PRONOUNCE IT RIGHT IN FRENCH!
Globe-Gate learning object


Are you puzzled about how to pronounce the words and sentences in your French book, or how you might pronounce a sentence you compose yourself?  Here is how to solve those problems. To begin, if you are using Deux Mondes (what we use at UTMartin) you can get pronunciation of all your chapter vocabulary by clicking here.  For general strategy in pronunciation, I have written a short essay on how to improve your oral performance. You can also read a more advanced essay. Discover French phonetic symbols within the International Phonetic Alphabet, and an audio representation of common French vowel sounds. In addition, there is small online dictionary with audio output in French:

    Consultation of SWAC Audio Collections - French
    http://swac-collections.org/?lang=fra

    French Audio Dictionary
    http://french.about.com/library/pronunciation/bl-audiodico.htm

    Online Talking Dictionary (over 120,000 French terms)
    http://www.dictionarist.com

Most impressive and helpful about the web is a small collection of "text-to-speech" applications. Make a setting for French, type in your word, sentence, sometimes even a small paragraph, click on the button, and you will hear what you typed in reasonably good French.  Here are the most consistantly functional links:


    AT&T Research Text-To-Speech (TTS)
    http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php

    AudioPal
    http://www.audiopal.com/editor.html

    Demo Cepstral Voices
    http://www.cepstral.com/demos/

    Démo synthèse de la parole Acapela
    http://www.acapela-group.fr/text-to-speech-interactive-demo.html

    Google Language Tools (try French to French, then hit audio button)
    http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en

    imtranslator with TTS (need to subscribe for free)
    http://imtranslator.com/

    Kali - Démonstration en ligne
    http://www.crisco.unicaen.fr/Demonstration-de-Kali.html

    Naturalreader
    http://www.naturalreaders.com/index.htm

    Oddcast TTS demo (with SitePal)
    http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php?sitepal

    Serveur de synthèse de l'ICP
    http://www.icp.inpg.fr/ICP/_page.fr.php?page=musee_sonore.fr.html

    Synthèse vocale (France Télécom)
    http://tts.elibel.tm.fr/tts

    Text-to-speech
    http://text-to-speech-translator.paralink.com/
 
    Text To Speech (from imtranslator)
    http://text-to-speech.imtranslator.net/

    Voice Reader Online (Linguatec, with sitepal, quite good)
    http://www.linguatec.net/onlineservices/voice_reader/site



Some solutions are simply part of the French phonetic system. Here is short online phonetics courses:

    Phonétique
    http://phonetique.free.fr/indexgb.htm

    French Pronunciation (LanguageGuide)
    http://www.languageguide.org/french/grammar/pronunciation/


Finally, the Department of Modern Foreign Languages at UTMartin is currently using Wimba Voice Tools, which are launched from Blackboard. This will allow you to make recordings of your voice from various online positions (email, voiceboard, etc). It is extremel easy to use. You just need your computer's built-in mic or one you can plug in.  Wimba more than replaces what used to be done by a tape recorder.  Other available free tools can offer viable solutions in the right circumstances:

    Apple - QuickTime - Download
    http://ww.apple.com/quicktime/download/

    Audacity (with MP3 coverter from "lame")
    http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
    http://lame.sourceforge.net/

    Free SoundRecording
    http://download.cnet.com/Free-Sound-Recorder/3000-2168_4-10698910.html

    Free voice recorder downloads
    http://www.mymusictools.com/download/voice-recorder/

    JavaSonics - ListenUp - Demos
    http://www.javasonics.com/demos/

    Sound Recorder
    http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Audio/Sound-Recorder.shtml

    Vocaroo
    http://www.vocaroo.com/


Globe-Gate Intercultural Web Project
Made in Tennessee to bring you the world
TennesseeBob Peckham, Director
bobp@utm.edu