Submitted by admin on 2 April 2016

The "Breakdown" lesson contains all the words and phrases in the complete breakdown tree.

The Breakdown lesson is used to be able to teach people a phrase or dialogue, by teaching them all the words and phrases from which it is composed.

For example, if the current is a phrase, the breakdown lesson will contain:

the phrase itself
all the words and sub-phrases in the breakdown
all the words and phrases in every sub-phrase in the breakdown

Read the Housekeeping tab for more of the basic detail before the more subtle stuff below.

Each phrase will have one, and only one breakdown lesson.

The breakdown lesson for each phrase is built automatically.

The breakdown lesson will have the same basic name as the phrase from which it is built.

The breakdown lessons are all in the "Breakdown" vocabulary: http://lingopolo.com/french/admin/structure/taxonomy/breakdown

Dialogues also have a breakdown lesson, which follow exactly the same logic. Note that a dialogue is never included in a breakdown lesson content. Note though, that all the words and phrases within any dialogue or sub-dialogue ARE included.

A Simple Example

For example the phrase:

"a beautiful dog"

will have the breakdown lesson called (by convention):

"a beautiful dog" Breakdown

with the lesson content:

a beautiful dog
a
beautiful
dog

A More Complex Example

Consider the phrase This is a tool for gardeners.

The Breakdown lesson has 9 content items in the breakdown tree:

This is a tool for gardeners.
- this
- tool
  - tool; utensil
  - hand
- for
- gardeners; orchard growers
  - folk; people
  - garden

Compare this with the Practice lesson which only has 5 content items:

This is a tool for gardeners.
- this
- tool
- for
- gardeners; orchard growers

We only show students the Practice lesson.

We don't show students the Breakdown lesson; it is only used internally to know which words and phrases to show when a student clicks on "Learn".

An Example with Dialogues

Let's consider the complex example All about Diane (dialogue).

The user view is that this dialogue has four sub-parts (each of which is itself a dialogue).

The breakdown lesson view is that every word and phrase within the whole dialogue tree form part of the lesson, i.e.:

My name is Diane, I’m rather small and I’m fourteen years old. (the first phrase in the first sub-dialogue)
my name is Diane (the first sub-phrase of the first phrase)
I (the first word of the first sub-phrase)
am called
Diane
...
[all the other words and phrases in sub-dialogue 1]
...
[all the words and phrases in sub-dialogue 2]
...
[all the words and phrases in sub-dialogue 3]
....
[all the words and phrases in sub-dialogue 4]
...
My father works in a supermarket and my mother is a receptionist in a large hotel. (the last phrase in the last sub-dialogue)
...
hotel (the last word of the last phrase)

The only items which will not be in the breakdown lesson are the dialogue itself (since it is a dialogue and dialogues are never allowed as breakdown lesson content), and the four sub-dialogues (since they are also dialogues, and are never allowed as breakdown lesson content).