Improving Accuracy in Imitating and Reading Aloud via Speech Visualization Technology

Abstract

This article reports on a teaching experiment that uses speech visualization technology to facilitate EFL (English as a foreign language) learners’ ability of imitating and reading aloud (IRA). Traditional practice of “listen and repeat” used in pronunciation and intonation training often only hazily illustrates some salient speech features, such as pitch and intensity, etc., making it difficult for learners to accurately differentiate the features of pronunciation and capture the subtlety of intonation of the target language . As speech visualization transforms aural information into visual graphics and illustrates it in a clearer way, it can highlight the most important phonetic features of utterances. Such technology was used in a three-month teaching experiment carried out in a senior middle school in southern China for the purpose of reducing learners’ phonetic errors and enabling them to perceive sense groups appropriately.The results indicated that this approach was effective in increasing accuracy in pronunciation while did not have a significant effect on the fluency and rhythm in speech.