Speak As You See, an app to help with English pronunciation, has been released by an expert on English language pronunciation, Neill deHaan. After researching pronunciation for over ten years, Neill, who has more than twenty years’ experience as an English language coach, editor and teacher has released an iOS app containing 3D animations to show what really happens during the pronunciation of troublesome words for Thai learners.
Fluent Thai-speaking Neill, senior partner of Learning Technologies International said, ‘Many Thai learners of English face difficulty when trying to pronounce certain sounds. It is hard for most Thais to know the difference between words with a “ch” or an “sh”, but the difference is in how the sound is produced by the rapid movement of the tongue. Normally, you can’t see this, but with this app, we have realistic 3D animations that anyone can easily understand and copy.’
The app also deals with other sounds that can be challenging such as “l” and “r” sounds, which many Thai learners of English mix up. The app comes after Neill and his USbased partner Scott Gannon (former NIDA and Chulalongkorn lecturer) searched for meaningful ways to show what was really happening during pronunciation, but were always disappointed with difficult-tounderstand diagrams or written explanations. ‘We wanted people to try to imitate the models to get better and more natural pronunciation on those problematic sounds and so that’s why the app is called Speak As You See,’ added Neill. The app is currently available on the App Store as a universal app for Apple iPhone and iPad. An Android version is currently undergoing development.
App available at: http://appstore.com/speakasyousee
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/speakasyousee
