New developments from STELLA: Software for Teaching English

New developments from STELLA: Software for Teaching English
Jean Anderson
University of Glasgow
j.anderson@arts.gla.ac.uk
KEYWORDS: CAL, hypertext, English

The STELLA project has been creating materials for, and promoting the use of, computers in teaching and research in English Language, English Literature and Scottish Literature since 1987. Teaching packages include materials for Modern English Grammar and lexis, the history of English and Scots, Metrics, Stylistics, English and Scottish annotated texts and Literary and Linguistic Computing. We now have several new projects in various stages of development.
The Essentials of Old English
This is an interactive suite of computer-based teaching programs written for an Ordinary class in English Language. The package consists of Exercises, designed to develop special linguistic skills, and a reference Book, which contains a Grammar, a small selection of simplified and normalised Texts, and an Old English/Present-Day English Glossary. The Old English words needed for the Exercises are all commonly found in the Grammar and Texts. Students can access the Book at any point in the Exercise programs by clicking on the Book button at the bottom of the screen. This new package is one of several STELLA programs which has being re-written as part of this year's software upgrading process.
An Introduction to Older Scots
This browsing package is designed as a practical guide for students reading Older Scots as part of their Higher Ordinary Scottish Literature course. It contains information on the development of the Scots language from 1100 to modern times. It is designed to help the beginning student appreciate Older Scots literature.
ARIES: Assisted Revision in English Style
Many people would like to communicate more clearly. This 6-unit package will be welcomed in many academic departments as well as in the business world. ARIES is a suite of interactive computer-assisted materials for improving key English language skills in areas such as grammar, spelling, punctuation and written English style. ARIES can help people to achieve clarity of expression, to deal with individual points of insecurity and to produce clear communications in letters, reports and promotional materials. The modular structure of the course units will enable users to select their own areas of interest and pace their own learning in a friendly Hypertext environment.
A Guide to Scottish Literature
Media interest in Scottish Literature is currently strong and set to increase. 1996 was the bi-centenary of the death of Robert Burns; the period 1994-97 will have seen the centenary of Robert Louis Stevenson and the bi-centenary of James Boswell. STELLA and the Department of Scottish Literature, have created an electronic course in Scottish Literature, covering the period from 1350 to the present. We are converting the material on which the Department's distance-taught M.Phil. is based, to multi-media computer software on cd-rom. This unique resource will be sold to arts and heritage organisations, newspapers, television and radio companies as a reference source and to professionals in schools, colleges and universities as a complete course in Scottish Literature. The multi-media format will give access to the material in an interactive, searchable form.
STARN: The Scots Teaching and Research Network
'Starn' is a Scots word meaning 'star', a name chosen by the project director, Dr John Corbett of English Language. Working with colleagues in Scottish Literature, STELLA is selecting texts for digitising from the Scottish Theatre Text Archive, poetry and prose from the Scottish Language Resource Centre, texts on classroom discourse and journalistic texts on the subject of Scots. Our Web site now has a growing selection of Scottish literary and non-literary materials which are usually difficult to access by other means. They are primarily intended for use by educationalists and researchers into aspects of Scottish culture, particularly Scottish literature and varieties of Scots language.
STELLA is also host to three new mailing lists for Scots language and literature:
scotlanglit.c11-c17@mailbase.ac.uk for 11th to 17th century language and literature
scotlanglit.c18@mailbase.ac.uk for 18th century language and literature

scotlanglit.c19-c20@mailbase.ac.uk for 19h and 20th century language and literature

The World Wide Web addresses for STELLA and STARN are:

http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/STELLA/

http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/COMET/starn.html