Play It!

Steven-W15

October 14, 2015

I've been through the course so many times that there is not much more I can do with it.

One feature I really liked and continued to benefit from was the "Play It!" section. I could go through at the native level at full speed and improvise the conversation as I went along. It was like having a real conversation with a native speaker. Now with the way the system works, it's slow and lockstep (i.e., the system has to recognize what you say before moving on to the next phrase) - so no longer useable for me.

While the new approach may have value to someone just starting out, I think it takes away much of the value of what is a very clever / innovative learning technique.

Donald-O

October 14, 2015

What happened to the record portion in Hear it Say It, and Know It?
It's gone as no longer there.
What is going on??

M-L

October 14, 2015

I have been away a long time and have trouble understanding how the "Play It" worked.

This is how I have been trying: I first picked the level, say "easy" and then picked "Claire" and then responded to what "Paul" said and then play "Both" for comparison. BUT it worked sometimes but not necessarily with other lessons. What is the proper way to do this "Play It" part of the lesson. The rest of the exercises for each lesson were very straight forward.

Robert-C7

October 14, 2015

One annoying thing about the new "Play It" is that there is no way to give up on the current line. You have to keep talking until it recognizes it. I have often used "Play It" without speaking in environments where I can't speak. Now, it just gets stuck.

Here are some simple suggestions to improve it.
1. Add a button one can press to make it move on.
2. Start recording (recognition) immediately without requiring us to press the record button. In other words, do like you do in "Know It".

grahame-r

October 14, 2015

I agree with Steven, I liked the "Play It" for the same reason, now it is a waste of time, the whole course just seems so slow in response time.

Steven-W15

October 15, 2015

If I can spit out what I want to say (which is the tough part for me in language acquisition), it's usually with a halfway decent accent. So the emphasis on speech recognition in this new configuration doesn't really do much for me.

Back to the "Play It!" section... When using this feature in the past, I look away from the computer to better simulate a real conversation (i.e., I'm not looking at the scripted text as it is advancing). So having to select buttons (other than to start the conversation) would not be what I would be looking for.

Perhaps a (not so simple) suggestion to implement in the future is to create a new section at just the "native" level. Using phrases which already exist in the lesson, the system could use variants each time you use it to simulate a somewhat dynamic conversation. Just put in some fixed amount of time between the phrases to allow the user to respond.

jason-oxenham-founder

October 15, 2015

Hi all - Thanks for your comments. We got a LOT of feedback that Play it! was too hard for some users. But I can see that for more seasoned users that that would not be the case. I will put it on a list to look into in the near future. In the meantime you could use the role play tracks to simulate the same thing (to a degree)

Steven-W15

October 16, 2015

I completely forgot about those role play tracks. Thanks for the heads-up - that works for me.

Robert-C7

October 16, 2015

Role Play tracks are useful for that purpose. It is too bad we don't get points for using them. Perhaps give 10 points as you would if we worked through a "play it" track.

em21

November 10, 2015

I am happy pressing the button to talk. I like to be prepared before I begin speaking after the other person says something. We all are not as quick as other people here.

Thanks,
Edie

em21

November 11, 2015

Hi, I am on lesson 11.2 of Italian Premium Plus. Today, I noticed for the first time a gadget a the left column of the page named Rocket Record. I don't know if it has been there all this time, only that I just noticed it today. What is that?

It happens that while I was doing a Play it test, I was having the hardest time that I ever had. It was like the voice recognition wasn't picking up what I was saying a lot more than usual. I noticed that the Rocked Record is set to hard.Could that have something to do with it?, and would changing the setting help the recorder recognize my voice better?

Thanks

Edie

jason-oxenham-founder

November 11, 2015

Hi Edie - Yes, good spotting. You should change the level down to Easy to get started. I am about to put up a blog post about the recent changes!

em21

November 14, 2015

Thanks, Jason, I saw the blog, and it explains everything

Edie

ebrandza2

April 8, 2016

Hi, I am on Rocket French. Enjoying the course so far!

For lessons 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 for the "Play it" section. It does not seem to be working as it did in the earlier lessons. Where as you advance to the second third and fourth attempts, it becomes more difficult as they block out some words etc. For these lessons it remains exactly the same. I wish this could be fixed for my future lessons.

Thanks
Eric

jason-oxenham-founder

April 9, 2016

Hi Eric - Thanks for reporting this. The IT team have been scheduled to look into it shortly.

jason-oxenham-founder

April 12, 2016

Hi Eric - Just a quick update; this should be fixed. There was a bug in a recent roll-out that has now been rectified.

ebrandza2

April 12, 2016

Yes, I noticed it has been fixed on lesson 3.4. Thank's a lot! I am loving the course!

Diana-S1

April 12, 2016

I find the Play It to be an exercise in frustration. It expects the user to memorize the conversations. Because memorization is very difficult for me, I don't even bother with the Play It.

jason-oxenham-founder

April 12, 2016

Hi Eric - Thanks for the feedback!

Hi Diana - There is an option to turn off the voice recognition on Play it! That way you can say whatever you like. Personally I find that there is a benefit in being able to recall various phrases (even if they are rote-learned) when being put on the spot!

ebrandza2

April 13, 2016

It's true the exercise can be a bit difficult, but I think it's a pretty good test for whether you have really got the most from the lesson. It requires you to become very familiar with some phrases straight from your head(eventually) and to access them quickly. This is why I made a post about this, I was getting it way too easy and needed the real test back!

Play It!

Ask a question or post a response