Takako's Great Adventures http://www.faceweb.okanagan.bc.ca/takako/index.htm Join this interactive adventure with Takako by reading text while listening to streamed audio. Gap and comprehension exercises are integrated into each exercise. Some technical constraints for Mac users, but a phenomenal source for the ESL teacher!
Diphthong Calculator by Steve Chadwick http://www.stuff.co.uk/media/calcul.html Click over to this site and power up Steve Chadwick's diphthong calculator. Add a mid front unrounded vowel to a low front unrounded vowel then watch and listen as the small animated face produces a diphthong.
Cutting edge CALL demos http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/chorus/call/cuttingedge.html Interactive multimedia for ESL learners. Minimal pair discrimination for troublesome consonants, interactive animation for preposition practice and listening exercises for grammar and verb tense. Also included, an interactive module for American Sign Language. This is truly the cutting-edge of Internet CALL demos! Site uses QuickTime, Flash, Shockwave and RealPlayer.
Takahiko Iimura's Video Clips http://www.inter-g7.or.jp/g4/newyork/art6a-e.html Avant-garde artist meets phonetics. Extremely artistic in nature , these clips exaggerated facial movements (differential extension) to display articulatory features of several Japanese vowels. Entertaining at the very least.
Sounds English by Geoff Taylor http://www.paddocks64.freeserve.co.uk/ Small animated video/audio clips of alphabet illustrate speech articulators and proper pronunciation . Always wanted to use Karaoke in class? Look no farther. Shareware focusing on minimal pair discrimination-uses HyperCard application.
Vowels and Diphthongs of American and British English http://faculty.washington.edu/dillon/PhonResources/newstart.html A sleek chart of English and British Vowels and Diphthongs. Click on a phonetic symbol to access an AIF audio file of phoneme. An efficient reference chart and a helpful way of looking at the elusive American central vowel before 'r'.
George Dillon's Phonetics Resources http://faculty.washington.edu/dillon/PhonResources/PhonResources.html Includes links to Phones and Phonemes of English, Speech Waveform Analysis, Text to Speech (TTS) Synthesizers and Talking Faces , Speech Recognition, Archives and Comprehensive Lists, Online Courses and Tutorials
Adam Rado's English Learning Fun Center (elfs) http://www.elfs.com AIF Files, RealAudio. Elfs' "Mouth Manglers" focuses on problematic consonants while utilizing minimal pair discrimination in sentence format. "Toons & Voices" allows the learner to follow a text focusing on an idiom. The site attempts to elicit information from the user in many different ways: cloze sentences, movie reviews, and multiple choice exercises. AIF audio files are inserted in many different areas to integrate production of speech with content.
The Alphabet in English by Anthony Hughes http://edunet.com/english/grammar/alpha.html .au format. This is a very basic rendering of the alphabet in .au audio file form. Clicking on a segment will play a sound file containing four to six letters.
Sounds of English by Sharon Widmayer http://www.soundsofenglish.org An explanation of the sound system of English, including diagrams and example sounds in .au format. There is also a teaching tips page.
University College London Dept. of Phonetics and Linguistics http://holtz.phon.ucl.ac.uk/wbt/calinv3.html Interactive teaching of phonetics using computers, speech synthesis: great ideas for teachers and developers alike. According to UCL, "An innovative method known as "Analytic Listening" (AL) has been developed at UCL as a tool for auditory training in phonetics." Using sound files, the developers aim at later incorporating multimedia to enhance the potential of this medium for self-study and classroom teaching.
Some Techniques for Teaching English http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/Techniques/Dalton-Pronunciation.html This is a TESL-L article from January 1997. A brief and basic paper illustrating some helpful classroom activities which ,according to author David F. Dalton, "allow clear practice in production and reception and gives concise feedback to individual learners as to where their problems lie in these areas and how to repair them". Minimal pair discrimination, drills for isolating problematic sounds and an amusing exercise combining art and speech perception.
John Higgin's Home Page http://www.marlodge.supanet.com/ Machine Readable Phonemes/ ASCII files. A rather large compilation of different RP minimal pairs, homophones and homographs. Author John Higgins, has basically re-indexed sections of Roger Mitton's 1974 work, Advanced Learner's Dictionary of English. The extensive list of RP minimal pairs can be downloaded, since they are in ASCII format.
1st International Collection of Tongue Twisters by Michael Reck http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/en.htm Wondering "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a wooodchuck could chuck wood??" The largest on-line database of tongue twisters available.
Pizzaz!Tongue Twisters, by Leslie Opp-Beckman http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/twisters.html Create, illustrate and manipulate tongue twisters: Links to the main tongue twister databases. Several stimulating activities to bring tongue twisters into the classroom.
Phonetics Software Digest http://www.gy.com/www/ph.htm Descriptions of commercial phonetic software for every purpose imaginable. Prices, descriptions and pictures make this a practical site for teachers of phonetics.
SIL's IPA Fonts http://www.itl.atr.co.jp/comp.speech/Section1/Fonts/sil.ipa.html Freeware in ASCII format. Download SIL's IPA fonts at no cost. Available for Mac and
SIL's Computing Resources http://www.sil.org/computing/sil_computing.html Helpful computing links with several links to SIL speech analysis software.
The Stress Stretch for Improved Intelligibility http://www.missioncollege.org/depts/esl/fac/chan/Pres/StressStretch.html Rhythm, intonation and stress are elusive to learners and teachers. The Stress Stretch integrates kinesthetic, tactile, visual and auditory perception to aid in the production of proper stress and intonation.
English "Pronunciation Test "http://pauillac.inria.fr/~xleroy/stuff/english-pronunciation.html Another incarnation of the 'English is tough stuff' poem. The unidentified author promises, "Once you've learned to correctly pronounce every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world."
UCLA's Phonetics Lab http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/linguistics/faciliti/uclaplab.html Visit Peter Ladefoged or Pat Keating and others in the UCLA Phonetics Lab. The Phonetics Lab journal or phonetic software are available at a small cost. Visiting this state-of-the-art Lab is a must for students or teachers interested in acoustic phonetics.
Phonetics Lab at the University of Washington http://depts.washington.edu/phonlab/ A research facility that provides undergraduate and graduate courses in phonetics.
The International Phonetic Association http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html Promotes the scientific study of phonetics and the various practical applications of that science. IPA fonts, journals and sounds of the IPA are available on both cassette and CD.
IATEFL's Pronunciation Special Interest Group http://members.aol.com/PronunciationSig/index.htm The aim of the IATEFL Pronunciation SIG is to take the mystery out of pronunciation teaching and make it interesting and accessible for all teachers of English.Speak Out! is their publication devoted to the teaching of English pronunciation.
TESOL's Speech/Pronunciation Special Interest Section http://www.public.iastate.edu/~jlevis/SPRIS/ Provides information about the interest section, discussions of pronunciation issues, information about pronunciation teaching and resource books, pronunciation activities, articles, previous TESOL Matters columns, and links to interesting Web Sites.
People Helping One Another Know Stuff http://www.phoaks.com/comp/speech/index.html A massive list of related links and websites providing speech synthesis and recognition technology.
The Journal of Phonetics [online] http://hbuk.co.uk/ap/journals/jp/ The Journal of Phonetics publishes papers of an experimental or theoretical nature that deal with phonetic aspects of language and linguistic communication processes.
The Linguist http://www.emich.edu/~linguist/ The Linguist contains online academic papers, job resources, research support and a myriad of other helpful links for the linguist.
Improving Japanese pronunciation of American English [r] using Electronic Visual Feedback (EVF). http://www.u-aizu.ac.jp/~steeve/rsound2.html This abstract by Hisako Murakawa and Stephen Lambacher URL documents the results of applying this technology to Japanese speakers and provides other helpful tips concerning pedagogy in this context.
The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary http://www.speech.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin/cmudict The Carnegie Mellon University Pronouncing Dictionary is a machine-readable pronunciation dictionary for North American English that contains over 100,000 words and their transcriptions. This format is particularly useful for speech recognition and synthesis. Because IPA is not the standard here, this site is really for the serious developer.
Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/ An online publication looking at how technology impacts the classroom. Articles relating to technology that facilitates the teaching of pronunciation on the Internet.
Johns Hopkins University Center for Language and Speech Processing http://www.clsp.jhu.edu Researchers at the Center for Language and Speech Processing seek to discover how language is produced, perceived, and understood. Program and conference information provided.
Hummingbird http://www.humbird.com/ Hummingbird teaches exact production of American English phonetics, using color-coded mouth placement symbols, captions, and musical accompanyment. Videos and audiotapes provide rhythmic presentation and exercise of English sounds, words, and phrases.
Phrase by Phrase Pronunciation http://www.sunburstmedia.com/Phrase.html Phrase by Phrase's 16 lessons integrate stress, rhythm, intonation with vowels and consonants in contextualized listening/speaking activities.
Pronunciation Power http://www.englishlearning.com/ An interactive program designed for intermediate to advanced English learners of all ages. It contains more than 20 hours of instruction and is highly recommended.
Pronunciation Workout http://www.sunburstmedia.com/PronWkt.html Pronunciation Workout physically warms up learners for oral communication in any language.
Speech Synthesis http://www.speechtoys.com/spchtoys/spsyn.html Helpful links for speech synthesis and text to speech programs.
Speechlab/Sprachlabor (Deutsch) http://www.media-enterprise.de/engl/speechla/speechla.htm Introductory tutorials providing insight into the acoustic foundations of human speech. Geared toward the teacher looking to enhance the quality of phonetic lectures. Use spectrograms, or "speech samples either existing or recorded via microphone or sound card can be processed and altered". Download the demo or order the CD for 160 DM.
Using Your Hands to Teach Pronunciation http://www.sunburstmedia.com/UsgHands.html This videotape demonstrates hand signals that language teachers can use to help students learn elements of pronunciation of vowels and consonants, stress and intonation.
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