Speech Recognition Made Easy with Talk to Me
AURALOG's new range of Talk to Me language learning software is based on speech recognition technology. The first language course on CD-ROM to use the Spoken Error Tracking System (SETS), Talk to Me enables incorrectly pronounced words to be automatically detected within a complete sentence. The program incorporates a speech recognition engine that enables students to talk freely to a PC. It then accurately assesses pronunciation quality. Additionally, students can see words and phrases pronounced from a dual-mode display. A voice graph traces voice amplitude and a curve shows the fundamental frequency, thus allowing intonation to be improved. Talk to Me handles phonetics by using synthetic images to provide animation of each language's own unique phonemes.
Talk to Me is available in Beginner-Intermediate and Advanced. The program comes in five languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian and French. Each level represents over 100 hours of tutoring, including 40 hours of conversation practice. Over 700 sentences and 2,000 words use speech recognition. An Internet connection also provides access to a variety of linguistic and teaching resources pre-chosen for each level. AURALOG Inc., Ph'enix, AZ, (602) 957-3535, www.auralog.com.
This article originally appeared in the 11/01/1999 issue of THE Journal.