Practicing pronunciation: Will Voice XML do for language learners what HTML did for collaborators?

• Kenneth J. Luterbach ^[1] ; Diane Rodriguez ^[1]
  1. [1] East Carolina University

     East Carolina University

     Township of Greenville, Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: The EuroCALL Review, ISSN-e 1695-2618, Vol. 11, Nº. 1, 2007, págs. 11-14
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
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• Resumen

  • This paper considers the utility of the Voice Extensible Markup Language (Voice XML) for language learning. In particular, this article considers whether Voice XML might become as popular as HTML. First, this paper discusses the surprising popularity of HTML, which provides contextual information useful for considering the potential of Voice XML. Second, this article discusses two voice scripts in order to demonstrate Voice XML tags and features. The first example script concerns voice synthesis only whereas the second script utilizes both voice synthesis and voice recognition. In order to gain insight into the utility of Voice XML for instructional applications, the second voice script can be accessed by language learners in order to practice pronouncing words in English. Technically, each voice script is a text file containing Voice XML tags. Once the file containing a Voice XML script is stored on a web server and a telephone number linked to the file, a language learner can use a telephone to practice pronouncing words. Those implementation details are considered in the third section of this paper, which identifies one particular system that permits developers to test and deploy Voice XML scripts free of charge. Lastly, this article concludes with a discussion of issues concerning the utility of Voice XML relative to HTML.