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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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 Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:06 pm Post subject: Seoul is....... |
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I'll be giving a presentation on TTS (text to speech) at the Int. Kotesol conference this weekend, on Sunday.
I'll be highlighting a lot of cool things teachers can use/make/show in class to stimulate and get students learning English digitally, as netizens.
One thing I'll briefly touch on is using this type of presentation to help teach English. This one is called, Seoul is.... Afterwards students can make their own poem.
This technology is part of my own education this year. I've been on a learning curve and learning much about how learning disabled technologies cross over and are great supports for ELL. .....
Enjoy. If anyone wants to use this to make a presentation, it is easy as pie. Check out the others on the main page. But PM me on EFL Classroom 2.0 and I'll send you the code needed (kindly granted to me from the site which is private) and you're set..
Cheers,
DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com |
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maingman
Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Location: left Korea
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Tommy
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
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| Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 6:27 am Post subject: |
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Is the conference free? What time/room will you be doing this?
Details please  |
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jadarite
Joined: 01 Sep 2007
Location: Andong, Yeongyang, Seoul, now Pyeongtaek
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| Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 11:12 am Post subject: |
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I didn't know Stephen Hawking taught ESL, awesome  |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 3:01 pm Post subject: |
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| I didn't know Stephen Hawking taught ESL, awesome Very Happy |
You'd be surprised how many Stephen Hawkings there are in EFL! I'll write up more about my learning shortly. Especially exciting is the use of learning tablets for practicing English. The very visually and motor impaired, use learning tablets to communicate. Great stuff, click a symbol and the computer speaks to the other person. Very adaptable for language classrooms, the best way (discovery/use) for kids to learn. I'm just astounded that I can find NO ONE who has studied the cross over or applied it (between ELLing and the Learning/physically disabled).
I just started a thread on EFL Classroom 2.0 about TTS - find lots of goodies there for download including the Deskbot. (as with me and my agenda -- Always free, education is a right)
Tommy -- go to www.kotesol.org (I also believe there was another discussion here about it?). However with many things Kotesol, cross your fingers!
DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com |
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jadarite
Joined: 01 Sep 2007
Location: Andong, Yeongyang, Seoul, now Pyeongtaek
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| Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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Foreigners get hired on the basis of being a native English speaker. I think there is a big hurdle in convincing the government to ok this method of teaching on a greater scale. If it were to succeed, then we would be out of one job and at best become "English DJ's" dishing out the latest jukebox conversations.
When you bring disabilities into this (trying to be as positive as I can), should the direction go towards learning how human voice is simulated because someone with a disability will have to simulate or would it be better to keep the disabled in the natural environment hearing the natural voice (which they will never produce but always hear)?
Teaching someone to speak based on a computer is tantamount to making students walk into class with only stilts or wheel themselves in a wheelchair when they could just walk instead. |
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Easter Clark
Joined: 18 Nov 2007
Location: Hiding from Yie Eun-woong
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| Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 8:10 pm Post subject: |
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This technology is nothing new. My students in 2003 had electronic dictionaries that could do this (I even had one that could do it in 12 languages). I just don't see the practical application of this, unless you count the fact that it "looks cool." Technology should be used to supplement teaching, not replace it.
Now, if this TTS thing could mimic real human speech, with all its inflections and idiosyncrasies, then we may be on to something...
Not trying to rain on anyone's parade. I'm just saying that we're not *there* yet. |
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fruitcake
Joined: 18 Apr 2004
Location: shinchon
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| Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 10:29 pm Post subject: |
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Seoul is....
a swamp that freezes in the winter |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 4:18 pm Post subject: |
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Now, if this TTS thing could mimic real human speech, with all its inflections and idiosyncrasies, then we may be on to something...
Not trying to rain on anyone's parade. I'm just saying that we're not *there* yet. |
Without a doubt it does. You can read more on the Discussion on EFL Classroom 2.0. In several clicks you can have perfect human voices reading your/your students browser. No problem. Try the Deskbot, upload some voices from my files. I think ALL teachers should learn about and tell their students they should have voice on their computer's browsers.
Now about all those who "are scared" about technology or think it will take jobs or think it just silly as a means of teaching communication. All unfounded.
Technology is like a textbook - a tool and a means to and end. Text to speech is for the most part passive (unless you are talking about my Dave the Chatterbot
As Swain (please read her, she is at the U of T) so bashed Krashen and his notion that people could learn a language on input alone and extensive reading), it is our job to pump up and create "comprehensible output" for the students. This especially so in an EFL context. That will always be the teachers job but with input - students can get in through technology. (just see the hundreds of audio stories i've collected for students - an invaluable tool for learning - this is text to speech also).
Technology helps students with the hours and hours they can't be in the classroom and which they need to acquire a language. If you are teaching and you don't provide your students with the mean to find / the place / the tools to practice English in this technologically filled world - you are doing only half your job. http://tarheelreader.org is only one of many tools for teachers and students.
Think about it -- so much of which we find so valuable in the world, was created for one reason but applied to another, with great success. As technology helped so many millions of disabled enter into the social world more fully -- so will technology do so for the millions/billions out there. There aren't enough teachers.....
Math teachers were once scared of calculators! LOL!
DD
http://eflclassroom.ning.com[/url]
Discussion on EFL Classroom 2.0
Last edited by ddeubel on Sun Oct 26, 2008 4:26 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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| crap |
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sigmundsmith
Joined: 22 Nov 2007
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| Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 9:24 pm Post subject: |
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Don't know whether it is crap but I think such resources/technology is useful for the English language learner when practicing at home/by themselves.
As a tool in the classroom, I have used something similar for teaching children and found it to be more of a distraction. For higher ups (adults especially) it is great for fine tuning their grammar.
But to get them to speak first in the classroom doesn't require technology. It is determined by a teacher who is passionate and devoted to who they are teaching. Encouraging and wanting the students to succeed.
For centuries, people have not used technology in acquiring a second language. Yes, use what is available for your own private practice but nothing beats the experience of sitting with a native speaker and practicing expressions you have learnt to help develop your communication skills.
When I learnt a second language at University, we had none of this. Just a tape recorder. Yes, it was difficult a repetative. But that is what is required to learn a language.
PPT, pictures etc are great in the classroom. It is a form of visual stimulation to the students; it may help excite their interest in what you are showing and teaching them. But I believe, too much technology leads to a distraction of what an English language teacher is there for. To teach the students, inspire them to progress and not be an I.T. teacher/lecturer.
edit: also, over-technology in the classroom doesn't focus on the goal of what the class is there for. Students (especially, younger) see more as play time rather than actual language acquisition. You don't use technology for the sake of using it if it doesn't really achieve it's purpose. |
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crusher_of_heads
Joined: 23 Feb 2007
Location: kimbop and kimchi for kimberly!!!!
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| Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 10:35 pm Post subject: |
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I'm a fan of Dave as his site is great-The Time Warp included!
However, I'm a bit of a skeptic how well that will go over; that's why Dave is a bit of a visionary, and I surely am not.
msu < completely heterosexual |
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maingman
Joined: 26 Jan 2008
Location: left Korea
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The_Source
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:49 pm Post subject: |
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| crusher_of_heads wrote: |
msu < completely heterosexual |
Did you mean for the "<" to be an arrow or a "less than" symbol? |
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buymybook
Joined: 21 Feb 2005
Location: Telluride
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| Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 11:54 pm Post subject: |
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ddeubel,
Some Koreans could(WILL) be offended if taught like disabled people, haven't you thought about that? Being "Jang-a- in"(handicapped) in Korea means you are not normal/part of the in crowd and any association with them in the classroom WILL be frowned upon by some Koreans within education I promise you that! How shall I/we/YOU fix this problem? Of course it wouldn't be the first/only lesson many students don't show interest/participate in. |
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