Method and system for aiding foreign language instruction

Claim 1

A method in a computer system for aiding foreign language instruction, the computer system having a memory, a display device, and a speaker, the method comprising the steps of: storing in the memory an audiovisual presentation of a plurality of words in a foreign language, the audiovisual presentation of each word having an audible component that includes a presentation of the word in the foreign language, and a visual component that includes a textual representation of the word in the foreign language and a graphical representation of lips enunciating the word; selecting a word from among the plurality of words; retrieving the stored audiovisual presentation for the selected word; and displaying on the display device the visual component of fire retrieved audiovisual presentation, including the graphical representation of lips and the textual representation, while playing the audible component of the retrieved audiovisual presentation through the speaker, so that a user can see lips enunciating the selected word while hearing the selected word being spoken and while seeing the selected word as written text, thereby aiding the user in learning how to pronounce the selected word in the foreign language.

Claim 2

A method in a computer system for aiding foreign language instruction, the computer system having a memory, a display device, and a speaker, the method comprising the steps of: storing in the memory an audiovisual presentation of a plurality of words in a foreign language, the audiovisual presentation of each word having an audible component that includes a presentation of the word in the foreign language, and a visual component that includes a textual representation of the word in the foreign language and a graphical representation of lips enunciating the word; selecting a word from among the plurality of words; retrieving the stored audiovisual presentation for the selected word; and displaying on the display device the visual component of fire retrieved audiovisual presentation, including the graphical representation of lips and the textual representation, while playing the audible component of the retrieved audiovisual presentation through the speaker, so that a user can see lips enunciating the selected word while hearing the selected word being spoken and while seeing the selected word as written text, thereby aiding the user in learning how to pronounce the selected word in the foreign language.

Claim 3

A method in a computer system for aiding foreign language instruction, the computer system having a stored audiovisual presentation for each of a plurality of words in a foreign language, the audiovisual presentation of each word having an audible pronunciation, a visual text representation, and a graphical representation of a close-up of a mouth enunciating the word, the method comprising the steps of: displaying the plurality of words in the foreign language by displaying the visual text representation of each of the plurality of words; selecting a word using a user input device from among the displayed plurality of words; retrieving the stored audiovisual presentation of the selected word; and concurrently playing back the audible pronunciation of the selected word while displaying the text representation of the selected word and the close-up of the mouth enunciating the selected word.

Claim 4

A method in a computer system for aiding foreign language instruction, the computer system having a stored audiovisual presentation for each of a plurality of words in a foreign language, the audiovisual presentation of each word having an audible pronunciation, a visual text representation, and a graphical representation of a close-up of a mouth enunciating the word, the method comprising the steps of: displaying the plurality of words in the foreign language by displaying the visual text representation of each of the plurality of words; selecting a word using a user input device from among the displayed plurality of words; retrieving the stored audiovisual presentation of the selected word; and concurrently playing back the audible pronunciation of the selected word while displaying the text representation of the selected word and the close-up of the mouth enunciating the selected word.

Claim 18

A method in a computer system for aiding foreign language instruction, the computer system having an audiovisual presentation for each of a plurality of words in a foreign language, the audiovisual presentation of each word having an audible pronunciation, a visual text representation, and a graphical representation of lips enunciating the word, the method comprising the steps of: displaying the visual text representation of each of the plurality of words in the foreign language; selecting a word from among the displayed visual text representations; retrieving the graphical representation of lips enunciating the selected word; displaying a close-up of the lips enunciating the selected word using the retrieved graphical representation to aid a user in learning to pronounce the selected word; and playing the audible pronunciation of the selected word according to a selectable speed while displaying the close-up of the lips enunciating the selected word, so that the user can see the lips enunciating the selected word while hearing the selected word being spoken.

Claim 19

A method in a computer system for aiding foreign language instruction, the computer system having an audiovisual presentation for each of a plurality of words in a foreign language, the audiovisual presentation of each word having an audible pronunciation, a visual text representation, and a graphical representation of lips enunciating the word, the method comprising the steps of: displaying the visual text representation of each of the plurality of words in the foreign language; selecting a word from among the displayed visual text representations; retrieving the graphical representation of lips enunciating the selected word; displaying a close-up of the lips enunciating the selected word using the retrieved graphical representation to aid a user in learning to pronounce the selected word; and playing the audible pronunciation of the selected word according to a selectable speed while displaying the close-up of the lips enunciating the selected word, so that the user can see the lips enunciating the selected word while hearing the selected word being spoken.

Claim 21

A method in a computer system for providing a foreign language study tool using an audiovisual story, the story having an ordered sequence of video frames and audio segments, each video frame associated with an audio segment of a plurality of words in the foreign language, each video frame having foreign language text corresponding to the plurality of words of the associated audio segment, the plurality of audio segments comprising a soundtrack the method comprising the steps of: displaying a dictionary mode indicator, a continuous mode start indicator, and a continuous mode stop indicator; in response to selection of the continuous mode start indicator, automatically displaying the video frames in the ordered sequence while playing the associated audio segments so that the soundtrack in the foreign language is heard in a continuous manner; in response to selection of the continuous mode stop indicator, stopping the automatic display of the video frames and playing of the associated audio segments; and selectively displaying each video frame while playing the audio segment associated with the video frame and while displaying the corresponding foreign language text, in a sequence that is not in the ordered sequence; selecting a word from the displayed corresponding foreign language text; and displaying a graphical representation of lips enunciating the selected word while playing the selected word from the associated audio segment; in response to selection of the dictionary mode indicator, displaying a list of the plurality of foreign language words of the audio segments, wherein when a word is selected from the displayed list, an audio segment containing the selected word is played, while the associated video frame and corresponding foreign language text is displayed, thereby providing an audiovisual example of the selected foreign language word used in context.

Claim 22

A method in a computer system for providing a foreign language study tool using an audiovisual story, the story having an ordered sequence of video frames and audio segments, each video frame associated with an audio segment of a plurality of words in the foreign language, each video frame having foreign language text corresponding to the plurality of words of the associated audio segment, the plurality of audio segments comprising a soundtrack the method comprising the steps of: displaying a dictionary mode indicator, a continuous mode start indicator, and a continuous mode stop indicator; in response to selection of the continuous mode start indicator, automatically displaying the video frames in the ordered sequence while playing the associated audio segments so that the soundtrack in the foreign language is heard in a continuous manner; in response to selection of the continuous mode stop indicator, stopping the automatic display of the video frames and playing of the associated audio segments; and selectively displaying each video frame while playing the audio segment associated with the video frame and while displaying the corresponding foreign language text, in a sequence that is not in the ordered sequence; selecting a word from the displayed corresponding foreign language text; and displaying a graphical representation of lips enunciating the selected word while playing the selected word from the associated audio segment; in response to selection of the dictionary mode indicator, displaying a list of the plurality of foreign language words of the audio segments, wherein when a word is selected from the displayed list, an audio segment containing the selected word is played, while the associated video frame and corresponding foreign language text is displayed, thereby providing an audiovisual example of the selected foreign language word used in context.

Claim 29

A method for creating a foreign language instruction audiovisual aid in a computer system memory, the method comprising the steps of: storing in the memory a plurality of video frames with corresponding audio segments of speech, the speech comprising a story in a foreign language; storing in the memory a dialog balloon for each audio segment, each dialog balloon having visual foreign language text that corresponds to the speech of the audio segment; associated with each dialog balloon, storing in the memory a colloquial translation in the familiar language of the visual foreign language text of the dialog balloon; and for each word that occurs in the stored audio segments of speech, storing an animated pronunciation guide which is a graphical representation of a close-up of a mouth enunciating the word, in such a manner that a program reading the memory can display the visual foreign language text of the word while playing an audio pronunciation of the word and while displaying the animated pronunciation guide for the word.

Claim 30

A method for creating a foreign language instruction audiovisual aid in a computer system memory, the method comprising the steps of: storing in the memory a plurality of video frames with corresponding audio segments of speech, the speech comprising a story in a foreign language; storing in the memory a dialog balloon for each audio segment, each dialog balloon having visual foreign language text that corresponds to the speech of the audio segment; associated with each dialog balloon, storing in the memory a colloquial translation in the familiar language of the visual foreign language text of the dialog balloon; and for each word that occurs in the stored audio segments of speech, storing an animated pronunciation guide which is a graphical representation of a close-up of a mouth enunciating the word, in such a manner that a program reading the memory can display the visual foreign language text of the word while playing an audio pronunciation of the word and while displaying the animated pronunciation guide for the word.