Q & A:
Help with International Accents, Page 5
- Introduction and Short Answer.
- Ask them to speak more slowly.
- Use online accent resources: Single-word sites, and Intro to Story Reading Sites
- Using online accent resources: IDEA
- Using online accent resources: The Speech Accent Archive
- Using online accent resources: Map Your Voice
- COMING SOON: Use general media.
- COMING SOON: Use your clients as a learning resource.
- COMING SOON: MAYBE practice copying their accent.
- COMING SOON: Ask them to spell it out.
- COMING SOON: Don't lie! Don't pretend!
- COMING SOON: Final advice. List of useful links. Comments.
Using the Speech Accent Archive
Using the Speech Accent Archive
Let's say I want to get practice listening to an Iranian accent.
- First I go to the Speech Accent Archive home page.
- In the menu on the left I click on browse.
- In the menu on the left I click on atlas/regions.
- On the map of the world I click on the general area containing Iran, which brings up the page for the Middle East.
- On the map of the Middle East, I see many flags. I see two flags in Iran. I click one of them.
- Near the top left is a media player. If there isn't, you'll have to download and install Apple Quicktime. Right below the player is the text that the speaker reads, the "Elicitation Paragraph", with standard English spelling. (On the right is a phonetic transcription).
- I press the Play button, hear the speaker and read the text at the same time.
- To become more familiar with the Iranian accent, I go back to the map, click on another speaker and listen to them too.
Summary
The Pros
The Speech Accent Archive is very user-friendly and convenient (once you have Apple Quicktime installed). I especially like having everything for one recording all together on one page: the media player for the recording, the text of what they say, as well as some basic biographical data. I searched using the browse/atlas method but there are other ways too, if you prefer.
The Cons
The recordings are a lot shorter than IDEA, which I feel doesn't give me enough to learn & understand the accent unless I listen to the same recording many times. Also it seems to have fewer recordings; for my test case of Iran, the Speech Accent Archive has only 2 recordings while IDEA had 11 (and has increased to 13 since my original test). I feel that more recordings offers a student a better chance of understanding the accent of many speakers (not just one or two) from that country.
The Speech Accent Archive is very user-friendly and convenient (once you have Apple Quicktime installed). I especially like having everything for one recording all together on one page: the media player for the recording, the text of what they say, as well as some basic biographical data. I searched using the browse/atlas method but there are other ways too, if you prefer.
The Cons
The recordings are a lot shorter than IDEA, which I feel doesn't give me enough to learn & understand the accent unless I listen to the same recording many times. Also it seems to have fewer recordings; for my test case of Iran, the Speech Accent Archive has only 2 recordings while IDEA had 11 (and has increased to 13 since my original test). I feel that more recordings offers a student a better chance of understanding the accent of many speakers (not just one or two) from that country.
Next I'll discuss using Map Your Voice.
Go to Page 5: Using online accent resources: Map Your Voice >>>