Speaking/Listening

Different approaches

• Stimulus– Computer is used to promote listening or

speaking by students. – Listening is easier to assess– Speaking: how much talk is there, how

varied is it, how accurate is it? (Computers can be used for “tasks” -- connection with task-based approaches.)

Approaches

• Tutor– Provides listening exercises in individual

sounds (phones/segments), words, suprasegmental units (intonation, stress)

– Teaches or monitors pronunciation, which is more difficult (e.g., Sptool)

Approaches

• Tool– Analyses student speech (similar to tutor

role)– Enables production of sound files (for

transmission/delivery)

Useful sites and sources

• TESOL Electronic Village (Class 5)• Phil Hubbard’s descriptions of

speaking/listening -- which I used extensively http://www.stanford.edu/~efs/tesol03listening/

• Learning English Online http://www.rong-chang.com/book/

• Speaking/spectrograms - Pennington and Esling (in Power of CALL)

• CDROM/DVDs www.dyned.com/

Using existing web sources

• Radio/TV stations (BBC)

• Special language learning sites– http://www.englishbaby.com/lessons/today

• Potential problems – copyright – websites come and go

Sound Technology

• Synthesised versus digitised sound– Synthesised sound -- sound segments (for

each English sound) are stored and then sequenced to produce a robotic utterance

– Digitized sound. Speech is saved as a sound file. Digitization includes compression, but sound files are reasonably large

Digitized sound delivery

• Transfer/download a sound file– Mp3 player is using a sound file

• Use streaming technology– Radio/TV broadcast on the web using

streaming technology. Sound is sent in packets which are converted to sound as they are received

Different formats/players

• Players– Realplayer– Quicktime– Windows Media Player

• File formats– .mp3– .mov– .ram– .wav– etc.

Different formats/players

• Need the right plug-in for your browser

• Or you need the right stand-alone player, although players can usually handle more than one format.

• Try http://www.englishbaby.com/lessons/today

Authentic language

• BBC, etc.

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml

• TV, films -- authentic enough

• May need scripts– TV/Film scripts www.script-o-rama.com– Use site with subtitles

Listening lessons

• Similar to reading

• Involve combination of top-down processes: using schemata/general knowledge/predictions and bottom-up processes: word recognition, decoding prosodic features

Listening

• Computer-based listening (and reading) allows for the control of the sequencing of language. E.g. for reading a group of words can be flashed on the screen. For listening, selection of words/phrases, repetition, is possible. Or questions inserted in text/listening.

Listening

• Partial dictation (Coniam reading)– Student hears a complete text while looking at the

written text which has gaps.– Student fills the gaps– Reading/listening exercise

• Generally use of context is encouraged as in partial dictation. Sometimes context is removed - HyperACE (Hubbard)

Listening

• Good for discrimination of sounds:

• big - pig

• bath - bathe

Good web listening lessons

From Hubbard et al (www.stanford.edu/~efs/tesol03listening/)

• 1. Are organized: The web draws people in. So, set a task. Make a task sheet. Have a goal. Do pre- and post-listening.

• 2. Give comprehension help: Group students. Talk first; listen second; then, talk again.

Good web listening lessons

• 3. Supplement: Build on your text or the interests of your class. Follow up on listening through homework, e-mail and discussion.

• 4. Challenge students: Use authentic English, even if it’s a bit fast, noisy, accented or difficult in terms of topic

Good web listening lessons

• 5. Are oriented to the global village: Use the computer to localize “foreign” languages. Introduce in class. Practice at home

• 6. Build listening skills: Exchange e-mail about listening. Practice now; perfect later. Assign projects.

Speech analysis and feedback

• Speech is complex!

• Speech recognition -- not a fully developed technology (for native speakers)

• Used in phone interactions (credit card number etc. -- native speakers)

• Traci talk CDROM

Speech analysis and feedback

• Usual format– Learner records an utterance– Learner compares pronunciation with NS

recording– Unclear how useful this is

Working with sound

• Attach sound files to websites/email

• Stream ???

• Use CDROMs

• Wimba technology– Demo– www.wimba.com

Speech analysis

• Special equipment or computer running speech analysis software

• Software for linguists (phoneticians)

• Software for students (simplified view of sound -- comparison/target sound -- feedback )

English vowel chart

• From http://www.uoregon.edu/~l150web/vowel.html

English consonant chart

• http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~l150web/conson.html

New Zealand English

• John Newman’s site– http://faculty.washington.edu/dillon/PhonRe

sources/kiwisounds/NewZealandPronunciation.html

• English accents around the world– http://accent.gmu.edu/

Waveform

• From http://cslu.cse.ogi.edu/tutordemos/SpectrogramReading/waveform.html

• “compute”

Waveform

• Pronunciation Power (http://calico.org/CALICO_Review/review/sonaspeech.htm)

Spectrogram

• http://cslu.cse.ogi.edu/tutordemos/SpectrogramReading/spectrogram.html

Pitch contours

• calico.org/journalarticles/Volume7/vol7-1/Chun.pdf

Vowel target (F1 and F2)

• Kay Sona-speech (http://calico.org/CALICO_Review/review/sonaspeech.htm)

Mouth diagrams

• Ellis (http://calico.org/CALICO_Review/review/sonaspeech.htm)

Web sites

• Randall's Cyber Listening Lab http://www.esl-lab.com

• Phil Hubbard’s http://www.stanford.edu/group/efs/efs693a

• California Distance Learning Project - http://www.cdlponline.org

• Janet Holmes - Uvic

• Broadcast lectures