PronSIG: Getting the best out of speech technologies for pronunciation teaching

Join IATEFL Pronunciation SIG, William Gottardi and Beata Walesiak for this webinar.

Speech technology can be an opportunity for teachers to offer extended practice outside the classroom and tailor pronunciation instruction according to their learners’ needs. Educators need to be aware, however, of the current limitations of the technologies and be able to circumvent them when designing practical activities. This webinar will present our reflections on a range of speech technologies - automatic speech recognition (ASR), Text-to-Speech (TTS), and mobile apps. It will also comment on the ways they can improve learners’ pronunciation, aiming for successful spoken communication. Pedagogical implications will be provided.

Beata Walesiak has worked as a teacher and teacher trainer specialising in pronunciation and technology-supported teaching. Currently, she is working as linguist for a mobile pronunciation app (ELSA) and continues her work via unpolish.pl. She has taught in academia in Poland and Scotland, and has presented at conferences, fan conventions and teacher-training events in Poland and abroad. Member of the IATEFL PronSIG Committee.

William Gottardi is an MA candidate in English Linguistics at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil) and holds a BA in Software Analysis and Development and a BA in Portuguese and English Language Teaching. He investigates the affordances of speech technologies for pronunciation teaching from the perspective of in-service English teachers. He has experience teaching Portuguese, Spanish, and English as foreign languages.

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