Word Lists

Activities that use Word Lists

There are several activities that use the Word List format:

• Wordsgame (/computer/keyboard/wordsgame)
• Simple Letters (/computer/keyboard/gletters)
• Reading-h and Reading-v (/reading/readingh and /reading/readingv)
• Hangman /reading/hangman

We will first explain how the file format works, then take you through the level design.

Format

A word list looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<GCompris>
<Wordlist name="default-en" description="Default English (Canada)" locale="en">
<level value="1" speed="150" fallspeed="7000" sublevels="10">
I
a
am
...
</level>
<level value="2">
able
also
army
aunt
baby
...
</level>
</Wordlist>
</GCompris>

And this is what the tags mean:

• Wordlist: Some general information about the file
  • name: this is identical to the file name (withouth the .xml at the end)
  • description: Add the name of your language here
  • locale: This needs to be the ISO code for your locale (same as the name of the .po-file)

• level: Create a <level>...</level> tag for each new level
  • value: The number of the level, starting from 1. You can have as many levels as you want, but make sure you don't miss a number!

The remaining attributes of the level-tag are optional and used in Wordsgame and Simple Letters only. Use these if you feel that words/letters are dropping too fast or if higher levels get too long or lower levels too short - some lenguages will need more levels than English in order to teach everything!

• level
  • speed: Set manually how fast new words appear
  • feelspeed: Set manually how fast the words drop
  • sublevels: Set manually how many words will have to be solved for the level

Word list level design

Here are some level design suggestions for you. Of course, you can do as best fits your language!

Wordsgame (Typing words)

This is a typing game. Unless your language has characters that are difficult to type, just follow the rules layed out above for English. If your language has letters that require more keystrokes than simple letters, it is best to keep these letters out of the lower levels. Create a level higher up that will introduce them with some shorter words, then start to mix. Keep the words with complicated letters in them shorter than the other words, and keep in mind that they also require more thinking, not just more keystrokes! The number of levels is flexible, so if there are complicated letters to learn, you can create as many levels as you need to introduce them.

Example:

Level	Word Length
1	2 - 3 simple letters
2	= 4 simple letters
3	= 5 simple letters
4	= 6 simple letters
5	2 - 3 accented letters
6	= 4 - 5 accented letters
7	= 7 - 14 simple letters, 5 - 10 accented letters

Reading

In this game, words on the same level should have the same length. Just follow the rules layed out above for the general word list, except that you can have letters in there that are complicated to type. This is a reading activity, so typing doesn't matter here.

Hangman

For Hangman, take your reading list and reverse the letters. Short words are harder than long words in hangman! Remove all words that are longer than 10 letters, because they won't fit the screen.

Note that this game supports complex letters, e.g. <sh> makes a single sound in English, so you could design the game to have a button with "sh" on it if you want. The letter buttons are defined in the PO-File. The PO-File also provides an option for keyboard shortcuts for complex letters. For example, if I have both "s" and "sh", if I type <s>, "s" gets selected. However, I could define "sh=S" in the PO-File, so when I type uppercase <S>, "sh" gets selected.