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VERBOCHIP: EXTENDING EXTERNAL VERSATILITY 

TO THE CONTEXTUAL USE OF ENGLISH TENSES 

ABSTRACT 

Edwig Van Elsen, Kurt Van Deun and Wilfried Decoo 

University of Antwerp, Belgium 

Didascalia is a research group at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, under the 

direction of Dr. Wilfried Decoo and Jozef Colpaert. This academic research center 

sponsors a series of projects concerning fundamental and applied scientific research on 

the development and implementation of educational software. In this description of 

latest courseware programs from Didascalia special attention is paid to Verbochip, a 

program dealing with the formation and contextual use of the tenses in English. 

Verbochip is based on the principle of external versatility, meaning that the content 

base includes various fields with information that allows the content to be implemented 

in a selection system where the user can select at will the items which fit his own 

linguistic needs. 

INTRODUCTION 

Didascalia, a research team at University of Antwerp (UIA) has been active in the 

domain of CALL programs since 1986. The research and development activities of 

Didascalia focus on the development of language courseware for both the educational 

school and business environments. 

Among the courseware materials developed under an IBM Study Contract by the 

Research Center Didascalia, we find vocabulary training programs, such as Vocapuces 

(French), Wordchip (English), Wortmeister (German), Woordbank (Dutch), verb 

conjugation programs, such as Verbapuces (French), Verbinario (Spanish), Verbitalia 

(Italian), and a text comprehension program, Texta (French, English). 

CALICO Journal, Volume 11 Number 2 51

In this article we will highlight some features of Verbochip, the latest Didascalia 

program for learning and training in the use and formation of the English tense system. 

EXTERNAL VERSATILITY 

External versatility is a key concept behind the design and development layout of CALL 

courseware. For a program to be externally versatile it must be internally adaptable to a 

number of external factors, especially the wide variety of needs of potential users. In a 

school situation the concept refers to the adaptability of one courseware package to 

external factors such as a textbook, a predefined Curriculum, a particular teacher or a 

student. In a company environment on the other hand, an externally versatile program 

is adaptable to job profiles, to time management systems and to the specific 

characteristics of the existing training infrastructure. 

External versatility can in practice be realized by the combination of an extensive 

content base and a multi-environment program design. 

AN EXTENSIVE CONTENT BASE 

One of the most essential, though often neglected, factors in the design of CALL 

materials is the development of content (Van Elsen and Van Deun, 1991.) Particular 

attention should be paid to both the quantitative and the qualitative value of the 

database. Efficient CALL courseware is guaranteed only if one provides sufficient data 

of a high standard quality. 

For Verbochip we included in the database the entire conjugation (12 tenses in active 

and passive forms) of more than 1300 verbs. These verbs can be presented in a set of 500 

frame sentences, i.e. sentences in which a number of verbs and tenses can be used. In 

this way more than 4000 context sentences could be generated. 

Every frame sentence from the database is coded as to make available additional 

information relevant to the generated context. Alternative solutions will be accepted, 

and students can ask for "mediators" or "signal words" in the sentence which help them 

to use the correct tense. Short grammatical hints explaining the usage of the relevant 

tense in the relevant context can also be provided (Figure 1). 


MULTI-ENVIRONMENT MODEL 

The multi-environment model of the Didascalia courseware — and in this particular 

case of Verbochip — connects the richness of the database with an efficient and easy 

way of selecting items from the database. 

Instead of being forced to follow a one-dimensional, linear track set out beforehand by 

the program developers, users can freely select several environments to which at any 

point in the program they have access. 

Verbochip includes 5 environments, indicated by the following culinary terms in 

Figure 2: 

à la carte : individual training 

cuisine : preparation of learning materials by the teacher 

plat du jour : guided training 

buffet : reference purposes 

digestif : remedial training 


In the à la carte environment, the user is able to compose a training unit which precisely 

meets his individual linguistic needs. The end user of Verbochip will have to select 

both content and strategies. He will narrow down the possibilities of the extensive 

content base to a digestible,! la carte learning unit: in an easy-to-handle menu system he 

indicates the tenses, voices and verbs he wants to work with (Figure 3). Secondly he can 

choose from a wide variety of exercises to actually study and review these tenses. 

Verbochip has a presentation mode in which the selected learning material is shown to 

the user so that he can study it. Moreover the program offers a set of exercises on the 

verb conjugation, the principal parts and the use of the tenses in context. 

Crucial in the à la carte environment is that ultimate freedom be given to the user: the 

program will not force him to make specific selections or to follow a set order of 

selections and/or strategies. Therefore teachers can prepare didactically well-balanced 

learning and training units for the specific learning needs of their individual students in 

a separate environment. 


Cuisine 

The teacher's entry permits him/her to define and store on disk the exact content and 

strategies of a lesson for a particular student or group of students. 

The selection of lessons for students is carried out with the same "A la carte' 

environment. It takes an average of 20 seconds to define a lesson; the teacher only has to 

determine the content and the strategy of the lesson(s) by indicating them in the menu. 

The learning units thus prepared and stored on disk can easily be changed, expanded or 

deleted. 

Plat du jour 

In the part of the student, the user gets an overview of the previously defined lessons (see 

cuisine), and he can activate the required lessons by activating his choice in the menu. 


Buffet 

In this reference environment, the program functions as a grammar book or dictionary in 

which one can quickly look up the correct form of a particular tense of a verb or its 

translation (Figure 4). 

Digestif 

In the digestif environment remedial learning units are presented to the student. Mistakes 

made by students while doing exercises or taking tests are transferred to the digestif 

environment. The student has the same choice of strategies as in the à la carte 

environment to study and to review the items again. 

CONCLUSION 

In this article we have tried to briefly illustrate the externally versatile design of 

Verbochip. We feel that the combination of a selection system with extensive and wellstructured 

contents in a multiple environment model supports the educational 

efficiency and effectiveness of CALL materials. External versatility indeed increases the 

number of potential users and user circumstances, as learning content can be selected 


according to the needs of the learners and as only those strategies which closely fit the 

proficiency level of the user will be chosen. 

NOTE 

Research related to this article is carried out under an UIAP-project financed by the 

Belgian State. 

REFERENCE 

Van Elsen, Edwig, Kurt Van Deun, and Wilfried Decoo, (1991). “Wordchip: The 

Application of External Versatility to an English Lexical CALL Program." System, 19, 4, 

401-417. 

AUTHORS' BIODATA 

Kurt Van Deun is a computational linguist active in the domain of courseware 

development at the Didascalia Research Center at Antwerp University, Belgium. 

Edwig Van Elsen has an MA in Germanic Philology. As a member of the Didascalia 

Research Center, he is responsible for the database management of various CALL 

programs (Vocapuces, Wordchip, Becall). 

Wilfried Decoo is professor of didactics and applied linguistics. He is the Director of the 

Didascalia Research Center at Antwerp University, Belgium. 

AUTHORS' ADDRESS 

Universiteit Antwerpen 

Universiteitsplein 1 

B-2610 Wilrijk, Belgium 

Phone: + 32 3 820 2959 

Fax: + 32 3 820 2986

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