Roles

Kx Markdown can associate conversational roles with the front and back of a practice line.

Roles are useful for conversations, dialogues, and other practice where the learner needs to know who is speaking.

Front Role

Use front to identify the role associated with the front:

- Buenos días. [front:waiter]

Another example:

- Quiero un café. [front:customer]

The role name is descriptive. It identifies who is associated with that side of the practice line.

Front and Back Roles

A line can identify roles for both sides:

- ¿Qué desea? [front:waiter, back:customer, ans: "Quiero un café."]

Here:

front:waiter

associates the front with the waiter, while:

back:customer

associates the back with the customer.

The answer supplies the customer’s response:

ans: "Quiero un café."

Roles Can Change

Roles do not have to remain on the same side throughout a Practice Set.

For example:

- ¿Algo más? [front:waiter, back:customer, ans: "No, gracias."]
- Hasta luego. [front:customer, back:waiter, ans: "Hasta luego."]

In the first line, the waiter speaks first.

In the second line, the customer speaks first.

This allows a Practice Set to represent the natural turn-taking of a conversation.

Roles and Voices

Roles and voices can be used together:

- ¿Qué desea? [front:waiter, v:L, back:customer, ans: "Quiero un sándwich."]

The instructions have separate purposes:

front:waiter
v:L
back:customer
ans: "Quiero un sándwich."

front and back identify conversational roles.

v selects the voice used for the practice content.

ans supplies the answer.

Role Names

Role names can describe the participants in the activity:

front:waiter
back:customer

or:

front:teacher
back:student

Choose role names that make the interaction easy to understand.