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What is The Rhythm of French?
The Rhythm of French is a multimedia educational software program that teaches accent-free French pronunciation to English speakers. The computer-assisted language learning course helps correct pronunciation errors typically made by English speakers in ways that are easy for students and effortless for teachers.
Is The Rhythm of French a self-contained course or should it be used in conjunction with other materials?
The Rhythm of French is self-contained and constitutes a full French pronunciation course. The course can be offered as a self-study course for motivated students at home or in the language lab. However, Salix recommends that The Rhythm of French be used in conjunction with other French courses.
Research has shown that learners pay little attention to form -- and particularly to pronunciation -- in communicative contexts. It is therefore important for students to work on pronunciation in an environment where they can focus on listening to the sounds of the target language, and on to articulation and intonation. The Rhythm of French provides students with systematic work on French pronunciation without using up valuable class time that can be devoted to communicative activities. It can be very a useful complement to a French program whose focus is on student's communicative competence.
What level French students would benefit most from the course?
The course will benefit beginning French students most because it will help them develop good pronunciation habits right from the beginning of their study. This early emphasis on pronunciation will then expedite student progress. However, The Rhythm of French teaches pronunciation in ways never before possible outside of a dedicated course in French linguistics. Advanced students will appreciate the emphasis placed on developing accent-free pronunciation.
What does The Rhythm of French course cover?
The pronunciation course contains three volumes, each with five lessons for a total of fifteen lessons. Each lesson covers at least three units. French speaking rhythm, intonation, syllable division, liaison, vowels (high, mid front, mid back, nasal, and semi), and consonants are covered. There is even a section on French dialects. Emphasis is placed on helping anglophones overcome typical French pronunciation difficulties. You can request a document from Salix that shows a full course outline.
What pedagogical technique is used by The Rhythm of French?
The basic premise of The Rhythm of French is simply that one must hear the sounds of a second-language before one can reproduce them. Research into linguistics has shown that students map second-language sounds into sounds in their native language. In other words they might never distinguish the sounds of the second-language. Until students learn to accurately distinguish the sounds of the second-language, they cannot be expected to pronounce them correctly. And once these students do hear the sounds of the second-language and how they differ from the sounds of their mother tongue, they begin to hear their own mistakes in pronunciation. Practice then makes perfect.
The Rhythm of French therefore concentrates on auditory training as a necessary step toward learning correct pronunciation. Minimal contrasting pairs of sounds are presented to the student in a careful progression to accomplish the auditory training. Pronunciation exercises allow students to compare their pronunciation to that of native speakers. Quizzes test whether the student has succeeded in recognizing the crucial elements of French pronunciation. Quiz results are used to direct the student's focus, to provide progress reports, and to drive a motivational prize mechanism.
How deep does The Rhythm of French go?
There are two dimensions to the depth of the course.
1. For pronunciation, we take students from isolated sounds to complete sentences, in a deliberately chosen "stimulus-fading" approach that has proved successful in many fields. The last unit of each lesson presents sentences for pronunciation that put it all together. Specifically, students are encouraged to achieve correct rhythm and intonation and reminded of the areas that need most attention, not only for the sounds of that lesson, but also for all other difficult sounds.
2. In addition to offering systematic auditory training and articulatory instruction, the Rhythm of French also provides systematic instruction in the following areas by means of gradual but thorough introductions using a minimum of linguistic terminology:
· grapheme-to-phoneme correspondences, e.g., why the letter e is pronounced in three different ways in the word refermer, so that students understand the principles and can apply them to other words such as rechercher, or any other words they encounter for the first time;
· the distribution of the mid-vowels. (This provides a good example of the depth of The Rhythm of French.)
In a first step (section 1 of the relevant lessons), students understand that the higher-mid vowels occur in open syllables, while the lower-mid vowels occur in closed syllables. This principle, which is known as the Loi de Position, underlies many morphological alternations.
In a second step (section 2 of the relevant lesson), deviations from this basic principle are introduced and explained in a systematic way.
In a third step, exceptions are presented by means of subrules, relying only on word lists as a last resort, and students are led step-by-step to an understanding of how spelling, phonological and morphological factors, vowel harmony, dialectal and stylistic considerations combine to yield the variation observed in every-day French. Clearly, that level is very rich and not essential for a satisfactory--or even good--command of French pronunciation. But it is available to those who are ready for it and want to know more, understand more, and get closer to the "native" feel that francophones have for their phonological system.
The same approach is used to describe
· the distribution of semi-vowels;
· the status of the two low vowels;
· liaison; and
· unstable e.
By the end of the course, students should have achieved good auditory and articulatory skills, a thorough understanding of the French phonological system and the relationship between French spelling and pronunciation, and an ability to cope with new words and sentences, taking into account stylistic and dialectal conditions. The level of depth described here is accomplished with a minimum of linguistic terminology, and whatever terminology and phonetic symbols are required are introduced in a gradual and unobtrusive way, only when necessary.
Is The Rhythm of French intended for use in the Language Lab or by the student at home?
Both. The Rhythm of French has been developed specifically for use in language labs. It is distributed on CD-ROM. The software will operate over a network or on individual workstations. A Windows workstation with sound card, microphone, and CD-ROM drive (on the workstation or network) is required.
However, The Rhythm of French has also been designed for individual student use on their computer at home. This capability gives the student flexibility in study hours. It effectively extends the institutional language lab into the student home, relieving congestion and expanding educational capacity.
Can I track student progress with the course?
A full course management system is provided. The course management system allows a lab manager or professor to organize students into classes, authorize course access via individual passwords, and track student progress and proficiency.
What are some of the notable features of The Rhythm of French?
Notable features include:
· A firm pedagogical foundation
· A complete and self-contained course
· A flexible course management system
· Reliable software implementation
· A well designed user interface
· Easy for students to use
· Effortless for teachers
What does The Rhythm of French not do?
Techniques not used by The Rhythm of French include:
· Waveform displays
· Speech recognition
Why do you not use waveform displays to help students compare their pronunciation with that of a native speaker?
Waveform displays are very useful for linguists and speech scientists, but they have little to offer to second-language learners.
Waveform displays do not show differences in frequency, which rules them out for showing differences among vowels, as illustrated by the following pair of waveforms for a correct and incorrect pronunciation of the French word inassouvi:
The only differences waveform displays can show reliably are duration differences, and those play a very minor role for anglophones learning French. In addition, even for duration differences, to be useful, such displays should be provided in real time, and students would have to be taught how to read them. We feel that it is much more important for students to develop the necessary auditory skills and to use them as the basis for their pronunciation training than it is to learn to read waveform displays and to try to approximate them, a task which is not at all intuitive.
Spectrograms do show variations in frequency, but they too are not easy to read. Even specialists would find it difficult if not impossible to detect most faulty pronunciations on spectrographic displays.
Why don't you use speech recognition to assess student pronunciation?
If present speech recognition technology were capable of assessing the accuracy of students' pronunciation, we would definitely include it in this package. Our decision not to include such technology is confirmed by our assessment of existing packages that try to make use of it. No package that we have seen can reliably distinguish between correct and incorrect utterances, even for words spoken slowly and in isolation.
Consequently, instead of relying on a technology which is in its infancy and at present unreliable, we have opted to tap the strengths of today's technology. We have designed a course which aims to help students sensitize their ear to the point where THEY can distinguish correct and incorrect pronunciations. When they master that skill, they can hear their own mistakes and correct them. They also become sensitized to subtle pronunciation differences and are better able to recognize dialect variants. In fact, even if computer technology could be relied upon to assess student pronunciation, a serious pronunciation course would still have to provide systematic ear-training.
In its auditory training components, The Rhythm of French gives students numerous examples of each problem sound or sound contrast in increasingly difficult contexts, and it provides them with systematic feedback. In its pronunciation components, The Rhythm of French also provides detailed articulatory instructions and practice. The course includes advice and practice on rhythm, intonation, liaison, and unstable e.
Do you include video clips of the face to show native speakers' articulation?
Yes, we use animated face diagrams, but only in cases where a basic articulatory gesture can be illustrated clearly by showing the speaker's face.
This will be the case only when the differences in lip position (lip spreading vs. lip rounding) or degree of mouth aperture (high vs. low vowels) are involved. In many cases, the basic articulation takes place inside the mouth (e.g., dental vs. alveolar articulation of [t, d]) and cannot be shown by a video of the speaker's face. Then, cutaway face diagrams that show the position of the tongue as well as that of the lips are more informative.
Does The Rhythm of French include various dialects of French?
Yes, in a lesson that brings together observations that are scattered throughout the course for dialectal variants of individual sound categories.
The model presented to the student for pronunciation is European French as spoken by educated speakers in every-day conversation. Dialect examples are provided for recognition, not for imitation.
Has The Rhythm of French proven itself to be effective?
The Rhythm of French pedagogical techniques and preliminary computerized implementations have proven effective over several years at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada by Dr. Bernard Rochet. Dr. Rochet's effective teaching methods and concepts for computer-assisted language learning have recently been professionally re-implemented and packaged by Salix Corporation.
Can I use The Rhythm of French course even though my field is not linguistics?
Absolutely. The Rhythm of French does not assume any prior knowledge in linguistics. In simple interactive steps, the lessons teach first how to hear the different sounds and then how and when to pronounce them. Phonetic transcriptions are provided as a visual resource to be used as the student sees fit. The Rhythm of French is a pronunciation course, not a linguistics or phonetics course.
Why should I use The Rhythm of French course?
· To provide expert education in French pronunciation
· To correct typical pronunciation problems of English speakers
· To efficiently advance your students' proficiency in French
· To free up valuable class time by moving pronunciation instruction to the computer lab
· To empower your students to achieve accent-free pronunciation
· To make effective educational use of your computerized language lab and of student computers at home
How can I get a demo copy to evaluate the The Rhythm of French?
Institutional language departments may explore the Rhythm of French before purchase, Salix will ship you a demo copy upon receipt of a written request. Just state that you will pay for it if you decide to use it, or return the copy within thirty (30) days at no cost.
How do I order The Rhythm of French?
Click here to order!