Spanish for Business Professionals News

FALL 1999

Questions about hardware or software compatibility?

Click to go to FAQ's

Just say no to multiple choice!

SBP's interactive exercises stress learner production. Click Ejercicios for an overview.

Internet-enabled multimedia?

Spanish for Business Professionals allows you to download daily news and financial updates over your internet connection. Bookmark our web site for details in the near future!

Wouldn't it be nice if students could e-mail assignments to instructor without leaving a tutorial?

The educational version of SBP comes with built-in e-mail window. Check out our Noticias page from time to time for more info.

Real-time, peer-to-peer communication via the internet.

This is one of the technologies in the beta release of SBP. Visit our Noticias site for updates on our progress.

LATEST NEWS

Updated February 2000.

This page will keep you posted on the latest developments of our Spanish CD-ROM project. Drop in from time to time for news on our progress!

WHAT'S NEW IN BETA 5

The latest Beta Version of SBP is now available for limited distribution. Here's what's new:

Expanded and revised technical dictionary.

Expanded and revised grammar reference.

Upgraded news reader. You can now download news in several different categories from Yahoo's Spanish language news pages. SBP's point-and-click technology allows students to look up words in the dictionary simply by clicking on them inside the news reader.

New dictation and translation exercises with error-specific feedback.

Numerous bug fixes.

All three volumes are now available!

HOW CAN WE GET A COPY?

We have a limited number of beta copies of Spanish for Business Professionals available for distribution to academic institutions. To get your copy, while supplies last:

Visit our FAQ's page to make sure your institution has the equipment which will work with SBP. The current release runs only on Macintosh computers.
Visit the Diálogos pages to find out which volume is most appropriate for your institution. Volume 1 includes Unidades 1-4, for elementary students. Volume 2 includes Unidades 5-8, intermediate level. Volume 3, which includes Unidades 9-12, is for advanced students.
E-mail us at sbp@dt.uh.edu to request a copy. Be sure to include 1) your name and mailing address, 2) your institution, 3) the names of classes which will be using SBP, and the volume number you prefer.

SBP ON PENTIUM-TYPE MACHINES

The forthcoming Intel-standard version of SBP is currently in the final stages of alpha (i.e. pre-beta development). As of February, Units 1 through 4 are up and running on Linux. As soon as we're confident that it can run without too many bugs, we'll make an announcement through CALICO and see if we can find some volunteers for testing. This version will run on your Pentium-based computer as long as you have some distribution of Linux installed, either on a dedicated hard drive or (more likely) on a separate partition. As with the Macintosh version, a limited number of CD-ROM's will be available free of charge to academic institutions. Those institutions will, in turn, be able to make multiple copies for their labs, also free of charge. Our long-term goals are to make a Windows-based version available commercially, although it's too early now to be more definitive

INTERACTIVE DICTATION EXERCISES

One of the technologies which has occupied a great deal of our R and D time is natural language processing. Volume 1 of SBP now includes an interactive dictation exercise which takes advantage of NLP support. The exercise works much like a traditional dictation exercise. Students hear a sentence spoken out loud in Spanish (played by a simple mouse click, in the case), and they type what they hear. SBP then checks the answer to see if it matches the dictation. This is not, however, a simple sentence-to-sentence comparison. The software does a full grammatical analysis of the input and flags specific types of errors like subject/verb agreement, word order, and so on. The students can even create their own sentences based on the dictation. Here's a simple example. One of the dictations in Unit 4 is:

Tenemos una cita con el señor Montes.

Your students can listen to the dictation, type in what they hear, and get feedback. Then they can change the sentence to something like this:

Tenemos un acuerdo con el señor Montes.

The software will then reanalyze the input for new errors.

SBP CHAT PROTOCOL

Our built-in internet access now include a real-time, peer-to-peer chat protocol. Users will be able to communicate in real-time with remote copies of SBP. All you need is a TCP/IP internet connection in your lab. No special hardware or software is required. The forthcoming academic beta version supports both peer-to-peer and group chat protocols.

CLASSICAL GUITAR FOR SBP

We now have the synchronization rights for music from the CD Tómas Vigil Classical Guitar, from Sierra Solutions, Inc. The CD includes selections from traditional Spanish composers like Enrique de Valderrábano and Luys de Narváez, as well as more modern pieces from Emilio Pujol and Daniel Fortea. The CD even includes a selection "Alegría," composed by Mr. Vigil himself. Tómas Vigil studied the classical guitar at the University of New Mexico under Cuban classical guitar master Hector García. He has performed concerts in the United States and in Europe, including one at Almacelles, Lerida, and another at the famed Escalonia Monastery Church in Montserrat. At present he lives, performs, and teaches (and does computer consulting) in Ruidoso, New Mexico. Look for the upcoming feature film The Outfitters, which features music from Mr. Vigil. For more information call Sierra Solutions, Inc. 1 800 223 9619.

QUESTIONS ABOUT SPANISH FOR BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS?

If you have questions about our project, CLICK HERE to visit our FAQ page. There is a link to our mail box at that site, so you can e-mail us questions of your own. We will respond to them as promptly as possible.