edges of at least one of the sloping faces of the prism. Alternatively the retaining means is at least one transparent pocket on at least one of the sloping faces of the prism. Preferably the prism is hollow, and threaded onto a triangular form (46, fig 4).

Description

Apparatus for assistance in learning a language

Background

Sonic products exist that add enjoyment to education and excrcise the memory Word games include cards having completed words to he paired with picture cards, or cards having the words to be paired written in another language. Other games distribute individual letters on cards, tiles or blocks that are then manipulated by the players. lhe invention describes an apparatus that encourages players to create letter and picture cards for themselves and to as-semble them on their own former, rather than assembling letters and pictures on a playing surface that is used by the group as a whole. Participants may help each other, but each one has ownership' of his own work. Alphabet Nocks, in the form of cubes, may be used for many games but have the distraction of up to six different letters on each block and a similar number of differnet orientations. The triangular prism of the invention has a natural orientation where the axis of syrnetry is held horizontally, the three sides may contain letters but the ends are not used. Wnen placed on a table in front of a user one of the faces will beat an angle of 60 de- grees to the horizontal -making it easier to read than a vertical letter on a block. When writ-ing on a card that has been inserted on a face the most comfortable angle is between 20 degrees and 30 degrees to the horizontal -which is achieved by supporting the item in the non-writing hand. The inserted card has a greater versatility than the lettering on a block. It is economi-cal to produce a wide variety of different card sets and also it is feasible for users to create their own sets and their own exercises and games. Often a complete alphabet is required, with duplicates of some letters and vowels, (a typical English alphabet set for a crossword game requiring over 100 tiles) and cards are inexpensive to print and produce.

Description

The apparatus of the invention is to provide educational games. Each participant is allocated with an item of equipment that has a provision for mounting at least two cards. The cards can include cards printed on one side only or on both sides with a letter, a word, a phrase, a picture or a clue. Unprinted cards can also be supplied. Unprinted surfaces can be niarked by the player, a teacher, parent etc. A card may be used with one side referenced in one language and the other side in another language. A card may have Braille characters on one or both sides of it and be inserted in a face position for the benefit of a visually impaired or blind user. Cards can be supplied on a sheet of several cards that niay be separated by the user. A light card, for example up to 35Ogsm, can be printed in a domestic printer connected to a computer device.

Data for printing on the sheets maybe accessed using the internet or a digital storage device.

instructions, games and lessons may also be accessed using the internet. Cards may be folded to increase their thickness or to provide more surfaces for content. The triangular prism may have provision for mounting one care on each face or it may have provision for one card to he folded for insertion over two surfaces.

Detailed Description

in a first embodiment of the invention a triangular prism has two of its faces with edges that meet along a plain line whilst the opposite edges have grooves. The third side may be plain, but may have grooves at both opposite edges. The grooves are of a width to fit the thickness of the cards.

in a second enibodiment sonic grooves may be replaced by a transparent pocket on at least one of the faces.

The apparatus niay he long enough to accommodate several individual cards to make up a word or its representation, or to accept cards or objects containing complete words or their representation. The triangular prisms may be of different colours to enable each participant to he identified or it maybe supplied with the player's name marked upon one of its surfaces.

Cards may be of different colours or characteristics according to language, degree of difficulty ctc.

Embodiments of the invention will now he described solely by way of example and with refer-ence to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a view of a first grooved prism according to the invention; Figure 2 shows several narrow rectangular cards, to fit the first grooved prism according to the invention; Figure 3 shows long rectangular cards to fit the first grooved prism to fit the first prism accord-ing to the invention; Figure 4 shows a second prism that is hollow according to the invention and Figure 5 shows a sccond prism that is solid according to the invention.

In figure a long triangular section prism I has a plain face 2 with a groove 4 at its lower edge -the prism standing on a flat surface 3. A groove 5 is at the bottom edge of the plain face 6. A third plain face 8 has grooves 7 at its two opposite edges.

In figure 2, narrow cards 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 15 have creases H. In use the cards are folded to lit over the plain edge of the first prism in figure 1. Card 15 is a blank card, or it may repre-scnt thc undcrncath of a printed card. The cards 9 -13 arc illustratcd having letters A B E D R repeated in different styles to enable them to be assembled on the first grooved prism to form the words bread, Bread, BREAD etc on the viewed face 2. When learning to write the cards may have only one letter of the alphabet represented, for the student to write the letter himself.

This is too simple a task whei the letter is merely copied wi a flat paper beneath the printed version. It is more challenging, and will result in a better memorization when the printed ver-sion is on another plane and orientation, particularly in the case of more complicated Eastern scripts. Figure 3 shows longer cards that maybe assembled on the first prism of figure L The card with faces 16 containing thc word BREAD in capitals on face 16 and having the part 17 blank is creased along the line 14 to fit on the first prism. A typical task may require the student to write the word bread' in lower case. The card with parts 18 and 9 are printed with the word bread in English and French to aid in the learning of a second language (in this case the French noun also requires an indication of gender (le or la). If a student is supplicd with blank cards he can write the words himself, thus forming a useful glossary of words that may he assembled into phrases. The card 20 is a flat card that fits between the grooves 7 in the first prism of figure 1 that may be uscd to identify thc student. A card having tcxt or illustration on one side of the crease may be blank on the other side of the crease, giving the student the task of writing an appropriate word on the blank face.

in figure 4 the short hollow prism 40 has slots 41 and 42 at two opposite edges of one side, suitable for slidhg the card 45 in. The card has the lower case lettcr b' and also a keyword that begins with the letter and also demonstrates the b' pronunciation at the beginning of bee' and the cc' pronunciation that follows. The word pronounced Bee is also the common name by which the upper case, capital B is known. A card with a capital letter could have a word of a phonetic alphabet (used by the military, for air traffic control etc) such as the Able Baker Charlie phonetic alphabet for the purpose of teaching that alphabet as used for spelling out the letters of a word or cailsign. The hollow prism maybe threaded onto a triaigular former 46. If several prisms 43 -44 have been assembled with different letters of the alphabet then they can be threaded on in the right order to make a word. Skilful choice of the letters placed in the three positions of each prism can result in the display of three words on the three faces when they are assembled on the former 46 in the correct order. Hollow prisms of this type are suted to manufacture as extrusions. in use a common exercise may reuire a student being given a number of letter cards and then having to use them to make as many words as possible with the aid of prisms.

Figure 5 shows the second prism as a long solid triangular prism 22. The prism maybe al-located to an individual, by an identification method such as by colour or by marking. One means of marking could be to use an adhesive label bearing the individuals name, in positions such as 23 or 24. The three faces of such a prism could contain cards representative of the same word, in different languages, in Braille or in the form of clues including picture clues. In one application the individual would be given a card to be placed in one position and he would be given the task of inserting appropriate cards in the other two positions. Due to the trian-gular nature of the prism the user would be able to keep the contents of two of the faces -the one facing him and the one placed flat on a table -secret from the other members of a class or group. A supervisor could collect the prisms up after each session and give a score to each individual, by reference to the identification on the prism in positions such as 23 or 24. A su-pervisor could set an exercise by marking the faces using a washable marker, the student then entering the correct cards into the positions on the three faces.

The apparatus is adaptable to many modes of play and exercises. The use of simple, rectan-gular flat cards enables cards to be printed out on a larger sheet and then cut to size. In some cases, where a particular style is to be taught, or a particular symbol or colour is to be demon-strated for copying, a supervisor can easily make such a card.

Cards can be produced in Braille either by direct embossing of the card or by using an ad-hesive to attach the thinner Braille paper onto a card. Cards may be prepared having a self contained recordable audio device for assistance in setting and executing tasks for the visually disabled.

Exercises and games may be created by the users or may be accessed from printed matter, digital storage media or from the internet. An exciting random selection of material can be obtained from such material or by picking cards etc, from a container. Some material for games and exercises maybe in the form of speech -dictations, quizzes etc. Many formats are in conunon use -niake words from these letters; fill in the missing letters; fill in the missing words; transcribe the phrase into a different tense; write a synonym for the word; correct the spelling of the word... etc. Equivalent formats are possible when the cards include numbers and arithmetical operators eg to place the correct digits in the equation 3 x 27 -5 = After completing work using the apparatus the students may transcribe their work to their exercise book, thereby getting practice at writing and spelling.

It is considered that the apparatus will be suitable for most ages and abilities, exercising their dexterity, observation, co-ordination and memory. It will usually be desirable to have access to a dictionary of words in the language being learned. The apparatus may be used in a class teaching environment, on public transport, in a community centre or in the home.

The drawings do not include every aspect of the application of the invention. Individual com-ponents shown in the drawings are not limited to use in their drawings and they maybe used in other drawings and in all aspects of the invention.

Claims

Claims 1. Apparatus for assistance in learning a language comprising of a triangular prism having at least one of its three faces adapted with a retaining means for mounting or dismounting of cards and a set of cards of a size for mounting on the face of the prism and having at least one of the cards marked to include a representation of at least one alpha-numeric character.
2. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which the prism has a cross section across its sloping sides with the flat portions of the sides being at an angle of 60 degrees to each adjacent side.
3. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding daims in which the retaining means is at least two grooves, parallel with the axis of the prism.
4. Apparatus according to claim 3 where the two grooves are at opposite edges of a sloping face.
5. Apparatus according to claim 3 where the two grooves are at opposite edges of two intersect-ing sloping faces.
6. Apparatus according to claim 2 in which the retaining means are six grooves, being situated one at each opposite sloping edge of each sloping side.
7. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims in which the set of cards includes at least one of each character of an alphabet.
8. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims in which the set of cards includes a representation of at least one of each decinial number 0, 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
9. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims having at least one of the cards in-cluded in a text form that is foreign to the English anguage.
10. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims in which the triangular prism is a hollow triangular prism.
11. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims in which the triangular prism is of a length to accommodate the width of a card containing the representation of a single alpha-numeric character.
12. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims in which the triangular prism is of a length to accommodate the width of at least three cards side by side, each card containing the representation of a single alpha-numeric character.
13. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims in which the triangular prism is of a length to acconiniodate the width of the longest card in a set of cards.
IA. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims in which at least one of the cards is marked with a first name.
15. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims in which at least one prism is marked with a first name.
6. Apparatus according to claim 15 where the prism is marked by means of an adhesive label.
17. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims which is used for game-play.