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Korea TESOL Journal

Pronunciation Power 1 and 2

Reviewed by David D.I. Kim

Pronunciation Power 1 (PP1) and Pronunciation Power 2 (PP2) are wonderful interactive programs for language learners hoping to improve their English pronunciation. Although PP1 is intended for beginner-intermediate and PP2 for intermediate-advanced students, both programs are suited for all levels. Directions and instructions for PP1 are available in 13 languages, including Korean (for PP2, which was actually developed before PP1, they are only in English). The format is ideally suited for self-study, but could be adapted to a speech laboratory, or even a classroom, setting. Installation is quite simple, taking less than ten minutes to setup and get the application running. Most computers sold today meet the minimum systems requirements to run the application (details provided at the end of this review). About 5 MB of hard drive space is required and the programs run primarily from the CD-ROM.

Navigating through either the PP1 or the PP2 application is extremely simple, with intuitive menu systems directing the user through lessons and exercises, although tutorial and help menus are available, most users will probably not need to reference them. The user can quickly access any one of the 52 sounds in the English language marked as phonetic alphabet symbols (and example words for those unfamiliar with the phonetic alphabet) via a pull down menu (PP1) or icon buttons (PP2), accompanied by audible sounds via speakers and/or headphones as marked.

Common to both PP1 and PP2 are three areas of study for a particular sound: Lessons, Speech Analysis, and Exercises (all the features and function in PP2 are contained in PP1). PP1, contains additional exercises - extra Listening Discrimination Exercises and S.T.A.I.R. (Stress, Timing, Articulation, Intonation and pitch, and Rhythm) Exercises - that are not available in PP2, as well as, a variety of interactive games that provide opportunities for listening and speech production practice.

The Lessons area of study offers visual and auditory instructions for producing each sound. Audible sounds are accompanied by visual illustrations (a side and a front view) of real-time articulatory movements for the production of the sounds. For the side view, animated drawings provide an x-rayed look of the complete articulatory mechanics, including manner and location of airflow, lips and tongue placement and movement, velum movement, and whether a sound is voiced or voiceless. For the front view, a video clip of a real person is shown, demonstrating jaw, lip, and tongue protrusion movement. A written description, and at times suggestions, for producing the sound is provided, which the user can access as an auditory clip; i.e., the user can also choose to listen to the instructor read the description or suggestion. The Lessons are useful features that provide helpful instructions in written and animated video format for the user.

The Speech Analysis area of study offers the user a look at graphic representations of the sound utterance as a waveform. The user is able to record their own production of the sound, and then compare their waveform of the sound with that of the instructor. The waveforms provide information concerning the loudness (amplitude) and pitch (frequency) of sounds, as well as duration (length). An identical waveform match between the user and instructor may prove impossible to achieve, even for native English speakers, since each person's voice is unique (a fact that is acknowledged by the programmers). Given this, the user's waveform will most always be different from that of the instructor's, and attempting to interpret subtle differences in pitch may prove difficult for the user. However, gross differences are easily detected, aiding the user in approximating the sound utterance of the instructor.

The "power" of the Pronunciation Power software is the relative ease by which the user can compare their speech production with that of a native English speaking instructor. The user, after listening to the instructor's voice, can record their reproduction of the instructor's utterances of individual sounds, words and/or complete sentences. After which a toggle feature offers easy and quick comparison of the user's reproduction with that of the instructor's. Thus, the user is afforded a model to compare their pronunciation, facilitating the precise identification of mispronunciation through self-monitoring (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 1996), leading to improvement in successive approximation (Kim, 1999). This listen-record-playback-compare feature is especially useful in the Exercise area of study.

The Exercises area of study is comprised of a variety of lessons: Sample Words, Comparative Words, S.T.A.I.R. (PP1 only), Sentences, and Listening Discrimination. The first four lessons incorporate the listen-record-playback-compare feature in the exercises, while the last is a listening drill. For the Sample Words exercises, individual words are presented, with the sound-to-be-practiced presented at the beginning, middle, and end of the words. For the Comparative Words exercises, contrastive minimal pairs (word pairs that differ by only one sound, e.g., cat - bat) are provided. For the S.T.A.I.R. exercises, users can practice English stress, timing, articulation, intonation-pitch, and rhythm patterns by reading along with the highlighted flow of text. For the Sentences exercises, sentences are provided containing numerous occurrences of the sound-to-be-practiced in various positions in words (initial, middle, and final). Finally, the Listening Discrimination exercises contain practice drills for discriminating contrastive minimal pairs embedded in sentences. These exercises should provide excellent practice for the users.

The PP1 software also comes with numerous interactive games, useful in testing one's newfound skills in listening discrimination (matching the instructor's utterances of words with pictures, and individual sounds with words) and speech production (utterance of words with missing letters and timed recognition-utterance of a large selection of pictures). In addition, the PP1 software also contains a dictionary (bonus software) of word utterances in glossary form with associated pictures to the majority of words contained therein. The listen-record-playback-compare feature is also part of the dictionary, thus the user can practice their pronunciation of additional words. Also, the user can permanently store their voice recordings to floppy disk or hard drive to play back later, thus providing a means of monitoring their progress. This feature may prove to be impracticable however, since each voice recording must be stored as a separate file (each about 100-150KB of disk space for 1-2 seconds of recording, which might lead to a large chunk of disk space being used, not to mention the time and effort required for categorizing and typing the file names for each sound segment).

The Pronunciation Power software is a wonderful interactive program for improving English pronunciation, but does have one shortcoming. The software does not provide a means for identifying which of the fifty-two sounds the user should target for improvement. The user is on his/her own to perform self-testing and/or rely on a trial-and-error method to identify the sounds for improvement. One method to overcome this shortcoming, and supplement the Pronunciation Power software, is to reference Nilsen and Nilsen's (1973) resource book Pronunciation Contrasts in English, which provides an extensive list of minimal-pair contrasts that are cross referenced with a list of countries that may not have a particular English phoneme in their language. The user could refer to this resource book to identify certain sounds to target.

Another method for identifying the sounds for improvement would be to have the English instructor perform pronunciation assessments with the aid of assessment tools (e.g., Kim & Margolis, in press; Prator & Robinett, 1985), and then provide feedback to effectively and efficiently direct the students. This would not only help the student's before using the software, but is essential in monitoring their progress.

The Pronunciation Power software is ideally suited for self-study but could, with a bit of imagination and appropriate hardware, be easily adapted for use in speech labs or the classroom. It is unfortunate that the cost of the software (US$144.95 for PP1, US$83.95 for PP2, and US$194.95 for both, plus US$5.95 S&H) may be prohibitive for some students.

In summary, the Pronunciation Power software is a "powerful" interactive self-study tool that guides learners of the English language in improving their pronunciation through simple progressive stages. Visual and auditory instructions impart instructional foundation for proper articulation of English sounds. The listen-record-playback-compare feature affords easy and rapid modeled feedback to steer the student towards self-monitored improvements. While the exercises and games provide extensive reinforcement in speaking and listening, within the contextualized linguistic environment of words and sentences. To iterate a well-know expression "I give it a thumbs up."

Minimum Operating System Requirements

• Windows 95; 98; 2000: PP1-Intel Pentium/100 MHz, PP2-MPC2 compliant, 486/66 MHz or greater processor; PP1-32 MB of RAM, PP2-12 MB of RAM; PP1-800X600 resolution at 16-bit (thousands) of color; PP2-SVGA graphics card with compatible monitor; high-quality PP1-4X, PP2-double-speed CD-ROM drive or faster; Both-SoundBlaster compatible sound card, high-quality microphone and/or speakers, 5 MB of available disk space.
• Windows 3.11 (PP2 only): MPC2 compliant, 486/66 MHz or greater processor, 8 MB RAM, SVGA graphics card with compatible monitor, high-quality double-speed CD-ROM drive, SoundBlaster compatible sound card, high-quality microphone, speakers, 5 MB of available disk space.
• MacOS Compatible Computers: PP1-PowerPC, 100MHz or faster, System 7.5.3 or later, PP2-Macintosh 40 MHz 68040 or better, or any Power Macintosh, System 7 or higher; PP1-20MB of available RAM, PP2-6MB of free RAM; PP1-800X600 resolution at 16-bits of color, PP2-640X480 resolution display; PP1-4X, PP2-double-speed CD-ROM drive; Both-high-quality microphone and/or speakers, 5MB of available disk space.

The Reviewer
David Kim (B.S., University of Toronto; M.A., Chung-Ang University) is presently a Ph.D. candidate at Yonsei University. His research interests include teaching and testing English pronunciation, cross-cultural issues in language learning, and teaching methodology. Email: kdi@teacher.com

References

• Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D.M., & Goodwin, J.M. (1996). Teaching pronunciation: A reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Kim, D.D.I. (1999, November). Pronunciation for Korean students: Assessment and method. Invited presentation at Korea TESOL Seoul Chapter meeting, Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea
• Kim, D.D.I., & Margolis, D.P. (in press). Teaching English pronunciation to Koreans: Development of an English pronunciation test - EPT. In Proceedings of the Second Pan Asian Conference (PAC2). Seoul: Korea TESOL.
• Nilsen, D.L.F., & Nilsen, A.P. (1973). Pronunciation contrasts in English. New York: Regents.
• Prator, C.H., Jr., & Robinett, B.W. (1985). Manual of American English pronunciation. (4th Ed.). Tokyo: Harcourt Brace.

Korea TESOL Journal (Volume 3), Fall 2000

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