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Tech Talk Applications for practicing and measuring pronunciation
Lucius Von Joo Kanda University of International Studies, Japan Lucius Von Joo currently teaches at Kanda University of International Studies, Japan. He holds an EdM in Comparative and International Education and has teaching experience in deaf education, elementary education and EFL/ESL in California, Japan and New York. His research interests include computer assisted learning, film and documentary content based learning, student educational backgrounds and learning approaches, video-cued multivocal ethnography, and family and communities as educators. E-mail: lucius-v@kanda.kuis.ac.jp
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ost students can practice reading, writing and listening on their own outside class. Speaking and specifically pronunciation for many of us can be a completely different story. It is hard to find motivation and routine for practicing a skill that is most often used with other people. Ideally we would all have friends and acquaintances that speak the L2 we are trying to learn, but often this is not the case. Even in an ideal situation, our fluent speaking friends are not always the best source for error correction. What kind of plan can teachers set in motion to help students with pronunciation? For this column, I explain ways of providing opportunities for habit-forming pronunciation practice activities. I have found with my students that smartphone applications make a good fit for routine building. They are always with the learner and can even give daily reminders. In addition, for speaking activities, a microphone is often needed and this does not always come standard on traditional computers. Lastly, smartphone applications often follow a game routine, which by its nature gives instant feedback. I reviewed and tested dozens of applications geared towards pronunciation and focus on five in this column. In choosing these five, I was guided by the following criteria • good exercise routine • fits into a daily schedule • easily accessible • gives measurable feedback
Three of the applications are ideal for daily warm ups and the other two are useful for solo activities that provide feedback.
Warm ups Mouth stretches are one simple warm up that language learners can do on their own; stretches that are much like what you would do for your legs before running. I often use the running and walking analogy with students, explaining that their L1 is like walking; something they always do, whereas studying an L2 is like running; since you do it less often you need to stretch for the new movements. When I was looking for applications with daily stretches I found that apps such as these are often produced for three groups: language learners, vocalists, and speech pathologists. The language learning and vocalists’ applications tend to cost money and unless I am sure my students will use the application continuously, Idon’t want them to pay for an application. This leaves the speech pathologist applications; though these apps can be very expensive I was able to find a few great apps designed to help stroke patients to regain oral ability. Mouth movement for language has much to do with muscle memory and this is a common thread for the two fields.
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The application series is called SmallTalk and is produced by Lingraphica. Here are the simple steps for setting up and using the Lingraphica applications: 1. Go to the Apple application store and type in SmallTalk. You will get a list of varying applications that promote rehabilitation and others that are used as a voice for the user. Download ‘Oral Motor Exercises,’ ‘Phonemes’ and ‘Consonant Blends.’
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If you would like to limit the number of exercises that show up on the scroll screen you can click on the settings button and edit the list.
2. All three applications work in a similar way. The first of three SmallTalk apps that I will mention is called Oral Motor Exercises. Simply tap to open the application and you are ready to use it.
3. The application has 54 different exercises that are separated into lip, tongue, cheek, jaw, and soft palate. Once the application opens there is a screen that you can scroll through from left to right, picking the exercises you would like to do.
This simple application can be downloaded inside or outside class and students can easily continue using it once the class is finished. The next two SmallTalk applications that make great warm ups are Phonemes and Constant Blends.
Both of these applications work very much like the Oral Motor Skills app. You select the sound you would like to work on and tap on it. 4.
When you click on the thumbnail image of the exercise you would like to do it expands into a video that will play twice, showing and explaining how to do the exercise.
Then, watch and repeat the video of the sound. This application does not do a cross section of the mouth so you cannot see the activity of the tongue but I find that this is a great starting point.
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These applications do not need an internet connection so they can be used anytime, anywhere. They are very simple applications however, they are only for Apple products. An alternative application that works on both Apple and Android products is called ‘Sounds of Speech.’
The idioms choice is good for vocabulary and will allow the user to play back their own recording. However it does not rate the speaker’s pronunciation. 3. Next click on the word to hear it pronounced.
This application also shows cross sections of the inside of the mouth. However, it can take some time to get accustomed to navigating and costs a small amount of money.
Solo activities with feedback There are two applications that give feedback on students’ pronunciation, which I have found helps with motivation and consistency of use with my students. The first is ‘SpeakAP’ which focuses on single words and the second is ‘Speakingpal’ which works with chunks and sentences of speech. SpeakAP works on both Apple and Android products. The application is free but has fees for the more involved levels. Here is a simple walk through of set up and use: 1. Go to the application store of your choice and type in “SpeakAP”. Download the application. Open the application and tap on Speech trainer.
4. You can then record your own pronunciation of the word. Click once to start recording and again to stop after you have said the word. 5. After you record your pronunciation, you will be rated on Speaking rate, energy (volume) and pitch. The rate meter seems to be the best as it helps with rhythm and breaks down the phonetic make up of a word.
2. Next tap on the free SpeakAP words choice.
At first, I thought the energy meter was strange, but I noticed it pushed students to say the word without mumbling and helped with the stress of the word. The pitch rating is designed to help with intonation and accent improvement.
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When I tested SpeakAP, I tried to impersonate students’ possible accents and got very little range. However, when I tried it with my students I was surprised to see that the range of results was much greater. Though the ratings are not perfect, they do push students in a positive direction. The basic free package is extensive in this application and if the students really like the app the additional word packages cost much less than an average vocabulary book. Since this app includes definitions of the words, it could easily be worth the additional cost. The final application is the most extensive of the set. SpeakingPal is a more advanced version of something you would see in a language lab. The application has multiple scenarios that the user interacts with by reading and recording responses that are rated for accuracy. Here are the steps for using SpeakingPal.
first task here. 5. Next you will see the first section of a three part dialogue that you will have with the computer. In each section you will hear the computer ask a question and then you will respond with the scripted response. To record your response you just tap the micro-phone symbol and recite the sentence. You do not have to tap the microphone symbol when you are finished: it will automatically sense you are done. 6. After you record your response you will either be rated or asked to rerecord your response.
1. Download and open the application. You can make an account or just use the application as a guest. 2. Next choose the category of lesson you would like to do. For this example I chose Travel
After you have been successfully rated you can try again or move to the next line of dialogue. 7. When you have recorded all three responses you will be brought to a summary screen. Here you can hear the sample reader, rerecord your dialogue or listen to your previous recording. You can do this for all three parts of your dialogue.
3. For each category, there are multiple topics and usually the first 3-5 topics are free. You must do the topics in the order they are listed as future lessons are locked. I don’t see any purpose to this except that it adds a game atmosphere and challenge to the lesson. 4. After you enter the category, you have eight short conversation levels to pass. You can tap here for an entire sample dialogue or just start the
8. After you have done all this you will be brought back to the category screen where you can do the next level in
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the conversa-tion. When I first saw the Speakingpal app I was a little skeptical because of the smiley avatar and conversation layout. However, I was pleasantly surprised by its simple addictiveness. It does much the same for pronunciation as Rosetta can do for vocabulary building. You may have noticed that the dialogue I had was translated into Japanese. You can turn this on or off in the settings.
The next step after or during the use of these applications would be for the learner to seek out online or in person opportunities to practice speaking with live human beings. Overall benefits of pronunciation applications: 1. These applications are simple to use and the layout seems universal. This is an important aspect when looking at new software for language learners. Interfaces can often differ and confuse the learner before they even get to the task the program is focusing on. 2. Pronunciation is one of the hardest skills to measure for improvement. Both SpeakAP and Speakingpal give constant feedback that is measurable, which really helps autonomous learners’ motivation. 3. The SmallTalk applications are free and both SpeakAP and Speakingpal have a substantial free portion which is really a nice perk when learners are testing what method works best for them. 4. Both SpeakAP and Speakingpal are offered for both Apple and Android users which is a major plus when having students use their own devices. 5. All the applications can be used for as little as two minutes or for an extended amount of time. The flexibility in time needed gives the learner less of an excuse to avoid practicing. It is often hard for language learners to listen to their own pronunciation and seek out errors. Even if Speakingpal and SpeakAP may not be
100% accurate they do serve as an outside meter. The computer meter will also not get used to the learner’s pronuncia-tion as a teacher might. Possible limitations of smartphones in the class: 1. All of the applications mentioned in this article are designed to be used by the learner on his/her own. This is great to allow individual learners to focus on their specific pronunciation abilities without being too self-conscious. However, being alone when practicing a social speaking skill can be limiting in the holistic understanding of communication. In other words, students could get addicted to the safety of these applications, much as they might obsess over the pragmatics of grammar instead of writing an essay. 2. All of these applications use American English for pronunciation. In the Smalltalk applications, this is not such a serious problem since the focus is on mouth warm- ups. However an app such as SpeakAP may penalize for the difference in British pronunciation. A couple of alternative applications that offer a choice of British or American English are: Sounds, English File Pronunciation, and Pronunciation King. However, these applications did not have the clear and measurable feedback that SpeakAP and Speakingpal had. Final Remarks When it comes to autonomy and motivation pronunciation is without a doubt one of the most challenging components of language learning. Finding the perfect plan for learners is always hard, however simple applications like the ones mentioned in this Tech Talk help offer a variety of choices. The technology has come a long way since the days of language labs that recorded and played back the speakers voice. Apps can now give outside feedback and show videos and links to strengthen understanding. In addition, the lab is now portable and ready to be used any time the learner has a spare moment. Just as with a lab, these applications should be seen as supplementary materials that help stretch and strengthen the learner’s language skill and understanding. Hopefully these applications can
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build confidence for the learner to seek out more opportunities to find live conversation.
Dear Readers, If you have any requests for future Tech Talks please feel free to contact me. Any request is greatly appreciated and can range from a specific program you want explained to a general lesson you have that you want to incorporate technology into. Thank you, lucius-v@kanda.kuis.ac.jp
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