Trial Program Guide

ESL DEMONS (for students of American English)
Skill levels: Beginner-low intermediate

Trial version: Level 3 (Limited sample)

Complete program: 3 sets, 2 levels per set
Set A: (Levels 1 and 2) for the student who has mastered some conversational 
English and is ready to move on to standard written English
Set B: (Levels 3 and 4) for the student completing beginners' material and 
moving on to second-level work
Set C: (Levels 5 and 6) for the low intermediate student

Windows or MS-DOS (VGA display)

The program is designed for students whose knowledge of English ranges 
from beginner to intermediate in standard written English. It is also 
useful for Special Education students, from third grade on, who need 
help in using simple, clear English.

Each level contains many ESL Demons, or topics. The program helps students 
cope with troublesome points of English grammar, usage, and spelling. 
Sentences contain up to four highlighted choices, one of which is 
an ESL Demon, such as a word or phrase that would not be appropriate 
in standard written English. The material helps students recognize 
language that is clear and correct. The program provides explanations 
that teach the underlying grammatical concepts. Each lesson is self-directing.

NOTE: The program includes a game and an individual Demon drill. We 
recommend that students play the game first so that the teacher can 
identify those Demons that present problems to the student. The Record 
Management program will show the number of times the student has played 
each Demon. The drill may then be used for extra help for those students 
who need it. For the School version of the program there is a hide/show 
feature that permits teachers to activate or deactivate the Customized 
Drill. 

OVERVIEW

The ESL Demons program provides practice at different levels of difficulty.

The program consists of six levels with twelve ESL Demons, or topics, 
per level. Set A texts provide two highlighted words or phrases per 
sentence; Set B, three highlighted words or phrases; Set C, three 
or four highlighted words or phrases.

MOUSE OPTION

At the prompt type HELLO to begin the program. You may use the mouse 
as soon as the first exercise appears on the screen.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The student is asked to use the mouse or Tab key to select a highlighted, 
incorrect word or phrase in a sentence. After the student responds 
s/he is shown the correct sentence and is given the grammatical reason(s) 
for the correct answer. If the student answers  correctly, s/he 
receives a congratulatory word or a graphic reward.

After logging in his/her name the student is offered two options: 
1. Play a round of Demons (game). 2. Work on a customized drill.

Demons Game: The Demons are presented to the student in the same order 
in which they are listed in the program guide. In each round, the 
student is given twelve sentences which cover the material for three 
Demons. There are four randomly selected sentences per Demon. To master 
a Demon, the student must choose the correct answer for all four sentences 
in the round. Until the student gets the four sentences correct, s/he 
will continue to receive sentences for that Demon in subsequent rounds.

For the final round, if fewer than three Demons remain unmastered 
in the game, the round will include only those Demons still unmastered.

PROGRAM HELP FEATURES

The program provides three help features. First, the sentence appears 
in its correct form, regardless of the student's answer. Second, 
the computer gives the grammatical reason(s) for the correct answer. 
The third feature, the individual Demon drill, gives the student the 
opportunity to focus on specific troublesome Demons. From the drill 
menu, the student may choose up to three Demons to work on per round. 
There are four sentences for each Demon. A star next to a Demon on 
the menu indicates that the student has mastered that Demon. Starred 
Demons may be chosen for additional drill.

SCORING

Scores for mastered Demons in the game and drill are recorded. When 
a Demon is mastered in the game it is starred on the customized drill 
menu and will not reappear in the game. Starred Demons may be chosen 
for additional drill. However, if the student does not remaster the 
Demon the star is removed and the Demon reappears in the game.

Students may choose to exit the program at any time during a round. 
Even if the round is not completed, a Demon is scored as `mastered'
if the student's answers are correct for that Demon's four 
sentences.

If a student masters all Demons and chooses to play again, the record 
manager will add `M' for `mastered' after the student's last name. The 
student's name will then appear again for subsequent rounds.

RECORD MANAGEMENT

To see student records, run RECORD from the directory, or press [CONTROL]T 
while at the title screen of the level.

This version saves records for only two students. A third name will 
automatically replace a previously entered name. (The single user 
School version saves records for as many students as disk space allows. 
The Network version saves records for 1,000 students.)

The records can go to the screen or the printer. You may see the records 
of the entire class, or choose an individual student's scores. 
If you choose to look at the scores of the entire class, you may have 
them displayed in alphabetical order or from highest to lowest.

Use the following keys to make your selections:

ALT: Allows you to choose items in the Top Menu: (1)Order (2)View (3)Select 
(4)Print (5)Delete (6)Exit. In each of the first three options, you 
will have the choice of selecting records from the Pull Down Menu 
by name, date, skills mastered, or class code.

TAB: Changes the category of information that is displayed in a fixed 
cycle, e.g., from students' names, to last dates played, to highest 
mastered skill levels, to class codes, to a student's entire 
record and then back again to the students' names.

ENTER: Selects or deselects any piece of information on which the cursor 
is placed. Selected items can be viewed, printed, or deleted as a 
group. They appear on the screen highlighted in red.

Screen Layout:  Instructions are placed in color boxes at the bottom of the 
screen. The number appearing at the end of the last line of instructions on 
the screen indicates the position of the cursor in the total number of 
records. Just before this number is a description of what information is 
being displayed, e.g., name, date, etc.

Moving the Cursor: To move the cursor use the arrow keys. To see preceding 
screens, use the Page Up key. To go to following screens, use the Page Down 
key. To go to the beginning of a list, press the Home key. To get to the end 
of a list, press the End key.

To See Records: All information may be viewed on the screen or printed out. 
To clear previously selected records, choose Select from the Top Menu and 
Deselect from the Pull Down Menu. Note that your viewing selections are 
cleared each time the program is restarted or the computer is turned off. 

Examples

1. To print out the records of one class, follow these directions:

     Top Menu     Pull Down Menu    Other Keys     Remarks/Actions

ALT   Select          Class         Cursor keys    Find the beginning of 
						   the class
				    
				    ENTER          Mark the beginning of 
						   the class

				    Cursor keys    Find the end of the 
						   class
				    
				    ENTER          Mark the end of the 
						   class

ALT   View            Selected                     Now only that class is 
						   displayed. (Repeating 
						   this step would restore 
						   screen as it was.)

ALT   Order           Name                         Class now alphabetized

ALT   Print           Selected                     Printing is optional 
						   Information can be 
						   viewed on the screen. 

2. To print the highest (or lowest) skill level, follow the steps 
above, replacing Class, from the Pull Down Menu, with Mastered.

3. To see the records of all students in a range on the screen, choose 
View from the Top Menu and choose Entire from the Pull Down Menu.

4.  To see the records of an individual student on the screen, place 
the cursor on the name of the student whose records you want to view, 
and press TAB to change the information displayed.

ERROR FIX

If the program runs but does not keep student records properly, or 
if some streaks appear in the Demons graphics, access the RECORD program 
and delete all records.

VIEWER (printer required)

To reach the Viewer, access GD-PRINT from the directory. This allows you to 
send to the printer all Demons and the explanations of why they are correct. 
Please note that a `Message Code' will appear on the print-out. It is used 
only for internal programming purposes and does not affect operation of the 
program.

ESL DEMONS

LEVEL 1 (Set A-1)

  1. Regular noun plurals, I (-s, -es) 
  2. No article with certain nouns 
  3. This, these 
  4. Regular noun plurals, II (-s, -es, -ies) 
  5. That, those                              
  6. Contractions - pronouns and verbs        
  7. Possessive pronouns (its, your, their)   
  8. Articles (`a' and `an' with singular nouns) 
  9. Possessive of singular nouns ('s) 
 10. Prepositions of place, I (in, on, at) 
 11. Prepositions of time, I (in, at)      
 12. There is, there's, there are 

LEVEL 2 (Set A-2)

  1. Contractions - verbs + not            
  2. Irregular noun plurals, I             
  3. Possessive pronouns, I (mine, hers, ours) 
  4. Possessive pronouns, II (yours, theirs)   
  5. Simple present and present continuous tenses 
  6. Simple past tense (to be)                    
  7. Indefinite articles with adjectives          
  8. Irregular noun plurals, II                   
  9. Loose, lose                                  
 10. Correct use of `at'                           
 11. Many, much                                    
 12. Possessive of regular plural nouns 

LEVEL 3 (Set B-1)

  1. Adverbs of manner 
  2. Simple past tense, I Regular verbs 
  3. Prepositions of time, II (in, on)  
  4. Regular noun plurals, III (-f, -fe to -ves) 
  5. Simple past tense, I Irregular verbs        
  6. Possessive of nouns ending in -s            
  7. Articles (a, an)                            
  8. Doubling a consonant before -ing or -ed     
  9. Comparative and superlative of adjectives 
 10. Terms of quantity and their plurals 
 11. Try to (not `try and') 
 12. Double negatives, I (not/n't + no or nothing) 

LEVEL 4 (Set B-2)

  1. Simple past tense, II Regular verbs 
  2. Then, than                          
  3  Simple past tense, II Irregular verbs 
  4. Comparison of adjectives              
  5. Good, well                            
  6. Double negs., II (not/n't + nobody, no one) 
  7. A few, a little                             
  8. Nouns used as adjectives - singular form    
  9. Better, best - worse, worst                 
 10. Past continuous tense                        
 11. Whose, who's                                 
 12. Make, do 

LEVEL 5 (Set C-1)

  1. Simple past tense, III Irregular verbs 
  2. Double negs., III (alternative correction) 
  3. Present perfect continuous                 
  4. For, since                                 
  5. Prepositions of time, III (in, on)         
  6. Superlative of adjectives                  
  7. Passed, past                               
  8. Agreement of subject and verb, I           
  9. Less, fewer                                
 10. Past participles, I Regular verbs           
 11. Almost, most                                
 12. Prepositions of place, II (in, on, at) 

LEVEL 6 (Set C-2)

  1. Simple past tense, IV Irregular verbs 
  2. Past participles, II Irregular verbs  
  3. Comparisons (more and most, less and least) 
  4. Double negs., IV (barely, scarcely, hardly) 
  5. Ordinal numbers                             
  6. Agr. of subj. & verb, II (intervening phrase) 
  7. Agr. of subj. & verb, III (collective nouns)  
  8. Verb plus infinitive or gerund                
  9. Different from (not `different than')         
 10. Agreement of pronoun and antecedent            
 11. Confusing word twins                           
 12. Case of pronouns 

Copyright 1994-1996 Merit Audio Visual
All rights reserved GTDR
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

We hope you enjoy previewing ESL DEMONS. The School version of the 
program contains the following:

1. Six levels of exercises

2. A print option that allows you to see all Demons and the 
   explanations of why they are correct

3. Record management for as many students as disk space allows.

4. A hide/show feature for the Customized Drill

5. A teacher's guide

Merit offers a full range of educational software for writing, reading, 
grammar, vocabulary, ESL, and math. Merit also offers networking for 
Novell and other LAN, and licensing. School or Institutional Purchase 
Orders accepted.

We will be happy to answer any questions you might have.

MERIT AUDIO VISUAL

(800) 753-6488      (212) 675-8567      FAX: (212) 675-8607

Call us Monday through Friday between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM Eastern Time. 
Or write MERIT AUDIO VISUAL, 132 W. 21 Street, New York, NY 10011 for 
free software catalog.

This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware 
Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware 
principle works for you.  If you are unable to resolve a 
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Ombudsman 70007,3536.


