EyeSpeak English Premium Edition (Demo Version
downloaded 26/08/2013)
The EyeSpeak English software was designed to help ESL
students improve their communication skills and particularly their listening
and speaking skills. I was particularly
interested in its approach to teaching speaking skills for advanced ESL students.
The demo version used for this review was sourced through the website:
The blurb on this website indicated that the software
was targeted at students who were interested in hearing an Australian accent.
In contrast the statement on the front page of the software said “EyeSpeak – The fastest way to learn how to sound American or British”.
The software was developed by a New Zealand company and the full version of the
software allows for greater cultural context specification, which would assist
students to specify the type of learning experience they were wanting by
picking a particular accent.
The major selling point of this software package
involves their approach to speech analysis. They claim that “Our unique speech analysis technology will
compare your speech to your teacher, and let you know what you may need to
improve on. Our feedback system is the only software that provides an animated
personal tongue diagram, showing you exactly what you need to do to make the
right sound”. This anatomical approach to speaking was something I haven’t
seen on other packages I looked at. It allowed students to view pictures of
cross-sections of the mouth while making specific sounds and this seemed to me
to be highly beneficial in making real change in approach to pronunciation and
speech production. This process can be tailored to individual student needs by
asking for the home language of the student so that specific pronunciation
issues are emphasised based on that home language.
With over 6,000 exercises the software covers a great
variety of different language scenarios. Their claims to having a balanced
curriculum were predicated on including listening, vocabulary and sound
exercises. The exercises were more of a collection rather than a dynamic and
clearly progressive curriculum. This software would be excellent to assist
advanced ESL students experiment with pronunciation and accent issues so they
could gain confidence in the way they speak English.
Costing $165AUD for a 2 home use set it represents a
medium cost software option = 4/5.
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