The pedagogical use of mobile speech synthesis (TTS): focus on French liaison

Mobilizing Instruction in a Second-Language Context: Learners’ Perceptions of Two Speech Technologies

“…Due to their pedagogical potential for use inside and outside the language classroom, mobile devices such as smartphones and iPads (Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA, USA) have caught the interest of a growing number of researchers over the last decade [9][10][11]13,14,42]. In addition to being useful in language learning, mobile devices can use their multimedia capabilities to create authentic learning experiences for students, thus situating learning within appropriate cultural and linguistic schemata [43].…”

“…While one investigated the phenomenon of French liaison [11], the other focused on the acquisition of the French vowel /y/ [10]. The main goals of these studies were to find out whether the use of these technologies, outside of the L2 classroom, contributed to the learning of the two features.…”

“…Liakin et al [11] investigated the acquisition in production of French liaison (the pronunciation of a latent word-final consonant across two words, thus triggering a resyllabification process with the following vowel-initial word (sans ami 'without a friend' is pronounced s= [ [za]mi and not s[= [ a]mi) in a mobile TTS-based learning environment (using NaturalReader (NaturalSoft Ltd., Richmond, BC, Canada)). Using a pre-/post-/delayed post-test design with two experimental groups (one taught by TTS and another by a French instructor) and a control group, the results indicated that the two groups that received instruction, namely the TTS and teacher-led groups, outperformed the control group in liaison production, thus confirming TTS' ability to aid in pronunciation learning.…”

“…In addition to the widespread use of smartphones, they have been praised for their pedagogical potential, according to a study published by UNESCO [8]; this includes the ability to personalize learning, to extend educational practices and experiences beyond classrooms, and to allow for both informal and teacher-assisted (hybrid) learning. The ongoing expansion of smartphone use has sparked increasing interest by CALL/MALL (computer-assisted language learning/mobile-assisted language learning) researchers and practitioners, with most studies emphasizing their potential for a mobile-assisted L2 pedagogy [6,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”

“…For example, Liakin et al [10,11] have shown that by mobilizing the learning of L2 French with TTS and ASR using smartphones (i.e., for the acquisition of the vowel /y/ as in tu 'you' and the liaison observed in peti/t.e/nfant > peti/.te./nfant 'small child', where the period indicates syllable boundaries), learners were able to significantly improve their performance in the two phenomena investigated, in comparison with the respective control groups (see details in forthcoming discussion). Although these results were optimistic from a learning perspective, one question remains to be answered: are L2 students willing to mobilize their learning experience by using TTS and ASR as pedagogical tools to learn about French pronunciation?…”