Answers
Sep 30, 2013 - 10:04 PM
The advanced conversation workouts have been huge in helping me to improve my accent, I find it to be invaluable and it also helps me to develop my ear. Everyone learns a little differently. I would suggest listening to as much French as you can, watch movies, check out things like france24.com etc. Ironically I've only ever seen one learning resource that had voice recognition software. I noticed that it was passing me when I knew that I had said something incorrectly, so I tried humming in that, and it continued on as well.
Oct 01, 2013 - 09:31 AM
I agree with the original post that these sections of the 'workouts' seem a little bizarre. In fairness, there are also problems with Rosetta Stone's voice recognition. I actually had the opposite problem to Mike. I felt I was exactly repeating the phrase, and could detect no noticeable difference in the recordings, but the software refused to 'pass' my sentence unless I shouted in a very angry tone. At the time I lived in a ground floor flat, and once looked up to see an alarmed family looking in on me as I repeatedly shouted 'where are my keys!' 'where are my keys!' in German. Slightly embarrassing. My German friends could understand me fine without the shouting. So a computer programme won't necessarily be better at checking your pronunciation than a human ear.
Oct 01, 2013 - 10:24 AM
The advanced conversation workouts are the best way to train your speech rhythm, which is the single most important factor when it comes to people understanding what you say. Rosetta's voice recognition will correct your accent for individual words, which is about very specific sounds that are tough for you, but getting those right will not help when you put four words together. French is the toughest language for this because it's based on liaisons where words are actually joined to create entirely new sounds. What matters is how phrases sound together, the rhythm of your speech, and for that there is no useful technology yet. I could have a terrible accent, fail all voice recognition tests, yet get the sound of French right and many people will understand me. This baffles Spanish speakers learning English all the time, since there are people with terrible accents who are understood rather well, and people who can get the tough sounds right, like "th", "i" vs "e", yet encounter a lot of difficulties being understood.
The Fluenz audio workouts imply a lot of work and self-awareness on the part of the learner, and because of that they are the most effective teaching tools to get people to communicate.
The Fluenz audio workouts imply a lot of work and self-awareness on the part of the learner, and because of that they are the most effective teaching tools to get people to communicate.
Oct 09, 2013 - 08:27 PM
Melissa, Charles nailed it. We do not use voice recognition software mainly because we have found that the technology available doesn't really work for what is crucial, which is rhythm and intonation. We have found that for full sentences it can actually be a hindrance instead of a helpful tool. Our workouts are meant to be self corrective. You can do them over and over and compare your own voice to the original recording. Keep at it :)