Presentation for educators

株式会社 SpeakGlobalwww.sgpro.jp

SGPRO and Dragon:Exciting, objective, effective software

for native English pronunciation

Introducing

Effective tools for real English speaking…

Training for English pronunciation is often difficult for Japanese as there are few places to practice and no method of receiving “objective” feedback. That is, until now…

　　　　 We are excited to announce the release of a comprehensive pronunciation program, made into a

convenient download: SGPRO + Dragon Naturally Speaking. For the first time, there is a proven method which assesses a non-native speaker’s English pronunciation to that of a native speaker, objectively. This program can be used in education, by both instructors (as a teaching tool) and learners (to practice pronunciation at school or at home).

　　　　　 For instructors: SGPRO gives an objective assessment rating students’ pronunciation through

Dragon speech recognition. Mispronounced words automatically and instantly change to red and a percentage score is provided as immediate feedback.

　 For students: Learners of English can use SGPRO for pronunciation practice over and over. As they

speak the words aloud, their speech is automatically changed into text on the screen. With instant feedback compared with a native speaker, gradually, learners can see improvement.

Our demo videos show the real power of SGPRO + Dragon. We encourage you to take a look here: http://sgpro.jp/demo/ 　　　　

Why is SGPRO different from other pronunciation tools ？ 1. SGPROv11 + Dragon is big, literally. While most other pronunciation software are around 100MB in size, Dragon is 2GB in size.

Why is it so big? Dragon has a vocabulary of more than 100,000 words. These words, and sounds (of native pronunciation) , are stored in Dragon’s extensive database. Dragon recognizes the phonemes of each word and places them together to identify the best match or closest word that contains those phonemes.

Dragon Naturally Speaking is proven speech recognition software, used worldwide, and rated #1.

SGPROv11

A total pronunciation program

Dragon

Comprehension…Many Japanese speakers of English often wonder what they sound like to a native Englishspeaker. Dragon has a level of speech recognitionlike that of a real native speaker.

Making oneself understood…Many Japanese speakers of Englishfeel their English pronunciation is “good” becauseteachers in Japan can generally understand what they are saying. However, it is often theteacher who makes the adjustment in guessingwhat that speaker is trying to say. It is not necessarily indicative of good or even correct pronunciation.

This fact is further exemplified when Japanese travel abroad and sometimes simply cannot make themselves understood in English by foreigners.

SGPROv11 for Vowels and ConsonantsWe’ve built program of not only basic vowel and consonant sounds, but with emphasis on those sounds which are especially challengingtor Japanese speakers of English.

Here they are assembled in one place for learnersto practice in complete sentences. Speakers are given immediate feedback with mispronounced words marked in red along with a percentage score for each sentence.

SGPROv11 for Daily Expressions With 2,000 sentences covering 20 every day

topics,

users can practice pronunciation of commonly-used expressions in daily conversation, just like a native speaker.

１． Total Pronunciation

２． Daily Conversation

SGPROv11 + Dragon

３． Vowels 　　22 sounds, 220 sentences

４． Consonants 　　26 sounds, 260 sentences

5. Katakana-English100 sentences

6. Reduced English191 sentences

7. Similar Sounds58 pairs, 116 sentences

ＳＧＰＲＯｖ１１使用例

SGPRO Example #1 – Total Pronunciation program:1) Speakers read from the white box above. 2) Their speech is automatically converted into text in the lower green box, via Dragon Naturally Speaking. 3) In this example, the two errors are immediately shown – highlighted in red in the white box above:

cultures are > color charts on has its obvious > have its own previous

SGPRO Example #2 – Similar Sounds program: the cop > a couple , the cot and > a cotton, coat > court, caught > called

Two methods of feedback are given: mispronounced words are highlighted in red and a percentage score is shown for each sentence spoken aloud.

English pronunciation is best taught by native English speakers. Only native speakers can naturally discern correct pronunciation. Dragon is an objective assessment.

While position of the mouth, lips and tongue are an important part of correct pronunciation, oftentimes learners do not know with certainty if their sounds are correct. Dragon’s output tells speakers if their sounds are native or not.

With SGPRO + Dragon, learners can now check their own pronunciation – quickly, easily and objectively, at school or by installing Dragon in their own pcs.

Instructors can use Dragon to test, check, and help their students practice pronunciation.

Te a c h i n g P r o n u n c i a ti o n

The uniqueness of SGPROv11 teamed with Dragon – rated the #1 speech recognition system in the world

By installing Dragon, learner’s can use it for conversation practice with our customized “chatfriends”. These are the first of its kind in the world, made just for Japanese

speakers of English.

The merits of Dragon

ＳＧＰＲＯｖ１１ + Dragon: A valuable tool for both instructors and learners

Practice speaking – get immediate feedback compared to native pronunciation Make documents in English – letters, reports, presentations, etc. Do internet searches in English Write emails in English (through speech)

For more information, please refer to: 　　　 ＳｐｅａｋＧｌｏｂａｌサイトＵＲＬ： http://www.speakglobal.co.jp/

SGPRO サイトＵＲＬ： http://www.sgpro.jp/ SGPRO video introduction ： http://www.sgpro.jp/demo

We believe that SGPROv11 + Dragon will be an important part of Japan’s English education future…

For your school exams, or for other testing purposes, SpeakGlobal will customize a speaking/pronunciation program to complement your English curriculum.

It is our pleasure to serve the needs of your learning institution’s English education program.

株式会社 SpeakGlobal住所〒 651-1301神戸市北区藤原台北町 7 丁目 4 番１電話 078-597-6020Email: inquiry@speakglobal.co.jp