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. 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

    Cepestral
    http://www.cepstral.com/demos/

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

    Multitel Text-to-Speech Synthesis Group (demo)
    http://www.multitel.be/TTS/layout.php?page=eLite_demo

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

    WebSphere Voice (French, Spanish, German, sounds a bit primitive)
    http://www-306.ibm.com/software/pervasive/tech/demos/tts.shtml


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

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

    Resources Internet for the phonetics of French foreign language (FLE)
    http://thot.cursus.edu/en/rubrique.asp?no=19738

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.

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