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Streaming Speech Reviews |
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Streaming Speech has won a major prize for innovation. On 4th March 2004 Richard Cauldwell was awarded one of three equal British Council awards (the ELTONs) for innovation in English Language Teaching. The judges comments included the following:
The other winners were the Macmillan Dictionary team, and Scott Thornbury's 'Natural Grammar' published by Oxford University Press. As well as winning this prize, Streaming Speech is winning rave reviews:
Learners, teachers, and lecturers have also given high praise to Streaming Speech. Of course, not everyone loves Streaming Speech - click here to see an adverse comment. BAAL Book Prize 2003 - reviewers' comments The material is highly innovative; it uses real live spoken data from people the reader could relate to. (The reader is most likely to be an advanced learner of English.) The structure of each of the first 8 'chapters' (or sets of spoken discourse) is consistent and practical; the repetition is not a disadvantage, but a help. The reader/learner knows what to expect and how to proceed. The final two chapters contains a general review and also instruction on transcribing intonation units ("speech units"). The material covers a great amount of the kind of detail that features in ordinary rapid colloquial spoken English, so in terms of the product's coherence and coverage, I highly commend it. The product provides a practical introduction to David Brazil's theory of Discourse Intonation; although I do not agree with the whole of the theory, this is a brilliant introduction to it. It is an extremely good way into understanding Discourse Intonation, with direct access to real discourse. I do not know of any other such material, and I suspect it will set a standard for any rivals from either Discourse Intonation or any other school of intonation theory. It is very well organized; it is practical; it is very usable and do-able. A novice like me in electronic materials had no difficulty in handling the material. It is well designed, and attractively presented; it was a pleasure to use. Its originality is why I commend it highly for short-listing. I hope the BAAL Book Prize Committee will not frown on a product that is technically not a book, but will recognize the value of such CD material for EFL learners and award the prize this year to a brilliant piece of innovative non-book publication in applied linguistics. Jane Setter's Review in Journal of the International Phonetic Association (Volume 23 Number 2 December 2003) Writing materials for the student from the computer generation requires a lot of thought, imagination and ingenuity. Streaming Speech is web-based software in CD-ROM format for Windows (sadly not available for Mac users) which demonstrates these characteristics at every click of the mouse...I found the presentation to be very attractive, with delightful graphics and interesting landscapes, an easy-to-use toolbar on the left hand side of the window, pop-ups containing useful information at salient points, and a layout which is generally highly accessible...The initial interactive exercises are accompanied by encouraging feedback in clause form rather than a simple tick or cross - e.g. 'and you got this right' - which is motivating for learners ...The ability to listen to and evaluate one's own version in comparison with a native speaker is an excellent feature of these materials...vocabulary notes in general very good and the items covered well chosen...I can give nothing but a glowing reference to Streaming Speech for its innovative methods, clear presentation, authentic materials, general ease of use, and contribution to the pedagogical literature - electronic or otherwise - on English pronunciation and listening comprehension...I would certainly recommend this CD-ROM to anyone wishing to work on English listening comprehension and pronunciation independently, as well as to institutions for the language laboratories or listening centres ... David Wilson's Review in English Teaching Professional (Issue 32 May 2004) The recordings provide extended samples of authentic speech, while directing attention to those aspects of speech which frequently present difficulties to non-native users. This course is especially valuable in training recognition of how words are streamed together, as well as demonstrating how individual speech sounds and consonant clusters function in units of connected speech...A particular strength of the course is the attention it places on the different speeds used by native speakers, especially when they speak quickly. Shelagh Rixon's Review in Modern English Teacher (Issue 32 May 2004) Streaming Speech is a remarkable and fascinating multimedia resource for listening and pronunciation development...the user becomes aware of the minimal reduced pronunciation that many words receive in rapid connected speech. The materials also provide information on how fast a speaker is going in terms of words per minute. In short stretches, normal speech can reach some quite alarming-seeming rates - over 400 wpm is frequently found, which is very salutory information for native speaker teachers of listening...I have been delighted to have this resource and very much admire the way that the technical potential of multimedia has been used in such an apposite way. The technology clearly supports the development of skills and concepts that have often been seen as the 'difficult' ones by learners and teachers alike. No useless whizzes and bangs here. Learners'
comments I am quite amazed with the voice recording system. It makes very easy to compare my own voice with the recorded native speakers' models. SM (Japan) Teachers'
comments The user-friendly interactive features of the CD make it ideal for self-study, but it is also a rich source of authentic input and practice for listening and pronunciation classes. AK (UK) Lecturers'
comments It is too advanced for ... University Students ...[it's not] American, ... there's no money to try new things ... it is not as important as the traditional core texts. Anon
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