WARNING: The following text was obtained by means of a machine translation from the original in Italian. If someone is available for manual and qualified translation from Italian to English, please contact the author.

Contents

1) What is Libero Vocab

   Libero Vocab is an app for the Android operating system, which allows you to practice answering a series of questions correctly. For example, one can think of a bilingual vocabulary in which the question is asked in one of the two languages and the answer must be expressed in the other, or a history or geography questionnaire. Libero Vocab is not a vocabulary in itself, but allows you to use pre-existing vocabularies. If you already have a vocabulary, the app provides the functionality you need to practice with it.

1.1) Libero Vocab is not suitable for highly dialectical content

   Before continuing with this manual, the author feels the need to make a clarification of a philosophical nature. A tool like Libero Vocab is suitable for fairly determined conceptual content, those cases where it seems quite acceptable that a given question matches a certain answer, and not other possible answers. In all those highly dialectical intellectual spheres, however, a tool like this can be difficult to use, if not impossible, unless you think of questions with a high grade of contextualization, i.e. questions formulated trying to predict the many possible facets in which the questions themselves can be presented, for each of them facets, it may be possible to conceive of a different answer. One could also express that tools such as Libero Vocab can be a valuable support especially in mnemonic type of work — per se perhaps stupid but still useful — while generally you benefit less than them in reasoning and analysis work.

1.2) License

   Libero Vocab is published under the free license GPL version 3 and is therefore free software. It is important to point out that the GPL license not only allows you to freely use the program, without needing to pay to obtain a license, but also gives the possibility to study the source code, apply changes and publish the versions in turn as long as you use the same license as the original software, or possibly another compatible license.

2) Supported vocabularies type

   There are several digital implementations of vocabularies around; some use proprietary specifications, while others use public specifications that are freely usable. Free formats include the Kvtml, created as part of KDE Education Project. Kvtml is currently the only vocabulary format supported by Libero Vocab.

   Kvtml vocabularies are nothing more than files whose name ends with the extension .kvtml. For example, a file that contains a vocabulary in the format Kvtml might have a name such as English-German.kvtml or revolution-French.kvtml.

3) Retrieval of the vocabularies

   At this point you may wonder where, or how, you can find vocabularies in Kvtml format. In this regard, it should be noted that although the app is free, and so may the Kvtml format, it may not be a given Kvtml file. This as a vocabulary contains data and is the result of a job and therefore the producer owns the copyright and can therefore decide to publish it either with a proprietary license or a free license. For example, a school textbook publisher could create Kvtml vocabularies associated with his texts, to provide students with the opportunity to practice such vocabularies; in this case, he or she may decide to allow the download of the Kvtml file associated with a given book only to those who have purchased the same in paperback format.

   Another possibility of reuniting vocabularies in Kvtml format is the publication of free-licensed vocabularies by their authors. By re-applying on the Internet you can find sites that publish free-licensed vocabularies. Some of these have been included in the installation of Libero Vocab and can already be used immediately, just accessing the first screen menu. Others can download them from the Internet if necessary.

   A third possibility is to do yourself, to create the vocabulary you need yourself, and then maybe, if it is the case, decide to release it with a free license, allowing others to use it. With regard to this additional possibility it is worth clarifying that Libero Vocab is not designed for editing, that is, to create or edit kvtml files, but only to use vocabularies already created. On the other hand, mobile devices do not lend themselves to this type of work, making PCs or laptops more suitable. Computer-specific programs can be used to edit Kvtml files. One of the best programs is called Parley and is also part of the KDE Education Project. It is a free-licensed program that downloads from the KDE website and runs on GNU/Linux, Windows and MacOS X. Using Parley you can, for example, download a licensed vocabulary from the Internet, modify it according to your needs, adding to new data, and then maybe republish the extended and improved version. Parley's use as a Kvtml file editor is quite intuitive and has no particular difficulties.

   Let's remember again what has already been said, that is that together with the app you will find ready-made Kvtml files that you can use right away, even just to get an idea of the features offered by the program.

3.1) Warning in the use of Kvtml files created and used in other programs too

   When using Kvtml vocabularies that are also used in other programs, such as Parley, we strongly recommend that you do not use the same file that you use on the other program but make a copy of it and use this one. This is because Libero Vocab does not implement all the features provided for the Kvtml format, which other more comprehensive than Libero Vocab programs can implement. Because of this it would happen that, by saving the file with Libero Vocab, only the parts implemented in it would be written while anything that is not known at the level of Libero Vocab would be nicely ignored, resulting in loss of information. It is therefore recommended that you always use files dedicated exclusively to Libero Vocab.

   As an example, consider that the grammatical features, also provided for the Kvtml format, are not yet implemented in our program, whereas these are implemented in Parley. At present, only the basic features are implemented in Libero Vocab, which anyway the author considers to be the most useful in the end.

4) How Libero Vocab works

   The use of the app should be quite intuitive but some aspects of how it works are not trivial and should be explained.

   Although the app can be used with Kvtml documents comprising any type of content, for clarity of exposure in the following we will limit ourselves to the case of linguistic content, that is, those where typically the questions consist of a word or phrase expressed in a given language and its answers must match the version, in another language, of the question.

   In this regard it is good to point out that the Kvtml format supports documents with more than two languages and our app is able to handle this type of Kvtml file. In this case, it is enough to choose, among the different languages in the document, the two on which the questions and answers will be based respectively, so that in the end it is always on a pair of languages that you practice. Once the Kvtml file has been uploaded, an inscription indicating the language of the question will appear on the action bar, followed by a question mark "?", and the language of the answer. If this is not the desired choice, it will always be possible, through the menu of options, to change the arrangement of the languages.

   In the following we will then express ourselves by saying that the Kvtml file contains a vocabulary in n languages, consisting of a number of words (in fact it can also be entire sentences or even periods), each of which is expressed in each of the n languages. The question will show the word in the x language, and the right answer to give will be the word in the y language.

4.1) Structuring in lessons

   Typically a vocabulary can contain thousands of words, and if they are not sorted and catalogued according to a certain criterion, it will be quite difficult to navigate such a large number of words. Therefore, it is generally better to divide words into categories and subcategories. For example, a linguistic vocabulary could be sorted by morphological categories or by semantic scopes. Technically the Kvtml format supports this possibility through the use of so-called Lessons and support for this feature is implemented in our application. The lessons are precisely the various ordinary classes within which the words contained in the vocabulary are catalogued.

   Another reason why it is better to divide words into lessons, and sub-lessons, in addition to the need for cataloging, is because when you are an exorcitis, it is better to do so on a small number of words at a time. Generally, it is considered that a normal test session should not contain more than thirty words. That said, it is clear that if the vocabulary is structured with lessons and sub-lessons with no more than thirty words each, it will be easy to organize the test sessions simply by selecting from time to time the lesson, or lessons, on which to practice.

   At an advanced stage of the learning process, when many words have been learned, it will make sense at that point to run test sessions by selecting more words, but at the beginning it is good to follow the advice to limit the number of words to run the tests on.

4.2) The grade mechanism

   We consider that we have a vocabulary of a thousand words. After a while of practicing this set of words, there will be some already learned and others still difficult to memorize. For this reason, it would be appropriate to exercise the easiest words less frequently, focusing more efforts on those that are more difficult to remember. To achieve this functionality in Libero Vocab, as well as in other similar programs, you use a system of levels or grades. Each word, in a given language, is assigned a certain grade. Assuming, for example, an Italian-German bilingual vocabulary, the word in Italian will have its grade and the corresponding one in German will also have its own grade, usually different from that of the Italian version.

   The grades in Libero Vocab range from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 7. Higher words are the ones considered to be easier, and therefore exercised less frequently, while lower-grade words are considered the most difficult, and therefore exercised more often. The logic of grading is simple: whenever a given word is answered correctly, its grade increases by one unit while if the word is wrong, its grade mercilessly returns to the value 1. In addition to this, a meaning is also given to grade zero, being this the grade attributed to all words not yet practiced.

   As a vocabulary is used with Libero Vocab, the words that compose it are then enriched with the information of the grades, according to the very personal use that we are making of it. Another person who is practicing the same vocabulary, after a little exercise will have obtained a distribution of grades also very different from ours. For this reason, the added grade information is not lost between starts of the application but can be saved in the Kvtml file itself, so that the next restart you will find your own personal distribution of grades. After months of tutorial on a file, you realize how valuable the information of the grades stored in it: if we lost that file, we would be forced to start from scratch, maybe with an equal vocabulary, from the point of view of the mere linguistic data , to the one we use but not useful for our personal level of knowledge of the language. As far as i said it is strongly recommended to make from time to time saving copies of our file, perhaps on another device such as laptop or a thumb key.

   Now let's see more exactly how the frequency with which a given question is asked is established, depending on its grade. These values are generally configurable through the Settings, but the default values are as follows:

   1° grade -> 12 hours

   2° grade -> 1 day

   3° grade -> 3 days

   4° grade -> 7 days

   5° grade -> 14 days

   6° grade -> 1 month

   7° grade -> 2 months

   When you still have little experience with this tool, you may be led to think that, for example, 12 hours is too many, as you would like to exercise the just wrong question right away. In reality, however, if we think about it for a moment, one can realize that once again the wrong question is not very good, and that is because it is all too easy to remember the right answer in the immediate term; to let 12 hours pass before trying again, however, actually makes more sense.

4.3) The type of language skills

   We have said that each word has a distinct grade for each of the languages in which it is expressed in the vocabulary. One may therefore wonder which of the languages in the vocabulary is attributed to the grade of the word you are exercising. The answer is that the grade of the word you are exercising, is always attributed to the language of the question. This simple fact has important implications in order to assess the type of language proficiency indicated by the grade, i.e. whether the grade of the given word, compared to a given language, gives information about, for example, the ability to listening or the ability of speaking.

   To explain this let's take an example. Suppose you have an Italian-Spanish vocabulary and we are native Italian, so the language to be learned will be Spanish. Suppose we practice setting Spanish as the language of the question and Italian as the language of the answer. In addition, the type of test chosen is that of the Flashcards where you listen to the sound of the question, without seeing the text. As far as we know, we know that the grade will be attributed to the Spanish version of the word exercised. But what competence have we actually exercised? With regard to listening ability or ability to express? Since the question is asked in the foreign language, it is clear that we have exercised the capacity to listen and understand the meaning and not to express it. From this simple reflection we can conclude that in general the grade attributed in the foreign language is an indication of the ability listening-reading-understanding of the foreign language, while the grade attributed in one's native language is index in general of the ability to express themselves, always in the foreign language. So, if, for example, at some point in our work, we have quite high grades in the foreign language and grades instead of low in our native language, it means that in general we are better at understanding the foreign language than in expressing ourselves in the Same.

   The considerations just made apply in particular in the case of strictly linguistic vocabularies, generally losing meaning in the case of vocabularies relating to other areas.

4.4) Supported test types

   Libero Vocab currently supports three types of tests. They are:

Flashcards

   The question is asked and the user evaluates, by himself, whether or not he knows the answer. When he feels ready, he proceeds by displaying the correct answer and finally declares whether or not it was rightly acknowledged. It goes without saying that, for this type of test to work, you need to be honest with yourself; In general, we can suggest that all the times we feel that there are significant aspects of the answer that we have not yet fully matured, it is worth saying that we do not know the correct answer, so that the same question is repeated to us in a short time. Libero Vocab's internal mechanism.

Multiple choice

   The question is asked and, with it, 4 possible answers are proposed; among them is the correct answer along with other wrong and randomly chosen choices among the many answers of the vocabulary. The user selects from the four proposed answers, what he considers to be the correct answer and the program informs the user of the correctness or not of his choice. The number of four possible answers is the default but can be changed in the Settings of the program.

Writing

   The question is asked and the user tries to write the answer. The program then informs you whether or not the written answer is correct.

4.5) Supported test modes

   In addition to the distinction among the three types of tests, it must also be considered a distinction in the different modes they can be performed. The different modes are:

Graded and ungraded tests

   Each test can be performed in a mode, so to speak, operational, meaning by what the grades of the words exercised can be updated, or in the mode of without the outcome of our responses actually affecting the grades.

The learning mode

   To conclude the picture on how to run the tests, we add that, as part of the test type Flashcards, the so-called Learning Mode is also proposed. What is it? Not really of a type of test but rather of the way to scroll back and forth the question-and-answer pairs in order, precisely, to learn what are the right answers associated with their respective questions. It should be the mode to be practiced initially, before proceeding with the actual tests, if you do not have a prior knowledge of the subject matter.

4.6) Sound play of words

   In the Settings accessible from the home screen, you can turn Questions with sound on or off. If this option is not enabled, the questions will be asked through the text and then the user will have to exercise his ability to reading to understand the meaning of the question. If the option is enabled, those questions that have a sound associated with it will be formulated by listening to the sound and hiding the text. In this way, the user will not be able to use his reading skill to understand the meaning of the question but only to his ability to listening.

   When the above option is active, you can listen to the sound again as often as you wish by touching the text field of the question. If instead you want to make the text of the question visible, maybe because despite our efforts it is still too difficult to recognize the speech, just touch the button at the top right, in the text field of the question, and the text will appear.

   How the audio plays depends on how the screen is touched: if the touch is "pointlike", the audio is alternately paused and restarted from where it was previously interrupted; If the touch is with finger movement on the screen, then the audio is started from the beginning. Clearly the concept of point touch is quite abstract, both because our fingertips are certainly not the size of a point and because with the very "sensitive" screens of modern devices you can detect imperceptible movements of the finger, so it would be almost impossible, even if you want to, to get touches without movement. To work around this problem, you can specify, through the program settings, a maximum distance that if the movement made by the finger is kept within that distance, the touch is considered point-like otherwise it is considered with movement.

4.7) Path of audio files

   In order to associate a vocabulary word with an audio file, you need to place this audio file in a certain folder and then be able to find the correct path that comes to it, so you can run it. If the audio file exists but you cannot specify its path correctly, you will not be able to run it and then hear its sound. This understands how important it is to correctly locate the location of the audio files.

   Once this has been done, consider that the path to a file consists of two parts: a first part that we call base path and a second part that we call relative path: adding the relative path to the basic path, you get the full path, also called absolute path. As for the base path, this is specified in the settings of the program, which is accessed from the main screen, and, once set, it is common to all vocabulary audio files that you are practicing. As for the relative path, this is specific to each audio file, relative to the given vocabulary word, and is instead indicated in the within the kvtml file.

   To simplify the speech let's take a practical example. Let us consider that we have three words in our kvtml vocabulary: "home", "tree" and "dog". We consider that the respective audio files are called : "home.ogg", "tree.ogg", and "dog.ogg" and are all three contained in a folder named "Audio-files". Well, during installation we will have to decide where to put the aforementioned folder of audio files and assume that we have decided to put it inside the folder:

   /storage/sdcard/

   This is done, the full paths of the three audio files will remain determined; they will be:

where in bold we highlighted the base path which, as you can see, is common to all three files and we remember was specified in the settings of Libero Vocab while the non-bold part is the relative path, that depends on the single word, and it is specified as mentioned, not in the program settings, but at the level of the kvtml file.

   At this point it is clear that, when it is known the full path of the files, and this is actually known because the user knows where he installed the folder containing the audio files, and when it is known the relative path of the files — knowledge to which you will arrive, as we will see shortly, reading the kvtml file — it will be determined the base path to be specified in the Libero Vocab settings.

How to read kvtml files

   When you get here, it remains only to explain how you know the relative paths of the audio files. We said that relative paths are written to the kvtml file but how do you read a kvtml file? Let's say right away that kvtml files are text files and as such can be both read and written using a regular simple text editor. Beware though: Microsoft Word or LibreOffice are not examples of simple text but formatted text editors, so it's best not to use them. On Windows examples of simple text editors are Notepad or Notepad++, on MacOS X you can use TextEdit while on GNU/Linux you are spoilt for choice between Gedit, Geany and many others. Once you have opened the kvtml file with your favorite simple text editor, to find references to audio files associated with the words, locate parts of the text similar to the following:

   <translation id="0">
      <text>home</text>
      <sound>Audio-files/home.ogg</sound>
   </translation>

in which we have boldly highlighted both the word "home" and the relative path of the audio file associated with that word. At this point we have all the information we need: from reading the kvtml file we get the relative path of the audio files; the full path we know instead as we decided ourselves where to put the audio files; from these two information we get the base path by subtracting, so to speak, the relative path from the full path. After the basic path was deduced, we put it in the program settings and at this point the detection of sounding recordings should take place without any particular problems.

   So we explained the basic logic that governs the correct detection of audio files; following the procedure just illustrated it will be possible to bring on our Android device a vocabulary kvtml, with attached audio files, coming from other systems, being free to place the audio files where we want. That said, we still recommend adopting, whenever possible, the simplest solution, which is to put all the audio files inside a folder and then put this folder in the same place where the kvtml file is located; By always keeping the kvtml file and the folder containing the audio files together, you are sure that the whole thing continues to work even when it is transferred from one system to another.

Changes to relative paths

   When a kvtml vocabulary, with attached audio files, is transferred from one system to another, you may generally experience problems related to the different way of representing file paths between different operating systems. In these cases you will need to change the paths indicated in the kvtml file to fit the Android system. One way to do this is by "hand-editing" the kvtml file using a simple text editor; the most advanced editors have advanced functions of "Find and Replace" with which you can edit, with a few clicks, thousands of strings in one go. In the most common cases, however, it is possible to take advantage of some features implemented inside Libero Vocab, and configurable through the program settings, with which you can automatically and "on the fly" adapt the strings, so that they work on Android, without the necessity of editing by hand the kvtml file. Let's see these features in detail.

Replacing the separator character

   If the kvtml file is from a Windows-like operating system, any paths to audio files may use the inverse slag character of '\' to separate the folders from each other. In this case the path would not work on Android because, being the unix system, it adopts the straight oblique slash '/' as a separator character. If this is the case, then just activate the corresponding option in the program settings and any inverse oblique bars will automatically be treated as straight bars. If not necessary, that is, if the kvtml file does not use backslashes, you should disable this option instead.

Removing the start of the path

   If the kvtml file is from a Windows-like operating system, any paths to audio files might start with something like "C:" or "d:\". In other cases, the path might start with expressions such as "file:" or "file://" or similar. Well, most likely none of these paths would work in Libero Vocab. In all of these cases, you can resolve the issue by enabling an other Libero Vocab settings option that allows you to specify a string to be automatically removed from the beginning of the path. If no string needs to be removed, it is better to specify the empty string.

Diagnostic message

   Another option in the Libero Vocab settings allows you to receive a message if, despite references to audio files are found in the kvtml file, for some reason the audio file fails. This message can help you find the cause of the problem. If not necessary, you should disable this option.

4.8) The filter of the words to be exercised

   Once you have chosen the type of test you want to run and the mode graded or ungraded, you have the option, before you finally start the test, to select the words you want to practice. We have already mentioned that the test sessions should generally cover no more than thirty words and that this goal is easily achieved by structuring the entire vocabulary into lessons and sub-lessons containing precisely a limited number of words. If our vocabulary is then properly structured, through the word filtering screen to be exercised, it will be possible to select which lessons will be affected by the test. Selecting these lessons, only the words in those lessons will be practiced.

   Another criterion by which the words to be exercised will be selected, in addition to the selection for lessons, is that of the mechanism of the grades that we have previously explained. This means that, among the words contained in the selected lessons, there may be some that are still in their period of quiescence, depending on their grade and the time since they were last exercised, and that therefore, for this reason they will not be exercised in any case, even though they belong to the selected lessons.

   The above selection mechanism, based on the period of quiescence, is automatically implemented within Libero Vocab. In addition to this automatic filtering, the filtering screen also offers the possibility of an additional selection criterion, also based on grade, but which is set by the user. It is based on the fact that the user chooses a minimum grade and a maximum grade by which the grade of words to be selected must be taken. Put another way, all words with a grade less than the minimum grade ( that is, all words considered too difficult) and all words with a grade greater than the maximum grade, that is, all words considered too easy, will be discarded. This additional filtering criterion will be added to those mentioned above. The default values for the minimum grade and the maximum grade are 0 and 7, respectively, meaning that no words will be discarded.

   There are no other filtering criteria. Then select the words you want to use, you can start the test by tapping the "Start the test" button.

5) Usage strategies

   While the current features of the programme can develop a personal user strategy, it is considered useful here to spend a few more words on the one developed by the programme author himself.

   Typically, we do the following. First of all, you upload the Kvtml file containing the vocabulary on which to practice. Then on the next screen you choose the type of test you want to run as well as the question and answer languages, if the preset ones listed in the action bar do not match the ones you want. On the next screen, you choose the lessons or lessons to be exercised, with the grade filter, and then you start the test.

   When facing a new lesson, you may want to start with Learning Mode:

   Flashcards -> Learning Mode

   In this mode, you will see all the selected words, both in the language version of the question and in the language version of the question. If this is the case, you resume the words several times, scrolling back and forth the list.

   When you think you have studied words enough, you can start practicing. The first test may be a multi-choice test because the multiple choice test is easier. Run that test in ungraded mode for the time being. Since we are still on the Learning Mode screen, you will first need to go back two screens to return to the screen from which you can choose the type of test.

   In this regard, just press the physical "Back" button on your device to return to the previous screen.

   You then practice the type of multiple choice test until you feel ready to run the Flashcards test type.

   To run the Flashcards test you then have to go back two screens again, choose the graduated test mode, and on the next screen, if you feel ready.

   At this point we will finally run the graded Multiple Choice test and then from this moment we will start to populate the words of the chosen lesson.

   You could work at the rhythm of a new lesson a day. In this way, after about ten days, about ten lessons should have been started. You may decide to dedicate the next day to practice all the above lessons together, perhaps discarding the words too easy by setting the maximum grade for example to 2. In this way, of the approximately 300 words contained in the ten lessons, only those still left in grade 1 or 2, the most difficult, which are hopefully much less than 300, will be selected.

   So we continue with the new lessons. When, perhaps after a month's work, about thirty lessons have been learned, an overall exercise is once again remade, including all these lessons, and always setting the maximum grade to 1 or 2 to select only the most difficult words.

   At some point there should be no more new lessons and from this moment on we will be able to exercise ever wider groups of lessons, even all the vocabulary if the number of words not yet learned is not exaggeratedly large.

   As mentioned earlier, this is just one example of how the program could be used. In real use this example may appear abstract and of course in the end you will do what, at any given time, will appear the most appropriate thing to do.

5.1) Exercise reading or listening

   We have already seen how it is possible to exercise a foreign language by listening to the sound recording of speech rather than by reading the text. The sound listening type of exercise is particularly useful in that, generally speaking, of a foreign language, it is difficult to recognize speech, especially if it is fast, but it is easier to recognize the writing. In this regard, unfortunately, it must be said that there are not many Kvtml vocabularies, with free license, including the sound recordings of the questions. The obvious reason is that their production is not at all trivial, as it would be necessary to start a project of readings and recordings of good audio quality, by people with good diction, concerning a few thousand words and sentences, in addition to the fact that the choice of words and sentences should be made by people with the necessary language skills. For his personal use, the author of Libero Vocab has solved the above problem by purchasing professional courses and adapting them to the Kvtml format, adding to the vocabulary thus obtained also sound recordings, usually made available by this type of course. However, this solution can be particularly laborious and can only be good for personal use as the professional courses are protected by restrictive copyright and it is not possible to spread the contents. A solution could come from publishers if they decide to add to their commercial products, the Kvtml format, or other similar format that can be easily converted into Kvtml. In this way, by purchasing the course, the corresponding Kvtml vocabulary would also be available for use with Libero Vocab, or similar programs.