Tense Buster

The Korea TESOL Journal Vol. 4, No. 1 Fall/Winter 2001 Tense Buster 2001 Clarity Language Consultants Ltd., 2000. Reviewed by David B. Kent Tense Buster 2001 is designed to assist students in mastering grammar concepts through a sequence of specifically tailored presentation, reinforcement, practice, and application units. It is available in a variety of levels to suit a broad range of learners, at any language proficiency, from middle school age onwards. Units and Levels Initially, an introductory point is provided for each section of each unit, where students are shown the language focus, with highlighted examples of targetstructures, and grammar functions. This is presented in context within articles, dialogues, explanations, letters, or stories. Using such a range of material reduces boredom for the learners and allows for real-life presentation of grammar points. For practice, and initial target-structure use, learners can open the integrated “scratch pad” to write replies, for example, to type letters that can be printed for correction. The next stage of the program focuses on specifics of a grammar point and provides a screen full of text detailing various examples and explanations of the rule. This is a great idea for refreshing the memory of learners with the basics of the grammar they are studying. Unfortunately, there is no option for users to hear these “grammar rule” texts, and aside from offering reading practice this may prove a tiresome task, as reading a lot of text on a computer screen for an extended period can lead to weariness. The third stage, or grammar section of each unit, contains two to four practice activities with interactive feedback provided. This is an excellent feature of the software that shows students a list of missed and incorrect answers along with misunderstood grammar points. A variety of native-speaker accents are presented for listening here, allowing students a means to fine-tune their listening comprehension skills. For Korean learners this may prove as invaluable as learning the grammar items found in the language activities. There is also an option for turning on and off the sound, which is handy for learners when they are by themselves to practice drill auditory material or when working together in self-access centers, where students could pair up to practice dialogues aloud. However, for language laboratory use the software would require introduction in class so that full use of the program for self-study purposes could be achieved. 186 Reviews The Korea TESOL Journal Vol. 4, No. 1 Fall/Winter 2001 The final phase of each unit is testing, with focus upon aspects of material presented in practice. In test sections, options to view grammar rules are not available, so students cannot “cheat” by reviewing rules while being tested. However, students can work around this by cutting and pasting rules into the “scratch pad” and viewing them from there. The types of exercises in the testing section reflect those used in practice, which include drag and drop, proof reading, and free practice as well as target spotting, multiple choice, true or false, text, and cloze exercises. As an adjunct to each unit, various learner strategies are provided to aid in retention of material. Further, an “On Your Own” section provides language-learning tips for learners to put into practice when they are away from the computer. Superb print functionality is also provided, allowing printing of activity grammar rules, reading texts, answer feedback, and exercise answers. Students can also access a complete vocabulary section to review keywords found throughout the program. This section contains hyperlinks that students can click to hear terms pronounced. Unfortunately, some links do not function, or provide more auditory information than displayed on screen. Text throughout the program also contains colored hypertext that, upon clicking, provides grammatical explanations of how and why terms are used. Although an excellent idea, a very small amount of this hypertext contains punctuation errors. Aside from these two minor “bugs,” material is of excellent quality and practicality with language content of exercises and their basic design matching learner levels. Keeping Track Users can view and print detailed reports listing activities completed, scores achieved, start times, and length of time spent on completing each component. A progress graph allows users to see their position, in terms of the average score of all exercises undertaken, in relation to those of other users. This may prove to be a disincentive for weak learners, but for the majority of students and teachers this information is invaluable. A further feature of the tracking system allows teachers to access student scores for comparison or grading purposes and export them to separate record-keeping systems. Customization Like other Clarity software programs, such as MindGames and Read It!, Tense Buster 2001 comes with an “Authoring Kit” which allows users to tailor exercises to individual learning or teaching needs. To accompany each question a user designs, there is functionality for incorporating feedback, sentence customization, and graphic and sound file integration. However, the authoring tool only allows users to create activities along similar lines to those pre-developed within the program. Edited by David E. Shaffer 187 The Korea TESOL Journal Vol. 4, No. 1 Fall/Winter 2001 Extending Shelf-Life The www.tensebuster.com homepage is a rather innovative use of the Internet for content delivery and offers registered users a means from which to exchange or download activities. In addition to free add-on activities, upgrades and patches are available along with clipart and sound files. At the time of review, however, only a limited amount of material was available for download. This may change as more users purchase the product; still a broad user base already exists. Membership to the Internet site is required, although one year’ s membership is free with the purchase of a single license for the software. This is good news as the cost of a license for a single user is US$74 per level, or all five levels for US$296, and ongoing access to material to expand the product offsets this high initial cost. Tense Buster 2001 offers much the same as other grammar products available like Exceller Software’s Focus on Grammar Series, and Merit Software’s Diagnostic Prescriptive Grammar and Grammar Fitness, although at a slightly lower cost for individuals and with the means to author and exchange activities and therefore extend product functionality. It is also important for any grammar software package to offer “something extra” as this one does, since most of the material presented in the programs can be found in any good grammar activity book, such as Raymond Murphy’s Essential Grammar series or Leo Jones’ Communicative Grammar Practice. It is also such books that many students already own, or could review free in a library. Software Background Tense Buster 2001 is a major multimedia update to the Tense Buster software suite, which has been adopted for use in secondary schools and schools of further education as well as by government agencies around the globe. This software has been sold in over 90 countries and has more than 250,000 registered users. Minimum Operating System Requirements Windows 95/98/2000/NT/ME operating systems with at least a 486 processor, CD-ROM and sound card, display resolution: 256 colors or more, screen size: 800x600 or higher, hard disk space: 15mb-40mb per level (depending on install options selected). Fully network compatible. 188 Reviews The Korea TESOL Journal Vol. 4, No. 1 Fall/Winter 2001 References Diagnostic prescriptive grammar [CD-ROM]. (2000). New York: Merit Software. Focus on grammar series [CD-ROM]. (2000). Cincinnati, Ohio: Exceller Software Corp. Grammar fitness [CD-ROM]. (2000). New York: Merit Software. Jones, L. (1991). Communicative grammar practice: Activities for intermediate students of English, student’s book. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Murphy, R. (1994). English grammar in use: A self-study reference and practice book for intermediate students with answers (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Murphy, R. (1997). Essential grammar in use: A self-study reference and practice book for elementary students of English with answers (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Read it! [CD-ROM]. (1997). Hong Kong: Clarity Language Consultants Ltd. Rinvolucri, M. (1997-1999). Mindgame [CD-ROM]. Hong Kong: Clarity Language Consultants Ltd. Tense buster [CD-ROM]. (1997-1999). Hong Kong: Clarity Language Consultants Ltd. 189