YouGlish, on its surface, looks similar to YouTube, but it is more sophisticated. This useful tool is designed to help language learners listen to words and phrases in the context of speeches, lectures, interviews, and, occasionally, works of fiction. Essentially, it is an “online trove of authentic language videos” with refined search capabilities (Wallace & Hunkler, 2017).

Users can search for a word, phrase, part of speech (e.g., “permit:v” as a verb or “permit:n” as a noun), phrase type (e.g., question, exclamation), or topic (e.g., “java #travel” vs “java #programming”). Searching by topic helps limit the search to a particular context or meaning, such as Java the programming language rather than the island of Java or coffee.

Users can also select the target dialect (US, UK, Australian), and leave feedback if they think that the target dialect is incorrect.

After typing something into the search bar and clicking enter, the first of many videos will load, along with a real-time transcript wherein the searched word is highlighted. Below the video are controls that allow the listener to replay the selection, go back/rewind five seconds, pause/play, and advance through the videos. Speed control (normal/faster/slower) is between the video and the transcript.

Below the controls is a study section that gives phonetic information, similar sounding words, and practical suggestions for improving pronunciation.

Benefits of YouGlish

Increased Input

Teachers and language learners have long relied on audio and video recordings as models because of their many advantages. Learners with adequate internet access can access YouGlish videos at any hour, slow down the speech with just a click, and replay the selection as many times as they wish. Learners can also focus unabashedly on how speakers move their mouths as well as on the facial expressions and gestures the speaker uses to help convey an attitude or point. Furthermore, learners are exposed to high variability; they can listen to many different speakers say the same word or phrase. This can be particularly useful in that learners can find model speakers with whom they may have an affinity, or at least models whose pitch range may feel more comfortable for them to imitate. For this reason and more, the diversity of speakers available through YouGlish is invaluable.

For international teaching assistants (ITAs), YouGlish is particularly important because most tracks are of transactional, presentation-style speech (Wallace & Hunkler, 2017) and interactional speech. Instead of sorting through clips of TV shows or heavily colloquial home videos, ITAs can easily find diverse examples in the more relevant contexts of speeches, presentations, and interviews.

Speaking Opportunities

ITAs often tell me that they have little chance to speak in English outside of class. Between their studies, teaching duties, work in labs, and, for some, spending most of their free time conversing with others in their native languages, this is not surprising. With YouGlish, they can still practice speaking—and record themselves and listen back to compare—even if it is only one-way. Best of all, learners can watch videos focusing specifically on what they need to practice.

In the Oral Communication for ITAs classroom, there are English language speakers from a variety of native-language backgrounds who are at varying levels of spoken English comprehensibility. Thus, teaching learners how to use YouGlish to address their own needs is paramount. Because YouGlish has more than 20 million tracks, an individualized approach is possible once the students understand the ways in which they need to improve their spoken English intelligibility.

Though many learners share common points for improvement (such as word stress or intonation patterns), each person has different needs. Whereas some believe that “a strong foreign accent…interfere[s] with intelligibility,” studies show that this is not necessarily the case (Derwing & Munro, 1997, p. 4). For this reason, speakers who are generally intelligible but do not pronounce /θ/ or /ð/ when saying “thanks” or “this” should instead spend their time on pronunciation targets that carry a high functional load, such as /l-n/, and in which they make frequent pronunciation errors (Munro & Derwing, 2006; Qian, Chukharev-Hudilainen & Levis, 2018). Although different technology was used in their study, the conclusions of Qian, Chukharev-Hudilainen, and Levis’s (2018) research suggest that YouGlish may be able to help these learners to improve their perception of the differences between those sounds, and with guidance, to practice producing them. Similarly, using YouGlish as a source of input and model for practice may be of help for speakers whose consonants and vowels are understandable but who need to focus on rhythm or intonation to improve their intelligibility.

Regardless of whether they are working on segmentals or prosodic features, learners can easily work with the videos in a number of ways thanks to the user-friendly control panel:

• Mouthing or lip syncing along with the video(s) by moving their mouth silently with the words

• Imitating the speaker(s) by listening, pausing the video, then repeating

• Tracking or shadowing by saying the same words along with or just after the speaker

• Performing voice over, where the learner’s speech is in sync with the video, and the sound to the video is turned off

As mentioned previously, learners can choose the videos by searching for particular words or phrases, but if the learner wants to practice prosody instead of focusing on a sound or word, there are a few ways to go about this. They can search by a topic (e.g., “#healthy food” or “biomedical #engineering”), then advance through the videos until they find a talk or a speaker that interests them. Alternately, they could create an account and subscribe for free daily lessons, and they’ll receive videos via email. Although they cannot choose the speaker or the topic of these lessons, they can experience a controlled listen-and-repeat activity in which the video automatically pauses after a few seconds. (Learners can control the duration of silence during which they are to repeat what was said.) A weakness of this exercise, however, is that the pauses in the videos do not coincide with the pauses in speech between thought groups. Nonetheless, the students with whom I have spoken find the daily lessons useful.

Ways to Use YouGlish in Class With ITAs

Apart from recommending YouGlish for self-study as described, you can also use YouGlish in class in several ways. Following, I share approaches that I have taken with it.

Pronunciation Topics: Models and Practice

In class, I introduce YouGlish, demonstrate its features and ways to use it, and lead practice with it. In most cases, I conduct group listen-and-repeat exercises, but with earphones and mobile devices, students can more easily try the other activities I’ve suggested. YouGlish is particularly helpful when used as guided perception practice after introducing a new pronunciation topic. Instead of listening only to me, students can hear a variety of voices demonstrating the topic in authentic speech.

YouGlish can be used to demonstrate most every pronunciation topic. Whereas some topics require advanced preparation in finding videos and saving them to an account (e.g., pitch movement and key choice), most topics can be done without much work. These topics include linking and reductions (search “this or that,” “next slide”), prominence (e.g., search “for her” to hear how the stress can be different from one track to the next and determine the reason why based on the context leading up to the selection), thought group division/pausing, consonants, vowels, and word stress. This last topic is of particular importance regarding intelligibility as reported by Field (2005) in his study on the role of lexical stress.

Student-Run Tech Talk

One activity that I do to encourage ITAs to find other pronunciation learning tools and techniques is what I call a Tech Talk. This mini–tech fair takes place during one class period, often in a computer lab or in the classroom using the students’ own laptops and other mobile devices. Half of the students—seated—present their tech tool and how they use it to improve their spoken English intelligibility; YouGlish is one of the many items that students can demonstrate in class that day. The students who choose YouGlish then delve more deeply into the different features and find more ways of using it than what is presented in class.

Other Uses of YouGlish

In this article, I have primarily focused on using YouGlish for modeling and practicing pronunciation topics; nevertheless ITAs can utilize it for other reasons, as well. Expanding on A.C. Kemp’s User-Friendly Classroom video series, ITAs can continue the discussion on how speakers demonstrate (or don’t) approachability, enthusiasm, knowledge, confidence, preparation, and organization. With the YouGlish videos, it is possible to examine speakers’ body language as well to inform this analysis.

Additionally, ITAs can examine word choice in certain speech acts or functions, such as giving advice or making suggestions. With giving advice, for example, students can see how common it is to use “you shouldn’t” as compared to “you ought not.” Particularly of use with preparing for spoken English assessments like the SPEAK Test, there are videos that demonstrate storytelling (e.g., search “one day”), giving directions (e.g., search “turn to page”), apologizing, and more. Because of the large number of videos and easy-to-use interface, ITAs and teachers alike can use YouGlish as a searchable source of input and find ways to turn this input into models for practice. I look forward to learning how others will apply it.

References

Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (1997). Accent, intelligibility, and comprehensibility. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19(1), 1–16.

Field, J. (2005). Intelligibility and the listener: The role of lexical stress. TESOL Quarterly, 39, 399–423. doi:https://doi.org/10.2307/3588487

Munro, M. J., & Derwing, T. M. (2006). The functional load principle in ESL pronunciation instruction: An exploratory study. System, 34, 520–531. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2006.09.004

Qian, M., Chukharev-Hudilainen, E., & Levis, J. (2018). A system for adaptive high-variability segmental perceptual training: Implementation, effectiveness, transfer. Language Learning & Technology, 22(1), 69–96. doi:https://dx.doi.org/10125/44582

Wallace, L. & Hunkler, C. (2017). YouGlish: Using authentic English videos for pronunciation and presentation practice. On CALL. Retrieved from http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tesolcallis/issues/2017-09
-12/7.html

Lara Wallace, a lecturer and the ELIP Pronunciation & Presentation Lab and Speaking Lab coordinator in Ohio University’s Department of Linguistics, has taught oral communication courses for ITAs for over a decade and facilitates Ohio University’s annual ITA orientation. Her doctoral research was on the ITA experience in the oral communication classroom. Current research interests include ITAs, pronunciation pedagogy, and computer-assisted language learning.