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.rongchang.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/tod
ay
Authentic language
• BBC, etc.
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learni
ngenglish/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/NewZealandPronuncia
tion.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.ht
ml
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
• California Distance Learning Project http://www.cdlponline.org
• Janet Holmes - Uvic
• Broadcast lectures
http://www.stanford.edu/group/efs/efs693a