Experiences of large scale implementation of speech analysing tools in learning Swedish as second language

Speech analysis tools within the Lingus system have been used on a large scale for adults and children learning Swedish as second language. Several thousands of students have had the opportunity to for instance compare their own pitch curves with those of native speakers. The attitudes and experience of students and teachers have been investigated, in a first stage through a number of interviews, in a second stage (still in progress) in a more statistical way through a questionnaire. A third stage with quantitative measurements to prove the power of speech analysis is yet to be defined. The results so far are encouraging. The results vary between students but a great majority seem to find the new techniques stimulating. The tools are used in various ways depending on the students’ personal preferences. Teachers seem to appreciate the value of the tools but need more training to understand them better in order to feel more comfortable in the class. They also need better support to handle rather trivial technical problems with headsets or microphones. The integration of the computer work with other training methods is important. Some examples will be given.