The two features of Instant English that are revolutionary are its authoring capability and it's unique visual vocabulary and syntax. The latter feature was awarded a patent in 1999.   For a description of each application, see COMPONENTS 

Student:   
The program is designed for students who may not know how to read or write in any language. It is visually obvious and there are no explanations or directions.     
Teachers:   
The program includes authoring tools. Teachers can create lessons and invent new ways of introducing the literacy student to the alphabet, the keyboard, the pronunciation of English words and the word order and cadence of English sentences

How and why does it work?     

Immersion:  Instant English uses an immersion method. No verbal or written translation is provided, but the icon sentences provide a visual explication of meaning. Translation can never be word for word. Converting grammar, particularly word order, from one language to another slows down learning and creates hesitant speakers. That is why immersion methods use only the target language to accelerate learning.    

No text:  A first language is learned by associating individual sounds and sound patterns with objects, gestures and behavior. Instant English uses a visual equivalent of events (icon strings) connected to speech sounds.    

Deconstructing sentences:  Words in a sentence can be heard separately by clicking on individual icons. The student can shift from single icon to sentence at will, making the sentence more comprehensible. Listening to the sentence as a whole can train the ear to detect how these individual sounds are blended together and accented.   

User-friendly: "User-friendly" and "programmed learning" was invented by Montessori, who designed materials that were self-teaching. She supported this method by restricting teachers to the role of programmers. They could not explain--They could only demonstrate. The teacher's role was to invent materials and methods that could be used independently of explanation. 

What Instant English is not:    

Not a game:  Although Instant English is efficient--combining reading, writing, listening and grammar in one object--the icon block--, it is also very linear. The author can only produce sentences. It cannot create game-like or test-like interactions, such as those dear to the hearts of Language teachers--substitutions, transformations, matching games, cloze exercises, fill-in-the-blank, and free writing. The student can only type sentences and listen. They cannot explore or play games.     

That is the downside. However, experience with non-literate adults has shown that fear of the computer inhibits novice computer users from exploring programs that use hypertext strategies. The linearity of Instant English is a relief to adults who cannot read or write and wish to concentrate on the sound and meaning of words and sentences. The program is designed for adults. The inventor of Instant English is eager to try the program with students who have hearing or reading disabilities or stroke.   

Not hard-wired: The upside of Instant English is its authoring capability. All other language programs are hard-wired. One cannot edit lessons or create new ones. The authoring tools permit teachers to teach any subject from hygiene to culture, and allow teachers to use songs and personal narratives in their lessons.

When you are finished please restart your computer. After installation you will see a "tutor" icon on the desktop. That is the shortcut to the student version of the program. If you want to use the authoring tools, look on the Start Menu\programs tab.    

You may have an additional CD with icons. These do not need to be installed. Just drag and drop this folder into your Hard Drive wherever you want it. Use the icons to illustrate hard copy lessons in Word or another publishing program.    

If you have Instant English already installed on your computer and you have new lessons or dictionaries to add, use the Data Update Utility. (On the Start Menu) The Data Utility will ask you to provide the path to the source of your new data. If it's on a CD-ROM, use that drive letter. If it's on a floppy, type a:\.   

for context Learning: Students can generalize the meaning of a word by seeing a different icon for each meaning that word had. They can also learn tense by observing the shaded background of past tense.

Each icon is a visual metaphor for a particular meaning, so there are many many icons for the same word, depending on the context of the sentence.

...in a library:   Dictionaries are files created by the Dictionary application. They can be renamed and moved, and the folders that hold them can be renamed and moved. They are all in a folder called Library. Do not rename the Library folder. 

New dictionaries can be created for other languages or for photos, or specific lessons. The current organization is by parts of speech. All but nouns are alphabetical. Nouns are by topic and sub-topic.

...in lessons: Lessons are files created by the Author application. Individual lessons or folders of lessons can be copied, moved, renamed, etc. New folders can be created for new lessons or to organize the lessons in different folders. They are all in a folder called LESSONS. Do not rename the Lesson folder.    

You may want to duplicate a lesson and put it in more than one location. For example, you may want to put "The Lee Family" in the level 1 folder, and also in the present tense folder. You may also wish to create a folder for your own class and put the lessons you select in that folder.

How do I edit the dictionaries?  The dictionary application makes the icon blocks that are used by the Author. Each icon block has a unique spelling, an image, a sound and a grammar label.    

To edit an existing dictionary, open the program and select "open" from the taskbar. When the dictionary window appears, browse (scroll down) and click to select a file. When the file opens, go to the word list box on the left pane and scroll to find the word you wish to edit. Select it.

Change the spelling by typing over it. Change the grammar by checking a different part of speech in the grammar tree. Change the icon or sound by using the "set icon" or "set sound" boxes. If you want to add new words, icons or sounds, follow the directions under "How do I make a new dictionary". 

NOTE: Use "remove" to delete a word before trying to delete its image from the icon dialog box. The image in the seticon box cannot be deleted as long as a word is using it.

How do I make a new dictionary? 

Step 5:  Type over "new word" with the correct spelling of the word(s) you want.   

Step 6:  Check capitalization box if necessary. 
Step 7:  Save (button on task bar). 

Example of adding all tenses of a verb:

The author application makes sentences out of icon blocks. It's a simple matter of selecting an icon block from a dictionary list and double-clicking it. It pops into a list and shows the finished sentence on the screen.  

The program will open to a blank screen. To create a new lesson, click on "new" in the application menu bar at the top of the window.  The following windows and tool bars will open:   

parent window:    
Double-paned window. Left side holds sentence tree. Right side shows lesson window as it appears to the learner.  

child window (dictionaries): Triple-paned dictionary window.  

left pane shows directory tree (dictionary folders and files). Browse the tree, or type word in finder window (small edit box at top of left pane)  
center pane shows word lists as the tree on the left opens them. Double clicking on word in the center pane enters the word into the sentence on the parent window  
Right pane shows image and grammar tree and has sound button for testing sound.   

floating window (visual pronunciation):    
Animated lips pronounce the word when the icon is clicked, a word is typed, or the sentence is activated.     

tool bar: provides drag & drop access to: "page", "sentence", "word" 

Step 3:  Find and select word. Go to the floating dictionary list box. The finder is at the top of the left-hand pane. Type a word in the finder and wait for the word to appear in the center list box. Alternatively, browse in the left hand pane of the dictionary window and scroll to the dictionary that contains the word you are seeking. The word you select will be highlighted.     

First word/sentence is a photo of a teacher. Sentence sound is that person speaking instructions to the student.
Next sentence is a line in the lesson. Sentence sound is the lesson line itself.   

First word/sentence is an icon of a mouth or a musical note. Sentence sound is a musical recording.
Next sentence is the first line of the lyric. Sentence sound is the lyric line itself.

A:  Follow the instructions for creating and installing sounds below. 

Continue by repeating steps 1-7. Add pages as needed.  Save lesson (frequently!  The memory may run out if you push the sentences around the screen a lot.  When that happens the computer freezes and you lose the whole lesson.  You don't wnat to start all over, do you?)

How do I create and install recorded sounds?   

Sounds are stored separately in any folder anywhere on your computer. If you wish to record a sentence, a song, or other sound effect, use a sound editor such as CoolEdit. Do a batch at a time so they will be at hand when you need them.
For a new sound, open your sound editor and select "new".     

• Settings: Set your resolution to a 16 bit, your sample rate to 11025 and use a mono channel. Voices do not need much fidelity and you want to keep your file small. 
• Record: You will need a microphone. Choose record and speak in a soft, intimate voice. Stop recording and then click "play" to hear it. Repeat as often as needed until you like what you hear.   
• Cut: Select all the silence or noise at the beginning and end and cut it. If you spoke too slowly, cut the gaps between words. If you spoke too quickly, add a tiny bit of silence where needed. You can zoom in to see where to insert the silence.  
• Amplify: If it sounds too far away and faint, choose amplify and try 200-300%.  
• Save: Your file as a windows, or WAV file. 

For a new sound, open your sound editor and select "new".     

• Settings: Set your resolution to a 16 bit, your sample rate to 11025 and use a mono channel. Voices do not need much fidelity and you want to keep your file small. 
• Record: You will need a microphone. Choose record and speak in a soft, intimate voice. Stop recording and then click "play" to hear it. Repeat as often as needed until you like what you hear.   
• Cut: Select all the silence or noise at the beginning and end and cut it. If you spoke too slowly, cut the gaps between words. If you spoke too quickly, add a tiny bit of silence where needed. You can zoom in to see where to insert the silence.  
• Amplify: If it sounds too far away and faint, choose amplify and try 200-300%.  
• Save: Your file as a windows, or WAV file. 

To paste a sound on a lesson:    

• Open the Author application to the lesson and page you want. 
• Click on the sentence that will receive the sound. 
• Click on the mouth icon on the sentence task bar and a dialog box will open. 
• Select "import". Close the sound dialog box.

That's it. You can test the sound by clicking on the button next to the sentence in the lesson pane

from a photo: 
1.  Use a digital photo, a photo from the internet, or scan a photo into a graphics program.  
2.  Crop the photo as small as possible.  
3.  Change to gray scale.  
4.  Increase the contrast to eliminate detail.  
5.  Resize the picture to 54 pixels high.  
6.  Save as a bitmap. (the extension should be .bmp).  

...icon tips  Every year more icons get added to the 3000 already available.  The goal is 5,000. Icons can be created in any graphics program. They must be 54 pixels high and must be saved as bitmaps. 

image conventions: 
Use black / white except for colors, flags or photos.  

For a consistent style, make the icons look like the ones in airports, on traffic signs, and in logos--not too abstract and not too detailed (like an illustration). 

Test the image on your friends.  If they consistently guess another word first, don't use it.  Good icons exclude multiple interpretations (if possible). 

Make icon copies for every part of speech it fits.  Verb icons can also be used as adjectives and adverbs.  Nouns can be used as verbs. 
Plurals can be formed by putting a slice of an icon next to its singular version. 

Use photos for people's names. 

Use separate icons for each context.  For example, cut has at least two icons; one, a scissors and another one, a knife. 

If you are using icons in hard copy lessons, don't forget to make copies of  verbs for other tenses.  Past tense verbs have a gray background.  Participles reverse the foreground and background.

...make hard-copy lessons for the classroom:  You can use Word to make hard-copy lessons using icon sentences, or individual icons.  Use a table with one row for words and one for pictures. Or just insert an icon where you want it in the sentence. From the insert command, choose picture/from file. Then click "open".  It's that easy. 

Icons are ideal for tests and "cloze" exercises where there is a blank to be filled in and you don't want to give away the word.

..use the workbooks included on the CD for tests and homework: The workbooks are:

• A Orientation
• B Computer Projects
• C Grammar
• D Drills
  
  
  

You may wish to create your own personal lesson folder for for currently assigned lessons.    

1.  Insert a new folder into the parent folder "LESSONS". Name it. 
3.  Drag or paste a  bitmap (54 X 54 pixels. See: icons)into your new folder.  
4.  Once its in the folder (and only then), rename the bitmap "image.bmp". 
5.  copy and paste one or more lessons into the folder.   

When you open the Instant Tutor program, you will see your bitmap image on the navigation bar. When you click on this image, the lessons in your folder will appear in a pop-out menu.