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Related links: Teacher's
Version (for schools) is also available!
Speech Works consists of 24 Lesson
Units. Each unit targets a different sound or speech pattern.
There are a number of different types of exercises within each
unit including:
- Discriminating Sounds Exercises
- Word Pair Drills
- Sentence Exercises
- Professional Vocabulary Drills
- Workplace Practice
- Extra Practice Section
Discriminating
Sounds Exercises
The Discriminating Sounds Exercise
is a tic-tac-toe game. In this exercise you practice listening
to and recognizing the difference between the specific sounds
studied in the unit lesson. You play the game by listening to
pairs of words and deciding if they are the same or different.
You try to win the game by getting three smiling faces in a row
- up, across, or diagonally.
To start the game, click on one
of the nine tiles showing question marks. Click the Play
button to hear the model recording of two words. If they sound
the same, click on the Same button. If they sound different,
click on the Different button. A smiling face appears
if you are correct. Choose more tiles until you win or lose the
game. You can listen to each pair of recordings as many times
as you want, and play the game as many times as you want.
After you can easily tell if
the words are the same or different, go on to the Word Pairs
exercise, where you will practice pronouncing the same sounds.
Word
Pairs Drills
The five word pairs in this exercise
sound the same except for the last sound. Click on an underlined
word to hear the model recording. Click on a black arrow on the
left to hear the model recording of the pair of words.
Hold the microphone in your hand
and click on one of the black arrows to listen to the model recording
of a pair of words. Next, click the microphone button on the
audio palette and speak the pair of words into the microphone.
The progress bar on the palette fills during the recording time.
If you spoke after the progress bar had already filled, try recording
again. Just click on the microphone button and speak into the
microphone.
When you have finished recording,
the Play Self (single person), Play Both (two person)
buttons are active. The Save (disk icon) button is active
if you have signed in on the Main Menu. Click on the Play
Self button to hear your recording. Listen to the model voice
with your recording by clicking on the Play Both button.
If you want to record again, click on the microphone button to
make a new recording.
Recording yourself and listening
to your voice compared with the model voice is the key to success
with Speech Works. That's all there is to it!
Sentence
Exercises
The problem (i.e.,
key sound) in the sentence exercise here is the same as the word
drill but this time the word is in a sentence. The key sound
in each sentence is darkened (bold face type).
Click on the
black arrow to hear the model recording of the sentence. Recording
works the same as in the word pair exercise.
When you use
the sentence exercises, work first on the problem sounds. After
you can make the sounds in the sentence exercises, you may want
to listen to the whole sentences carefully and practice their
rhythms and pitches.
Professional
Vocabulary Exercises
Once again, the
problem is the same but this exercise is more difficult and uses
a more professional vocabulary.
Click on an underlined
word to hear the model recording of it or click on the black
arrow to hear the model recording of the word in a phrase. Notice
that the key sounds in the underlined words are darkened.
Workplace
Practice Exercises
At the top of the screen is a
common sentence you can memorize and use. It contains the same
problem (i.e., sound) as in the previous exercises in the Unit.
You can listen to the model recording by clicking on the arrow.
The recording feature always works in the same way.
You are asked to think of one
word that contains the problem sound and to try to use that word
where you speak English. If you can't think of a word, there
are some examples and there is always one word that everyone
uses. Click on the arrow pointing to these words to play their
model recordings.
That takes you through a typical
series of Unit exercises.
Extra
Practice
Extra Practice is an excellent
place to review and practice all of the target sounds emphasized
in a unit.
Clicking on one of the tabs displays
a common word, sentence or technical word containing the target
sound. Each time you click on the Next Common Word/Phrase/Sentence
button, a different word, phrase or sentence is displayed with
the target highlighted.
Clicking on the arrow plays the
model recording and the Audio Palette operates identically as
before, so you can record yourself and compare your pronunciations
with the models.
Here are some of the many features of the Professional Version
- Male and female
Model Voices
- Automatic Lesson
Plans for 30 Foreign Languages and 14 English Dialects
- On-Screen Multi-Media
Help
- Facial Close-Ups
and X-Ray Tracings
If you have a question about
an exercise, click on the Help (?, top right) button.
The pop-up button in the Help dialog box offers different types
of Help. For example, on this screen there is information on:
- Pronouncing the 't' Sound
- Cross Section: The 't' Sound
diagram
- Cross Section: Parts of the
Mouth diagram
- How to Use the Discriminating
Sounds Drills.
Teacher's Edition (for
schools) is also available!
System Requirements:
Windows 95 or later
Macintosh OS 7.0 or later
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