This short tutorial gives a survey of the software "Teachmaster".

Introduction

Teachmaster is a free program for learning vocabulary. Because of its universality, nearly all languages can be learned. If you want to learn a language with special characters like Russian or Greek, you only have to choose the right font.
The program divides into the Editor, the Teaching program, the Converter and the Quiz. In the Editor, you create and edit your vocabulary files, which can be trained in the Teaching program with various learning methods. The Converter is useful for converting different file formats into each other. The Quiz is a multiple-choice test.
For copyright reasons, you cannot download ready-made vocabulary files on the Teachmaster homepage. Therefore you have to create the vocabulary files in the Editor for yourself.

Installation

The setup file installs the program into a directory of your choice, for example C:\Program Files\Teachmaster. You start the program with a click on the file Teachmaster.exe in this directory, or by clicking on the appropriate links in the "Start menu" and on the desktop.
On the Teachmaster homepage, you can find language files for translating the graphical user interface (GUI) of Teachmaster into other languages. In order to use such a language file with the suffix .lang, download it and copy it into the directory which contains your installed version of Teachmaster, for example C:\Program Files\Teachmaster. At the next start of Teachmaster, this new language will be available.

Editing of vocabulary

In the Editor, you edit new or already existing vocabulary files with the suffix .vok2. A vocabulary file can contain unlimited lessons, and every lesson can consist of unlimited vocabulary entries.
A vocabulary entry consists of the following five fields:

• Lesson
• Language 1
• Language 2
• Synonym(s)
• Comment

In the Editor, various tools are at your disposal: The Overview gives a survey of all lessons and vocabulary entries; furthermore you can choose a font in the File info, if you want to learn a language with special characters. The Lesson manager can split your vocabulary entries into lessons or rename single lessons. Lesson order helps you to order the lessons according to your wishes. You can quickly find specific vocabulary entries with Search, and the Character table helps you typing in special characters.
The number in the upper right corner in the Editor says, how many vocabulary entries there are in the current lesson. For optimal learning, it is recommended not having more than 25 or 30 entries in one lesson. With the Lesson manager, you can split large lessons automatically.

Learning of vocabulary

The Teaching program is the core of "Teachmaster". Various learning methods fulfill your individual learning needs.
With a click on "Start lesson" resp. "Boxes" you get to reach the window "Boxes", where all lessons of your vocabulary file are listed. Now you can either learn all vocabulary entries of a certain lesson, or only the entries of a certain box. Furthermore, you can choose 30 random or especially difficult vocabulary entries of the whole file.
The vocabulary entries are in different boxes, dependent on your knowledge of the particular vocabulary entry. There are five boxes:

• Box 1, the vocabulary entry is known perfectly
• Box 2
• Box 3 (Starting box for every vocabulary entry)
• Box 4
• Box 5, the vocabulary entry is not known

After every learning process, the vocabulary entries perambulate in the boxes. After a correct answer, the vocabulary entry moves one box up (unless it already is in the topmost box), after a wrong answer, the vocabulary entry drops into the lowermost=fifth box. Thus, learning successfully means moving as many vocabulary entries as possible into the higher boxes.
With this box method, you can systematically train vocabulary which is not known, by turning your attention to the vocabulary entries in boxes 4 and 5.
The Patience Method is helpful for learning completely unknown vocabulary, as the vocabulary is repeated very often in a sophisticated order.

Statistics

By using the learning method "Learn all vocabulary in this lesson", statistics is automatically kept in the background. There you can see, on the basis of charts and diagrams, how your short-term and long-term learning success for every single lesson changes in the course of time.

Suggestions for learning

In the beginning, all vocabulary entries of a lesson are in box 3. It is recommended to click on "Box 3" in the window Boxes for training all vocabulary entries. Do not get demoralised, if this takes a bit longer. Afterwards, some vocabulary is in box 2 (the correct answers), and some in box 5 (the wrong answers). To consolidate the vocabulary, you learn this lesson immediately once again with the method "Learn all vocabulary in this lesson". At the same time, an entry in the statistics will be created.
In the aftermath, you especially train the vocabulary entries in the lower boxes. In between, let's say once a month, you learn the vocabulary of every lesson with "Learn all vocabulary in this lesson" to make sure that you still know the vocabulary in the higher boxes.
These hints are only suggestions, which you may follow or not. In general, the rule reads: The oftener, the better. In the course of time, you will find out for yourself how the vocabulary moves into your long-term memory.