"Sounds of Speech" a great tool for the phonetics enthusiasts

     This tool, which started as a web project, is a collaborative effort of the Departments of Spanish and Portuguese, German, Communication Sciences and Disorders, and Information Technology Services at the University of Iowa in the United States. At first it was available through the website of the University of Iowa, but since the demand for this useful tool increased, the creators decided to also transform it into a simple phone application, which allows you to carry the information anywhere you go, and makes it simpler to practice. 

     This app helps the students of ESL have a better understanding of how the speech apparatus acts when speaking this language, it provides animations of the speech apparatus according to each sound with provided step by step explanation on how to produce the sound, short video clips of the sounds being pronounced, navigation of the sounds organized by how they are classified according to their manner, place, voicing and tongue position with a short definition of each of these features, and some examples of words which contain the studied phonemes. 

                                                         

     

     The use of this app, next to a dedicated practice of the sounds of English, can help those ESL students who believe they need to improve their speaking and pronunciation skills, due to the fact that it is very detailed and it provides great information, even for those students who are attending Phonetics and Phonology as a subject on its own. It particularly helped me when going through the subject, since it helped me practice and memorize the sounds and their names, while also providing me with the auditive tool to recognize the sounds in words more quickly.

     The application is available online through http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html and it is available (although sadly not for free) on the Google Play Store and on the iOS store. Still, the web version contains the same amount of information, and although it won’t be as convenient as having it on the cellphone, it still accomplishes its goal.