Review - Clear Speech Works™
Overview
Clear Speech Works™ software's purpose is to improve pronunciation. Its target pronunciation style is American Standard. This is achieved by use of the following:
- 24 lessons targeting specific pronunciation areas, for example "Finish that Word: final voiceless stops"
- Personal Recording possibilities for direct confrontation between target pronunciation and user's
- Video Coach presenting the pertinent information (with the spoken text displayed below)
- Male or Female voice
- Video close-ups of the mouth for pronunciation practice
- Discrimination game for distinguishing between minimal pairs (i.e. bit - bet, beet - bet, etc.)
- Personal lesson planning (based on your nationality or accent) to focus on problem areas
- Professional vocabulary section for pronunciation practice in context
The software was developed in 1994 by Profesors Blackmer and Ferrier at Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts. It is distributed by Royale Software.
Review - Strengths
In my opinion, this is an excellent tool to specifically focus on standard American pronunciation improvement. The lessons are clear in their conception and the subject areas are very well defined. Its strengths are as follows:
- By signing in (basically saving a personal version), you can insert your own nationality or accent and have the most important lessons chosen for you by the program. This allows the user to immediately focus on what will probably be his/her own problem areas.
- Consistent layout. Once the user has understood the first lesson, future lesson interfaces will cause no problem, which allows for an easy learning curve.
- Strong focus on minimal pair contrasting. This area is extremely important in the shading of vowel sounds and is well presented both in sound examples and accompanying charts. There is also a tic-tac-toe discrimination game between the various pairs for each unit. This area is probably the forte of this pronunciation program.
- Easy comparison tools for user recording. This tool allows the user to quickly contrast the target pronunciation with his/her own.
- Combination of written and video presentation. A video explanation is presented with the spoken text shown underneath. Excellent listening comprehension practice while learning basic pronunciation features.
Review - Weaknesses
This program's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness. It focuses extremely well on its stated task - standard American pronunciation. So well, that it tends to ignore just about anything else related to pronunciation, namely: intonation, connected speech variances, local pronunciation varieties.
Some users might find the accent correction target areas a little offensive. For example the user can find lesson plans not only for Italian or German students, but also for British (!), American English (Black, Eastern, Southern). Certainly not the most politically correct of programs…
Overall Opinion
This is an excellent program for users who want to focus on learning standard American pronunciation - it therefore achieves exactly what it sets out to do. Any user that might want to buy a program that will introduce him/her to any subtlety of pronunciation will be rather disappointed.
The technical layout of the program is very straightforward, which will allow students to get learning quickly. There is also the possibility of multiple user files, which is a definite plus for any classroom learning situation. It will run on anything from a 386 on up (with 8 Meg of RAM) and can therefore be used on just about any computer you will find about the school.
All in all, I would say it is a worthwhile investment for any beginning to intermediate user that needs to be understood in a standard North American environment.
Selected Pronunciation Links
English as 2nd Language About.com pronunciation page
Internet ESL Journal pronunciation link page
ESL Cafe's pronunciation link page
American Accent Training
