Activities, speech recognition boost language software

To work on his French language skills, Dan Cheon does crossword puzzles. Jennifer Kennel does word-search puzzles.

The puzzles are just two of 39 online activities available on Auralog’s Tell Me More language learning software, which is being used by students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

“I think it’s relatively simple and straightforward,” said Dr. Victoria Steinberg, assistant professor of foreign languages and literature at the school. Yet, “we’ve never had this level of sophistication,” she said.

Tell Me More is used by 5 million people worldwide and at about 10,000 academic institutions, according to the publisher.

While the activities appeal to students who learn in different ways, the software’s speech recognition feature gives it few peers.

“The advance speech recognition is what would separate us the most,” said Tim O’Hagen, senior education consultant for the Phoenix-based company. “The goal is to use speech recognition to see how close you are to being understandable.”

With the speech-recognition feature, language learners can compare their vocal skills to basic understandability.

“They don’t have to be perfect the first time,” Mr. O’Hagen said.

He said other programs expect learners to immediately match their skills to an online native speaker, but the Tell Me More program allows levels of success.

“They want you to do something not really possible,” Mr. O’Hagen said. “We want you to feel successful.”

Students in Dr. Steinberg’s classes, who described a different online program as “a nightmare,” appreciated that.

“It really works with the pronunciation,” said Kaylee Webster. “It’s a real-world solution.”

“It helps with shaping your accent and getting your sentences smoothly,” said Alex Clifton.

Students buy a generic license (approximately $35) at the UTC Bookstore to use the software, which permits them to use programs at various learning levels in Spanish, English, French, Italian, German and Dutch for a full year in language labs on campus, at their homes or on their laptops.

“There’s a placement test,” said Ms. Kennel. “It lets you build up, to start where you need to start.”

Programs are also offered in Chinese, Japanese and Arabic, but the structure is more rudimentary, Dr. Steinberg said.

“They’re supposed to gin it up,” she said.

In addition to the campus version of the software, Tell Me More also offers a program for middle, secondary and homeschools, and one that is customizable for governments and corporations.

There’s also a version for individuals, which includes access to digital files so users can transfer their programs to MP3 players for portability.

“The basic strategies of learning are the same (on all versions),” said Mr. O’Hagen. “Our goal is to get you able to communicate — to be able to have the structure and vocabulary, to be able to listen and comprehend, to be able to pronounce at the level where people will understand you.”

He said Tell Me More should not be confused with programs that offer scattered skills in 30 days or enough words to allow people to take a trip.

“This is about learning a language,” Mr. O’Hagen said. “This is deep content. It not without a little effort and a little time.”

Still, the variety of activities makes it even better, UTC students said.

“If you get bored (with one), you can do something else,” said James Webb. “It lets you practice different skills.”

“It’s quite a bit of fun,” said Mr. Cheon.

Dr. Steinberg said in the past she has promoted the Tell Me More system to the general community and had 30 to 50 people who were “learning just for giggles.” She said she hopes to do more of that.

“There are plenty of people who really want to do this,” she said. “Who knows? They might turn around and take a class. My real dream is to deliver it through continuing education. I’d love to create this community of language learners. I think it would fun for the town.”