Text to speech
Jun 6th , 2012
Pronunciation Workout!
Try this out! If you can correctly pronounce every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world. After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of … Continue reading
Posted in English Language, Text to speech
May 15th , 2012
The Tuesday Talk
With the many advances in technology in recent years, the way things are being taught in schools are changing drastically; and more likely for the better. While the traditional style of chalkboard teaching continues to persist in classrooms, this method … Continue reading
Posted in English learning, Text to speech
Jun 15th , 2011
School children produce better texts with Ginger
Great feedback all around at our visit to The Norman Howard School in Rochester, NY A couple of weeks ago, Miki, our VP of US operations, visited one of the schools that use Ginger and saw the students and Ginger … Continue reading
Posted in Dyslexia, English writing, Grammar, Learning disability, Proofreading, Spelling, Text to speech | Tagged Ginger at School
Jan 9th , 2011
Text to Speech
Mastering English speech is perhaps the most difficult task facing the ESL student. For people whose native language is different than English text to speech technology is essential for achieving that difficult task. Using advanced text speech technology will assist the ESL student in learning how to transform text into speech and how to express herself in a coherent way, using precise pronunciation and a clear accent.
Online services, such as Google translate and English grammar correction tools will provide you with written texts only. In order to master pronunciation and speaking with a proper accent, text to speech is an essential tool.
“This is an ambiguous, encyclopedic and pneumatic technologically advanced achievement!” besides being absolute drivel, such sentences are very difficult to pronounce for a person that is not a native English speaker. Text speech technology can help to improve speech assist the user to successfully read such sentences.
Another example for how text speech technology can assist someone who is interested in learning the English language and improving speech is to use it on texts that were translated by the Google translate service. Many people are using Google translate to translate various on line texts and websites from their own language to English. By copying such texts and pasting them to a word processor users are able to have the text to speech feature read aloud the texts that were translated by the Google translate service. Listening to those texts read aloud will assist in determining whether the Google translate service provided you with realistic results. Also, it can assist you in understanding how complete texts that are familiar to the user from her own native language will sound like in English. By listening to such texts spoken aloud by a realistic, human voice, learners are able to practice their English while they read and translate.
There are many more uses to text to speech technology. Improving one’s speech is a progressive and gradual process for the English learner. Using the text speech technology on a daily basis simulates an English speaking environment. Having the text to speech feature read texts aloud, pause it after a few sentences and them reading the text aloud yourself is a great way to practice your English communication skills. Pronunciation and accent are skills that require much practice. Text speech technology can provide you with the right tools and allow constant practice.
Posted in Text to speech | Tagged text and speech, text to speech
Jun 24th , 2010
The Benefits of Text To Speech
Believe it or not, one of the most common questions I am asked is in regards to Ginger’s Text To Speech feature. For those that are new to interacting with individuals who have learning difficulties, they are often not aware how beneficial Text To Speech can be for this group. To clarify, Text To Speech, often written as TTS, is a technology that converts written words into speech. Using computer speakers, TTS allows the writer to hear the text they have written. At times, there is debate as to which Text To Speech technology is the best. Ginger Software’s TTS is powered by Acapela – the leading Text To Speech provider in our opinion, which is also favored by the LD community.
On the surface, some may think that Text To Speech only provides the ability to hear the text that is written. While that is one benefit, there are actually many more benefits which stem from TTS. Using Ginger Software, a student who may have dyslexia is able to write a sentence and then listen to their writing. This enables them to decide if what they have composed is correct. If they are not sure, they are able to choose a word from the list of alternative choices (shown below), which are also supported by TTS, to swap into their sentence. The user can now listen to the same sentence with the alternative word used to really decide which word would be the best fit for their sentence.
Not only does Ginger’s Text To Speech offer the ability to enhance sentence correction, but for writers who struggle with pronunciation, they are also able to hear proper word pronunciation. This is very helpful for building better speech and literacy skills. While using Ginger’s TTS, users will watch as each word being read is highlighted, enabling the user to visually identify and match sounds to words. Through auditory repetition users with LD are able to hear the each word they struggle with, in the end improving their speech.
Ginger provides its users with the ability to hear the initial sentence they have written- which will be read phonetically, as well as the sentence with all of the suggested corrections. This enables users to really identify the errors they have made and improve their writing. A Ginger user needs to simply click on the corresponding speaker icon shown below to hear either their initial sentence or the corrected sentence.
Additionally, Ginger provides a number of Text To Speech options. Users are able to increase or decrease the reading speed allowing them to find a comfortable pace to work with. Finally, Ginger also offers a variety of voice options such as male and female, adult and child, and US or UK accent providing users with the customized experience necessary in these modern times.
To learn more about Ginger’s TTS capabilities visit our Text To Speech Page.
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Posted in Text to speech