This is a review of “American Speech Sounds for Academics,” a pronunciation software designed by English Talk Shop.

Often, international students working on language development, especially in their home country, have extensive access to resources and feedback on grammar and vocabulary. What they have less access to are effective resources to improve pronunciation. Without comprehensible pronunciation, a student’s language ability is hidden or at least hindered. In an attempt to fill this gap, English Talk Shop has developed American Speech Sounds for Academics (ASSA): a software program designed to help students monitor and address pronunciation issues that may interfere with academic communication in English.

ASSA is a simple to use software available on disk for Windows, through the Apple app store, or as a browser version accessible through the English Talk Shop website. The digital software carries a price tag of US$5.99 a month, which can add up to a lot, especially considering the glut of free software available in most mobile stores. However, there is still a significant amount of value to be wrung from a subscription. Depending on a person’s immediately available time and commitment, a full disk purchase might be a better value at US$135. The real use and value of this product is going to hinge on the person purchasing it and how frequently they plan to use the software to develop the pronunciation techniques focused on in the different sections.

The students we work with are both ITAs and other NNESs who wish to develop aspects of their academic English. These students are typically advanced speakers. (I.e., they often have already received between an 18 and 28 on the speaking section of the TOEFL iBT.) We have elicited feedback from these students regarding their use of the software and have kept records of students who have selected to purchase the software after borrowing it from our resource library because they wished to have more practice.

The software’s home screen allows users to select their native language from an extensive list. It also allows the users to select if they would like to include AS or IPA Phonetics or turn off phonetics. Then, the software is split into four sections. The most basic sections are the “Listen and Choose” option, where students work at distinguishing the pronunciation of words and sounds, and the “Speechsounds,” section where users can work on making the sounds accurately. The other two sections focus on improving stress for “Words” and “Sentences.” For both “Words” and “Sentences,” users hear words or sentences spoken and then record themselves trying to model the pronunciation in the recording. After recording, they can monitor their pronunciation by listening to their version and comparing it to the original.

The first section is the “Speechsounds” section, which users can use to improve pronunciation of specific sounds or phonemes. Users do this by hearing a modeled sound, several modeled words, and then a sentence that contains several words that incorporate that sound. After listening to the software model these, users then make a recording of themselves saying what they had heard. Finally, they can play back both the model and their recording and self-assess the differences. If the user is having difficulty with a particular sound, there is a “key” icon in the top corner of the page. This key is a fantastic addition. It has a quick guide to making the sounds correctly including a written description and a video model of someone making the sound. Both the shipped software and the app version come with a handy diagram for jaw, mouth, and tongue placement for students who wish to improve awareness of placement. The quick description in the software is easy to understand and emulate. Our students have reported using the “Speechsounds” section only for known problematic sounds.

The next section is the “Listen and Choose” section, but our students mostly report this section as the least helpful. That is not to say that the “Listen and Choose” section does not provide benefit for them, but it has the potential to be very beneficial for individuals still working on distinguishing different stress and rhythm patterns common in English. In this section, users are given two options to choose from and hear one of them at random. They must then select which of the two options they heard. While this might be good practice for individuals still struggling to identify certain stress patterns or who are working to improve their listening, the majority of the students we work with report skipping this section.

In our program, the two sections where the majority of students have reported the most progress are the “Words” and “Sentences” sections. These sections both address stress patterns. The “Word” section varies slightly between disk and app versions, but both versions have a selection of options to hone pronunciation, including the most common consonants issues based on native language, vowel sounds, and exercises. The exercises section is where advanced speakers are going to get the most out of the software. Users can focus on practicing word endings, intonation, linking sounds, compound noun stress, and focal stress. These are all aspects of pronunciation that students we work with spend time trying to develop. Feedback from students has included that they found this section useful for improving their speed and rhythm when speaking.

Our students report the “Sentences” section as the most useful. This fourth section is designed in a similar fashion to the “Words” section. We have found this section to be especially beneficial for helping students to develop an awareness of their stress and to work on reducing the monotone stress pattern many of our students have. This section is also based on use of an academic word list, which includes some discipline-specific terms from fields such as biology, business, engineering, mathematics, and other advanced fields. This allows students to be practicing sentence stress while incorporating common vocabulary that they are using as academics. This area of the software also looks at different sentence patterns such as lists, different types of questions, and statements to allow students to practice different intonation patterns.

The real benefit of the software on student pronunciation development is the immediate opportunity for self-assessment built into the program. Students can relisten to their recording to hear if they are mirroring the pattern demonstrated. Recent research supports the benefits of learners being able to self-assess and the benefits of being more active participants in the learning process (Chen, 2008). By having the learners listen and assess their own production immediately, they can quickly adapt and develop. This particular form of feedback relies on the students being able to hear the differences in their sentences and the models in the software. This is one reason why “Listen and Choose” is a good starting point for some speakers. However, advanced students who are farther along in their fluency development should be able to assess themselves and self-correct accordingly. This is exactly what our students have reported to instructors in our department after extensive use of this software. Without a strong listening foundation, these more beneficial sections may have diminished benefits.

Currently, the Carnegie Mellon University department devoted to working with second language speakers has purchased several copies of ASSA and has been lending them to nonnative English speakers and also made them available for purchase. As the user’s skills increase through natural development of language, the usefulness and value of the software also increases. While helpful at the earlier stages of learning English, the value of this software does not match the price. However, as a learner’s fluency increases and his or her ability to self-assess develops, the benefits of the software increase. Many students have self-reported feelings of improvement although no formal measures have been taken. The ASSA software remains one of the most popular materials available in our student resource library.

References

Chen, Y. (2008). Learning to self-assess oral performance in English: A longitudinal case study. Language Teaching Research, 12(2), pp. 235–262.

English Talk Shop LLC. (2015). American Speechsounds for Academics [Computer software]. Portland, OR: Author. Retrieved from http://www.englishtalkshop.com/.

Elliott Walters is a Language Development Specialist at Carnegie Mellon University. He works with international Teaching Assistants to help develop their fluency for academic and professional purposes. He has worked in higher education for eight years both in the United States as well in China and South Korea. His professional interests include working with graduate students for pronunciation development, jargon simplification, and writing instruction.