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

You may use the mouse, or the keyboard, 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 or to configure the program, run RECORD from the 
directory, or press [CONTROL]T while at the title screen.

The default directory for the windows trial version is:
     c:\MAVDEMO\ESL*-D\RECORD.EXE

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.

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

3. A hide/show feature for the Customized Drill

4. 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 shareware-related problem 
with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to 
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CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.


