Lexinomicon
Lexinomicon presents written exercises meant to accompany the 5th edition of Na klar!, by Di Donato, Clyde, & Vansant. Because this is a new textbook, not all chapters' exercises have been entered yet, but they are on the way.
Also available are general review exercises for somewhat more advanced students (And for access to the old drills that are associated with a previous textbook, scroll to the bottom of this page).
Some general hints for using Lexinomicon:
- 1) Keep your sessions short.
You won't do yourself any good sitting at the terminal for hours.
When you find the drills getting mechanical, do something else for a while.
- 2) Make your sessions as frequent as possible.
Rote learning is like training for an athletic event.
It can't be crammed in at the last minute but must be spread out over time, with interludes of something else, including rest.
- 3) Pay attention to what you are doing.
If you find yourself just going through the motions,
even if you are producing correct answers, you are wasting your time.
Pause to consider what the particular exercise is trying to accomplish.
Make sure you know what each word means.
Think of what variations would look like.
- 4) Do not confuse passive understanding with active knowledge.
Especially if you have had previous exposure to German, you will be tempted to think that
recognizing forms is the same as generating them. It is not. "Oh, I knew that" is not a true statement.
Do not move on to another item until you have actually produced the right answer.
Here's how to install the application Lexinomicon on your computer. Please read all of the instructions before losing patience. Note
that there is a "trouble-shooting" section below.
Macintosh Users need to have OS 10.3 or better - if you have an earlier system,
you'll have to make do with DrillBits or Kartoffel - (see the "Troubleshooting" section at the end of this page).
Windows Users need to be sure that the following applications are also installed:
- Java 5 update 12. Many Windows systems may already have a version of Java installed. You may confirm the version by using the Control Panel: Add Remove applications tool. If you have Java 6 installed you will need to uninstall it and then install Java 5. Disable automatic Java updates to prevent accidentally installing Java 6. If you have any version of Java 5 installed you are most likely fine and may choose to either upgrade to update 12 or proceed with the installation. We are aware of this problem and hope to have a new release of Lexinomicon which works with Java 6 available soon.
If necessary, download and install
Java Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 12. Accept the license agreement and select the "Windows Offline Installation, Multi-language" option.
- iTunes for Windows. Many Windows systems may already have a version of iTunes installed. You may confirm this by using the Control Panel: Add Remove applications tool. If you have iTunes installed you are most likely fine and may either upgrade to update 12 or proceed with the installation.
If necessary, download and install iTunes
-
Download the Lexinomicon installer at http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/lexinomicon/install/install.htm.
The installer will place Lexinomicon in your Start Items forcing Lexinomicon to start when you start your computer. In some cases this is not desirable. You may disable this by removing the Lexinomicon shortcut from your list of Startup Items, which for XP users can be found through:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
If you disable the automatic startup, you'll want to drag the Lexinomicon program icon to the list of programs you access through your Start button. This icon can be found through:
C:\Program Files\Lexinomicon
- Proceed to the next section, Installing the German Workbooks.
Trouble-Shooting:
Installation Problems: If you have trouble installing Lexinomicon, contact Mark A. O'Neil.
Be sure to tell him what computer system you are using, as well as how and when things went wrong. Otherwise, he can't do much for you.