By the authors of Pronunciation Power, this CD-ROM-based dictionary offers a lot of aural/oral work. Learners can search by phonic sounds as well as by spelling; listen, record, and playback, and get a translation in 12 languages: Arabic, Chinese (traditional and simplified), French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese. See a review in CALICO Journal at http://calico.org/CALICO_Review/review/propower00.htm.
Accent improvement designed for Japanese speakers. Includes speech recognition, voice recording and playback. Compares the learner's voice to that of a native speaker on a gauge.
Pronunciation practice program with voice recording and playback and graphical representations of pitch and formants. Wide range of sample sounds and sentences included. Most students will need teacher help initially to understand the pitch and formant displays, but the program is an excellent value for the price. New sound files and example sentences are easy to add. Edition 2 requires a 16-bit sound card, VGA graphics or better, and at least 20MB of hard drive space for sound files. Requires a 16-bit sound card, 1024x768 resolution monitor and at least 18MB of hard drive space for sound files.
This CD-ROM-based program has a strong linguistics focus. It includes short lectures with animations, explaining linguistic concepts related to pronunciation, and games that help students practice IPA, consonant clusters, word stress, linking, and intonation.
The program offers video clips of lip and tongue position to help with pronunciation practice of sounds from isolated phonemes to words, phrases, and sentences. Linking, stress, and intonation exercises are also included. A directory based on the student's first language (out of 30 choices) helps students focus on sounds most likely to be problematic for them. Students can listen or listen, record, and compare themselves to the model. The Professional version of the program includes IPA and is authorable, so teachers can add their own material. While the program is designed for self-access, students will probably need some guidance in assessing their progress when working independently. (DH)
BetterAccent Tutor analyzes intonation, stress and rhythm patterns of a user-recorded utterance and visualizes these patterns in an easy- to-understand manner. By pinpointing the exact mistakes, BetterAccent Tutor allows users to focus on the problems that are unique to their speech. Users can record and playback. The program visualizes the syllabic structure of recorded utterances and highlights the syllables as they are played back, which allows users to visually compare the user's and native speaker's intonation, intensity and rhythm patterns. An extensive set of exercises and explanations of each exercise are included, as well as a large collection of utterances by native speakers to provide users with guidance and a yardstick for correct pronunciation.
Stories can be read in English, French, or Spanish. Students can record and play back their voices while pronouncing any of the 1311 words in the story. They can also sing along to the story's song and create and their own stories with graphics. A teacher's manual is included, with lesson plans, worksheets, and blackline masters. Requires CD-ROM drive.
Also sold as Speech Works from Trinity Software, this pronunciation CD-ROM offers a variety of exercises for practice. Learners can select lessons by their native language or see all the lessons. Learners can listen, record, and review words, phrases, and sentences. There is a technical vocabulary component, so learners in different disciplines can practice field-specific vocabulary. The focus is more on sounds than on stress and intonation, though those lessons are also included. There is no difference in the two products as far as I can see. (DHealey)
This program focuses on suprasegmentals, the most current approach to pronunciation teaching. It uses 27 video clips with 9 different speakers with a range of accents. A wide range of activities includes oral and visual feedback and some speech recognition. Three levels: lower intermediate, intermediate, and advanced are provided. This is helpful, since many pronunciation products use vocabulary that is far too difficult and uncommon for any but advanced students. North American, Australian, and British versions sold separately. See a full review at http://calico.org/CALICO_Review/review/conspeech00.htm.
Pronunciation in game format. Two CD-ROM set.
Sold as part of ELLIS Academic. Learners can access vocabulary, cultural notes, grammar lessons, listening exercises, and pronunciation activities. Learners can see sounds pronounced by male and female video models, with animated sequences showing articulation points of the tongue, teeth and lips for each phoneme. Audio explanations are available in 28 languages. Learners can also record and play back their voice to compare to the native speaker model. Comes with Instructor Utilities, ELLIS' on-line student tracking system.
English Easy is a Canadian series of CDs designed to develop listening and reading skills from Basic to Advanced levels. The Conversation program consists of interactive dialogues about common situations and illustrate tone, pronunciation and grammatical structures. The conversations include colloquial phrases to familiarize students with spoken Canadian English. Interactive dialogues depicting common North American scenarios illustrate applications of pronunciations and grammar. Relevant vocabulary is introduced for each subject matter so that students can associate them readily. Skill-testing questions are designed to give students added practice in listening and reacting to normal speech. Good sound quality and graphics. (RJ)
English Easy series are designed specifically for students learning to speak Canadian English. Vowels and Consonants are sold separately for $50 each. Students can focus on the oral/aural aspect of the language, brush up on their grammar knowledge or hone their conversational skill and, at the same time, learn more about North American culture. The program emphasizes proper pronunciation of English vowels and consonants. Each new component is followed by listening and spelling exercises to reinforce understanding. Example words are explained using full-coloured graphics and animations to allow students to associate with them without resorting to their native language. Abstract words have additional multilingual explanations in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese to speed understanding. Requires a CD-ROM drive. (RJ)
This CD-ROM-based program uses graphics, sound, animation, and text to improve pronunciation skills. Learners can record and compare their speech. Customized versions are available for speakers of French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, German, Chinese, Hindi, Portuguese, and Russian.
EyeSpeak is designed to work on segmentals - specific vowel and consonant sounds, based on the students choice of British or American pronunciation. It does not currently address suprasegmentals such as intonation and linking It offers students a list of areas to work on based on their native language. Students compare their pronunciation to the native speaker recordings in the program. A graphic is generated that shows the difference between the student's and the EyeSpeak teacher's pronunciation. School license is negotiable.
Pronunciation program based on contrastive analysis. Offers an all-languages version as well as specialized versions for Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. "Vowels in Space" uses the device of an animated vowel space diagram with digital recordings of many example words to help the student sharpen English vowel pronunciation and perception. Selected contrasts are practiced in a number of interactive game settings, including puzzles, treasure hunts, image completion, space battles and simulated bowling. The program customizes instruction, adapting the instructional sequence to the user's skill level. Students can override the selection process and choose the contrasts they wish to work on themselves. A detailed log and a progress chart record work over time. The program can be used in self-study or instructor-led mode.
Material is based on a news report that aired just two days after the huge earthquake in Japan of January, 1995. This lesson focuses on practicing advanced level listening skills, and in addition to reading and some writing components, it includes opportunities for pronunciation practice (if a microphone is available) and more. A small shareware fee ($10 US) is requested to encourage the development of additional lessons. Japan Quake is freeware.
Vocabulary and pronunciation skill building with over 2200 words, speech recognition, learning games and activities. Requires a CD-ROM drive.
Three CD-ROM set, with Math Munchers, Word Munchers, and Knowledge Munchersª (formerly Trivia Munchersª Deluxe). Arcade-style games. Word Munchers drills the variant spelling of vowel sounds. Students are presented with a model (/i/ as in fish), they then move around a grid selecting all of the other words that have the same vowel sound while trying to avoid little monstors that randomly move through the grid. The program can be set so that students will only work on a limited set of vowel sounds. There is no instructional phase to the program, so teachers will want to either preteach the common patterns and exceptions or encourage their students to be persistent discovery learners. Knowledge Munchers is a trivia-style game in arcade form. Math Munchers works on math skills. MECC titles are now sold by Learning Company School.
CD-ROM based multimedia pronunciation program. 22 lessons, covering vowels, consonants, intonation. Lessons include workplace vocabulary and common mistakes and misconceptions.
500 word-based pronunciation exercises designed for self-study/supplement to classroom work. The learner self-assesses for each word practiced. The program uses SuperMemo technology to stage reviewing, so that each lesson includes some previously-viewed words along with new words. The program chooses words to review based on the learner's self-assessment, so that words assessed at a lower level are reviewed more frequently.
Pronunciation CD-ROM with a variety of exercises for practice. Learners can listen, record, and review the different sounds. Video and animation are included for each sound, as well as waveforms. See a review in CALICO Journal at http://calico.org/CALICO_Review/review/propower00.htm.
This is a system that runs on a handheld computer (Pocket CE). The handheld computer comes with the package - the software isn't sold separately. This lets learners say phrases into the handheld, then get a pronunciation diagnosis. It uses a 127.000-word dictionary and is American English only.
Software component of Visi-Pitch IV that uses standard sound cards rather than dedicated hardware. It includes eight modules dealing with pitch, frequency, intensity, and articulation, and offers spectral measurements, motor speech profiles, phonation, a waveform editor, and audio feedback tools. Graphically interesting games are also provided to make therapy tasks appealing to children. Models of speech must be input by the teacher/clinician.
Programme of interactive study exercises and memory games/tests for the 44 sounds (phonemes) of English and the IPA (International Phonemic Alphabet) system, featuring high quality (black and white) graphics, and recorded and synthetic speech. The program can be downloaded from http://www.paddocks64.freeserve.co.uk/Pages/se-pronunciation.html
Also sold as Clear Speech Works by Royale Software, this pronunciation CD-ROM offers a variety of exercises for practice. Learners can select lessons by their native language or see all the lessons. Learners can listen, record, and review words, phrases, and sentences. There is a technical vocabulary component, so learners in different disciplines can practice field-specific vocabulary. The focus is more on sounds than on stress and intonation, though those lessons are also included. The Professional version offers the ability to add individual assessments (done by the clinician on the spot) and create individualized study plans.
Interactive displays of speech for speech dimensions such as pitch or for speech patterns in extended speech. Students can begin with simple sound awareness and advance through exercises that fine tune the control of multiple aspects of voice (pitch, loudness, voicing). From there, students go on to prepare for complex speech. From IBM; available through Edmark.
Recordings of spontaneous speech, practice exercises, and record-and-compare options in 10 units. The first 8 units primarily focus on sounds and suprasegmentals. Some pitch contours are used. A supplemental website is available at www.speechinaction.com. British English.
A comprehensive program for improving pronunciation, with a focus on the needs of international teaching assistants (ITAs). The basic premise is that the student will be using this CD-ROM with a tutor, not in self-access mode. The program has extensive help files for tutors, explaining how to use each element and each topic area. Topics include specific consonant and vowel sounds (with formant diagrams for the vowels), reduced elements, intonation, and stress. Particularly useful for some language groups is practice on missing sounds--consonants learners drop at the ends of words, making communication especially difficult. Record-keeping is part of the program.
This interactive multimedia program is designed for non-native speakers of English at the intermediate level and above. It provides a focus on how to identify and use the most important elements of pronunciation - stress, intonation and rhythm. It has more than 68 interactive lessons and practices with video, audio, record and playback, written activities, and a printable workbook. Some management capability.
A system for pronunciation improvement with an impressive array of exercise types and options. This offers clear, easy-to-comprehend graphics of waveforms and formants; most are a single line, rather than the mass of squiggles typical of computer-generated waveforms. Formant practice can be static or live, as can displays of pitch, amplitude, and rhythm. Learners can repeat and try to match the teacher/speech clinician-generated target with a number of visual as well as aural cues. Both children and adults will appreciate the game format options for practice. Record-keeping is built-in and includes detailed reports. One drawback is that target sounds do not come with the program and need to be entered by the teacher. This is a potentially highly time-consuming operation. Still, the wide variety of exercise types and reinforcement activities may make it worth the effort for institutions with a large number of students who could use this program. Comes with special digitizing hardware that plugs into the computer and a microphone. Price includes free upgrades.
Students watch actors in basic situations and then try to mimic the actors' voices. Students can then watch their work. There is a video speed control to slow the video (only the students' parts!) so that even students who are slow speakers can participate. Two games are built in for further practice. The program is free and comes with one video. Additional videos are for sale on the website.
Hardware + software system for detailed speech analysis. In addition to the pitch, frequency, and intensity information of earlier models, this includes modules for spectral measurements, a motor speech profile, phonation (including the Sona-Match module, also sold separately), a waveform editor, and audio feedback tools. Voice games related to pitch, frequency, and intensity are motivating for younger learners. Models of speech need to be input by the teacher/clinician. Additional specialized modules are also available.This system is designed for serious speech therapy and priced to match.
A collection of seven tools that help students develop control of their pitch, loudness, voicing, and breath. Activities begin with simple sound awareness and progress from there. Students use a microphone for input; each tool provides visual feedback in the form of an animated graphic. Originally by IBM as part of the SpeechViewer program.
Graphic guide to English pronunciation and spelling of one-syllable words. Free demo available.
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