More Language Software Reviews
I was intrigued by the idea of using speech recognition software to practice speaking, so I downloaded the free demo of Better Accent Tutor at www.betteraccent.com.
The folks at Better Accent are to be commended for their approach: “we believe there is no such thing as right or wrong pronunciation; not even two native speakers speak alike.” The software focuses on the three key points they consider imperative for being understood: intonation, stress, and rhythm.
Unfortunately, though it costs $129 with shipping and handling, there doesn’t seem to be much to it. The demo provides a native speaker example of an utterance, along with visual representations of the speaker’s intonation, stress and rhythm. Then the student has the opportunity to record their own attempt at the utterance, and compare the visuals.
The main problem I had here was that there doesn’t seem to be any feedback. When comparing the visuals, my own utterance was relatively close to the example, but different in some places, and there was no way to know how much those differences would affect intelligibility. Without any way to know if my differences are acceptable or would cause a communication breakdown, the software becomes more of a toy than an educational tool.
Protea Textware’s Connected Speech software, on the other hand, has a wealth of activities and exercises to go with their speech samples, including spelling and Cloze exercises, visualizations of stress and intonation, and opportunities for students to record and compare their utterances. Students can read along with the speech samples, and click on key words for explanations. In addition, there are a number of different speakers to choose from, and versions of the software are available for British, North American, and Australian accents. However, the speakers have consciously slowed down their utterances, which may make it easier for students to follow what they’re saying, but results in rather stilted speech.
Unfortunately, the demos for Connected Speech are extremely slow to download, and the videos for the American and British English ones crash in the middle, so it’s not easy to see the full extent of what this software does. The website promises over 300 hours of activities, but if the actual program is as slow as the demos, it could easily take you 300 hours just to install it and read the FAQ!
The folks at Better Accent are to be commended for their approach: “we believe there is no such thing as right or wrong pronunciation; not even two native speakers speak alike.” The software focuses on the three key points they consider imperative for being understood: intonation, stress, and rhythm.
Unfortunately, though it costs $129 with shipping and handling, there doesn’t seem to be much to it. The demo provides a native speaker example of an utterance, along with visual representations of the speaker’s intonation, stress and rhythm. Then the student has the opportunity to record their own attempt at the utterance, and compare the visuals.
The main problem I had here was that there doesn’t seem to be any feedback. When comparing the visuals, my own utterance was relatively close to the example, but different in some places, and there was no way to know how much those differences would affect intelligibility. Without any way to know if my differences are acceptable or would cause a communication breakdown, the software becomes more of a toy than an educational tool.
Protea Textware’s Connected Speech software, on the other hand, has a wealth of activities and exercises to go with their speech samples, including spelling and Cloze exercises, visualizations of stress and intonation, and opportunities for students to record and compare their utterances. Students can read along with the speech samples, and click on key words for explanations. In addition, there are a number of different speakers to choose from, and versions of the software are available for British, North American, and Australian accents. However, the speakers have consciously slowed down their utterances, which may make it easier for students to follow what they’re saying, but results in rather stilted speech.
Unfortunately, the demos for Connected Speech are extremely slow to download, and the videos for the American and British English ones crash in the middle, so it’s not easy to see the full extent of what this software does. The website promises over 300 hours of activities, but if the actual program is as slow as the demos, it could easily take you 300 hours just to install it and read the FAQ!