Image from here In the previous blog (6th September) I wondered whether we should keep separate the teaching of pronunciation and listening. I was considering the implications of Gillian Brown’s statements about the ‘obscure acoustic blur’ of speech. Here are two further quotations from her ‘Listening to Spoken English’ which seem to settle the question: […]
Hi Dharmendra As I said you have good ears! In my enthusiasm for the jungle, I went too far with squeezing the non-prominent syllables ‘would have asked’. I should have stuck to the task of simply demonstrating the absence of the consonant /v/ at the end of ‘would have’, but I ended up changing the […]
I have spent the last month finding out about the price of building apps for the iPad, as I want to do a second edition of my first publication, ‘Streaming Speech: Listening and Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English‘. Trawling around the internet, the lowest figure I found for a simple app was 4,000 (British […]
Outfit7.com’s Talking Tom Cat 2 I am investigating the possibilities of Apple’s iPad, to find out the kinds of activities and functionality that are available in the increasingly wide field of applications. (Er, yes, I admit it: this involves play and enjoyment and laughter). This is all with a view to producing a second edition […]
Image from here Specific rave The recordings are the star feature of this publication by Ian Badger. They are gorgeous. They come in mp3 format on a data CD, and they vary in length from 22 seconds (message on telephone answering machine) to 2 minutes 44 seconds (registering for, and starting a conference call). Being […]
It looks like a room from the film ‘The Commitments’ but in it Fiona Shaw talks about and performs T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. As she performs the poem, you can follow the text which is highlighted in sync with the audio. Clicking on lines will earn you a repeat hearing/viewing, or you can navigate […]
Below are listed the research articles which provide the underpinnings for Speechinaction’s commerical publications. Many of the articles published since 1999 are available online – just click the link. All the articles are by Richard Cauldwell, unless otherwise mentioned. 2011 Pronunciation in spontaneous speech. In P. Roach, J. Setter, & J. Esling. [Eds]. Cambridge Pronouncing […]
Ulises is a medical consultant working in a major hospital in England. Click the speaker icon to hear all of the extract. Click on each line to hear that line. The numbers down the left hand side are reference numbers for each line. The numbers down the right hand side give the speed in words […]
Mohamed is a university lecturer, who has worked in Sudan, England, and the United States. Click the speaker icon to hear all of the extract. Click on each line to hear that line. The numbers down the left hand side are reference numbers for each line. The numbers down the right hand side give the […]
Dorota is a university lecturer, working in England. Click the speaker icon to hear all of the extract. Click on each line to hear that line. The numbers down the left hand side are reference numbers for each line. The numbers down the right hand side give the speed in words per minute of each […]
Caroline is a university researcher, working in England. Click the speaker icon to hear all of the extract. Click on each line to hear that line. The numbers down the left hand side are reference numbers for each line. The numbers down the right hand side give the speed in words per minute of each […]
Atsuko is a teacher of English in Japan. She has to speak English every day at work, and during her visits to England. Click the speaker icon to hear all of the extract. Click on each line to hear that line. The numbers down the left hand side are reference numbers for each line. The […]
Anke has two occupations: she is an accountant, and a teacher. Click the speaker icon to hear all of the extract. Click on each line to hear that line. The numbers down the left hand side are reference numbers for each line. The numbers down the right hand side give the speed in words per […]
The limitations of phonetic symbols | Speech in Action
Image from here. Gillian Brown is someone whose work I am frequently returning to. I wrote a blog here recently. I quoted this (1990:7), and do so again: the stretches of acoustic blur often not longer permit any representation on a segment-by-segment basis She is talking about ‘private’ speech between people who know each other […]