Published by: Clarity Language Consultants, Ltd.

+852.2791.1787 (Hong Kong)

Grade Levels: Elementary through Adult

Subject Areas: English/Language Arts/Grammar

Reviewed by: Lee Seidman, Saint Joseph College, Spring 2000

This CD-ROM helps students learn certain grammatical rules of the English language, especially as the title implies, tenses of predicates. It offers several different interactive exercises as well as offering tutorials that is age appropriate to any level (elementary, lower intermediate, intermediate, upper intermediate, and advanced). One would be hard-pressed to find someone too inexperienced with the English language to be incapable of using this product. Just the same, one would be equally challenged to locate an individual who is so familiar with the rules of the English language that the software insufficiently challenges him or her to sustain interest.

Anyone can find this software extremely useful to expand one’s knowledge of the English language.

Clarity Language Consultants, Ltd. exercises great care in its production of Tense Busters VII for it seems to possess extensive activities, explanations, examples, and vocabulary. It far surpassed my expectations for what it could do for students.

The authors of the software took great care in demonstrating sensitivity to other people’s languages and the grammar systems to which they are accustomed. For example, there is a section in the introduction that explains that "most European languages have article systems similar to English, but many languages do not." It ensures that the lessons lack a Eurocentric attitude (perhaps because the software was established in Hong Kong).

The software does on several occasions use both the American version of English and the British version. Since it does have a spell check component, I could imagine this may pose some difficulties to those who either are in the process of developing adequate spelling abilities or are attempting to learn English as a second language. For example, one question the software asks is "Do you want to practise?" This normally would not concern me if the situation was standardized throughout the entire program; however, there was another instance when the word "practice" was spelled with the "c" instead of the "s."

The only thing missing is some written documentation with which the user may peruse the contents of the software without actually experimenting with the product. Some documentation would have been helpful to elaborate on how to use the teacher authoring program since that took the most time to figure out how to use.

After using this software, I could not imagine anyone not having access to its resources! It is very easy to install and most PC systems can use it without a problem (486 with 8 MB of RAM recommended). The user may install this product on up to five (5) machines legally from the purchase of one CD-ROM (must input the serial number for the full installation, but typing "demo" enables several features to be installed for evaluation purposes). There is no uninstall feature, but after using it once, I do not think any educator would want to remove it.

The software is very user friendly and offers easy navigation tools. It also keeps track of an individual user’s personal progress right from the start as it asks for the user’s name in the beginning. From that point forth, students may keep track of their own progress and compare it to how other users of the software are doing (see Figure 1.1).

(Figure 1.1)

It even offers the teacher a chance to see how often the package is being used and by whom.

Students may also print out the exercises – with or without the answers. So, if a student finds that using computer-based learning somewhat difficult to adapt to, he or she can print out the exact exercises just as they appear on the computer and let the teacher correct them by hand afterwards (or the teacher could input the answers later and let the program do all the tracking and calculations).

The activities the software offers its users are impressive – students have to type corrections on tenses, click on correct/incorrect words, and fill-in the blanks. Although it never states it anywhere in advance, spelling does count towards one’s score. During one test on articles, I misspelled a word by not capitalizing a proper noun. Although the misspelling had nothing to do with that particular grammar lesson, my answer was considered incorrect and the explanation offered afterwards was a correction to the misused proper noun. This software completely agrees with my traditionalistic philosophy of "the rules are the rules" (meaning, if a word is spelled incorrectly, it is not okay – the word is misspelled)! I was surprised and extremely impressed that the software took such a "hardliner" stance on this considering the recent trends on the education of grammar (i.e., "inventive spelling"). I felt this product was written with me in mind!

The software also offers vocabulary drills and has an audio component that would help those students learning English how to pronounce words. The definitions are not available on audio for I suspect that may become too confusing for students who are not proficient in English (the point is that students are supposed to learn the new vocabulary word; not become confused as to what they should be learning), such as those whose native language is something different. Vocabulary words are offered on any screen – if a student needs to know what a word is, they may click on it to get to the pronunciation and definition.

Clarity ensured that the program offers plenty of feedback to help explain why the answers are as they are and what the rules of the English language are. Any incorrect response to an exercise inquiry is followed with a detailed explanation as to why it was erroneous, examples demonstrating proper usage, and offers follow-up activities to try again. Students may also use an included simple word processor as an online notebook to jot down ideas, notes, etc. to help the learning process. Clarity did not miss a beat in including a variety of features to assist students with whatever they may need to learn.

It seems that Clarity did its research and covered all the bases with a product that does not miss a thing. It empowers students by enabling them to operate independently while simultaneously offering teachers options to customize lessons. It also handles all the tracking and grading of the various exercises so the teacher has more time (which is the biggest problem with education – teachers do not have time) to concentrate on other vital aspects of the lesson.

This software goes beyond any expectations I had for it. It uses audio components of the hardware and offers enough variety within its structure to sustain the interest of its users. Tense Busters VII is such a fine piece of work that I believe it could be used as a primary source of grammar instruction for most any student – elementary age through adult! Teachers can add to and modify the exercises within the software as they feel using the authoring software. The challenge of doing so is figuring out how to do so without documentation, which is no easy task. Teachers may put their own grammatical questions, answers, and justifications into any exercise. This feature is only available with the full version, not the demo.

Teachers can also track the performance of their students by recording how many correct and incorrect responses they had to the exercises. The students have access to view these records as well. The software also compares the progress of its users with one another, thereby perhaps inviting a little competition amongst a user and his or her peers.

 ROLE OF STUDENTS

The students are empowered to complete the lessons and do the exercises at each pupil’s own respective pace. The exercise questions are predetermined by either the software or the instructor if he or she took the time to customize it. Students could make a friendly competition amongst themselves if they wish since they can all see how well they are progressing. The software does an excellent job of offering guidance to the student so they are able to learn independently if they so choose. If students have difficulty using computer-based learning, they may print any exercises either with or without the correct responses (hence, they may use the printouts to study or fill out as worksheets).

The teacher actually need not do much with the product if he or she does not wish to offer any customized inquiries. The software does such a thorough job that the role of the teacher is minimized considerably. If students do not understand the grammatical rules presented to them, the software explains it in another fashion. If users do not understand some of the vocabulary used, it offers definitions and the pronunciation of each term. The exercises are so varied (fill-in the blank, type corrections, click on the correct/incorrect term, etc.) that students are using both recognition and recollection learning skills.

I would use this software with anyone trying to gain a better understanding the rules of English grammar. I would use it myself upon having more time to improve my comprehension of the rules and I have an undergraduate degree in English and Connecticut State Certification in Secondary English! Students could use this independently or as part of a class computer lab exercise. It should be available in every school library – elementary, middle, high school, and dare I say, even college students would benefit from them. Its uses journey beyond the scope of the software itself.

I was very impressed with what Tense Busters VII has to offer. I am unfamiliar with previous versions, but I would be hard-pressed to think of better ways to improve upon this one. Perhaps some animations would liven the lessons up a little, but that is merely nitpicking. There could be better documentation accompanying the software, but aside from that, the product is fine as is. There are numerous strengths to the software: from teachers being able to customize the exercise questions to being able to compare the respective performances of individual students. English as a Second Language instructors could use this product to improve upon students’ vocabulary as well as teach them grammatical rules. I also thought very highly of the flexibility of the software – teachers could use it in a class setting or have students work independently on the program. It really is a remarkable piece of work.

It satisfies every imaginable aspect of teaching the rules of English grammar and it does so in a way that sensitive to those whose native languages are not necessarily European in origin. The software offers variety with its exercises and the company presents free updates on its web site to keep their product refreshing. Clarity truly seems dedicated to helping teachers help their students understand English grammar and go to great lengths to demonstrate this.

The only area I could fault them for is the lack of adequate documentation to explain the teacher tools (but for all I know that could be due to the college misplacing theirs and not the publisher forgetting to include one). I found it surprising that a company that was so committed to being attentive to each detail would forget something as basic as appropriate manuals. So it is possible the college merely misplaced the manual rather than the publisher not offering one with the software.