Gymn@zilla – a program for learning languages while browsing the web – was developed at EURAC in the context of the Logos Gaias project (partly financed by the EU program Leonardo da Vinci). Oliver Streiter continued development after the project ended. The latest version of Gymn@zilla can be downloaded from here.

Gymn@zilla is an open-source programm, which provides support for understanding texts while browsing the web or local documents. Texts are automatically annotated with word-based translations, definitions, grammatical information, and information on pronunciation, as well as with pictures and other descriptive information. Gymn@zilla keeps the original format of web sites, the added information is placed in boxes that are actived by hovering over words in the text. In addition, Gymn@zilla provides a functionality for saving relevant vocabulary pairs and generating completion exercises. The main submodules of Gymn@zilla handle (1) the mirroring of web pages, (2) the linguistic processing, (3) the processing and selection of images and (4) the generation of exercises.
Gymn@zilla encourages self-dependent/autonomous language learning based on authentic texts. Texts and vocabulary are chosen by the learner, while Gymn@zilla dynamically provides contextualised support for language understanding. The combination of dictionary support, automatic generation of excercises and composition of glossaries helps to improve the learners vocabulary skills. Several language pairs are supported by Gymn@zilla, including German-Italian/Italian-German, German-English/English-German, English-Russian/Russian-English. Furthermore, Gymn@zilla automatically determines the language of the text.

Further information on the project, as well as technical details are found in our scientific publications on Gymn@zilla (see box on the right).

The following people have contributed to the development of Gymn@zilla:
Oliver Streiter, Leonhard Voltmer and Judith Knapp at EURAC, and Daniel Zielinski (University of Saarland).

last update 7.1.2010