There is some really bad text to speech out there and the upshot will be that people will abandon whatever it is using a bad voice synthesiser. You get it on news clips, how to clips, automated phone messages. It is awful. Digital voices are as unique as human voices so I am not sure why they seem to pick the most annoying and horrible ones for public consumption. There are some reasonable voices out there and they are improving all the time. Text to speech does have its uses especially in terms of accessibility , literacy and mastering a new language. The video clip gives you some ideas as to how to manage text to speech effectively and this clip on another text to speech option shows you too how effective it can be. The tip from both clips is to try the different options to get the best one for your purposes.
WeAreTeachers is a site created by American teachers but I am living proof any teacher from any country can belong! Not that I am just any teacher. I registered with the site when it was new and have watched it go from strength to strength. it is a fantastic spot to get ideas because teachers are sharing what they do . It is dynamic and interesting but it is also very helpful if you are stuck for ideas or with behaviour management issues. It really is a motivating site for teachers because its whole stance is positive. One of the things it offers ,like so many sites, is a regular email of updates. I am wary of the clogged email box so I subscribe wisely these days. Today my WAT newsletter brought me an excellent and very practical link to an iPad slide show by Tom Barrett. It’s fun. it is interesting. It is sharing ideas from other teachers and so Tom Barrett has put together a really useful presentation , by collaborating online with others, of iPad ideas for schools and teachers. He is keen to expand this and so invites contributions and in return he offers updates and further information on his blog. Check out Tom Barrett’s 103 interesting ways to use an iPad in a classroom and tips !
My most recommended iPad app for the classroom is Busuu which covers numerous languages and offers some sound practice. I also recommend the Voice Reader app which has voice synthesisers for a number of languages.
Voice Reader is a very handy app for iPhone or iPad which will enable students of French to master accent and fluency faster but at their own rate. It actually runs in 21 European languages with 32 voices. You can download voice synthesisers to run offline for 99 cents in Australia but you have access to all of them online. I downloaded André. He’s pretty nice to listen to. Students can type as much or as little text as they want and the voice will read it back to them in pretty good French. It is not perfect native speaker but it does a pretty good job. The text can be slowed down or sped up so the students are totally in control of their learning. It would be great to have the Asian languages added to Voice Reader and even our indigenous languages. It is not just a way to learn new languages, it is a way of preserving our world languages and allowing people to communicate in a variety of languages. It is a 21 Century app which promotes multilingualism in a pain free way since the student is in complete control of their learning. It also makes good use of mobile technology which so many people have these days. The last advantage I can see is that it would provide a great assistive service for those who can write but have difficult in speaking for whatever reason.
BigIQkids is a great site for learning spelling , customising spelling lists, hearing the lists and then being tested on them.it offers screen and keyboard options for input. Once you are done you can play educational games! The site offers membership and premium access but it has also provided a useful and workable free section. Doesn’t get fairer than that. Voice synthesisers have come a long way and are good to use in language learning because not everyone has access to a real, live native speaker.In any case, they are fun. These sorts of sites need to become more mainstream so we increase and improve our language acquisition skills. Voki is also a site which offers good language synthesiser learning possibilities.
E-WOT 