SOFTWARE REVIEWS
TESOL Quarterly welcomes evaluative reviews of software and publications relevant to
TESOL professionals.
Edited by JOHN M. LEVIS
Iowa State University
Streaming Speech: Listening and Pronunciation for
Advanced Learners of English.
Richard Cauldwell. Birmingham, England: speechinaction, 2002.
CD-ROM for Windows.
■ Streaming Speech is one of the best software packages that I have
seen, commercial or otherwise, for the purpose of teaching higher level
listening and pronunciation. Originally targeted to advanced learners of
British English,1 and unfortunately not available for Macintosh users, it is
refreshingly innovative in a number of ways and deserving of the
description “revolutionary” found on the CD-ROM case. Because it is
based on sound pedagogical principles and on the increasing focus in
linguistic and applied linguistic domains on discourse (specifically on
Brazil’s 1997 theory of discourse intonation), its method and concept
could readily be adapted to other varieties of English or to other
languages, particularly those based on the Roman script.
The introduction is succinct yet thorough, in much the same way that
the contents of the CD-ROM may appear unassuming at first but in fact
comprise an enormous amount of information and excellent exercises.
The layout of each screen is elegant and uncluttered, which makes
navigating a pleasure. The target audience includes intermediate- and
advanced-level learners of English who are teachers or preparing to
become teachers, as well as those learners who are preparing for study in
an English-speaking country or preparing to take listening and speaking
exams. The goals of the program are to train learners, first, to hear and
understand authentic, fast, spontaneous speech, and second, to speak
rapidly with both accuracy and fluency. The CD-ROM has 10 chapters,
1
An American/Canadian edition of Streaming Speech is available at http://www
.speechinaction.com.
TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 39, No. 3, September 2005 559

and the learner is exposed to four female speakers and five male
speakers from the United Kingdom, including the author of the program.
What is revolutionary about the software is that the speech samples are
all unscripted narratives (with some leading and follow-up questions
interspersed throughout) that have been meticulously and extensively
repurposed for pedagogical use. These samples range in speed from 220
words per minute to an astonishing 550 words per minute. All of the
recordings of natural spontaneous speech have been analyzed thor-
oughly in terms of two pronunciation syllabi: (1) a discourse syllabus that
deals with the choices that speakers make in terms of pitch and stress and
the strategies they use to communicate effectively in real time and (2) a
traditional syllabus that deals with segmentals. Analyses and exercises
with the segments focus on vowels, consonants, diphthongs, and conso-
nant clusters, including the way they are omitted, linked, and otherwise
altered in rapid spontaneous speech. The discourse syllabus introduces
the notion of the speech unit, which is described as a stretch of speech
with its own rhythm, tones, and other features that make it stream-like
(i.e., suprasegmentals). Learners are made aware not only of different
tones (e.g., falling, level, and rising) but also of the tones’ relative
frequency of occurrence in English. They are taught about the use of
high and low key, and how to pause in ways that are acceptable and
comprehensible to listeners. Learners also have opportunities to practice
dealing with common occurrences in spontaneous speech, such as
restarting after mistakes, self-correcting, and repeating themselves.
The first eight chapters are each based on the narrative of a different
speaker, ranging from 1–4 minutes in length. Each chapter consists of six
parts, which follow in excellent pedagogical progression, with percep-
tion and noticing exercises preceding production activities. The six
subsections are listening, focus, discourse features, segments, streaming
speech, and review. Full transcriptions of each recording are given in two
forms: an orthographic transcription (ordinary writing) and a speech
unit transcription (with notations). The notations indicate the speech
unit number, speech unit boundaries, tones (arrows), where the tone
begins (underlined), prominent syllables (capitalized), and speed (words
per minute) (see Figure 1). Learners can listen to the entire recording
and can also play back selected speech units at the click of a button (see
Figure 2).
The interactive exercises throughout the program are varied and
meaningful. Feedback is given immediately following a user’s action.
Many of the examples have phonemic transcriptions of the speech units,
using symbols typically found in dictionaries, for how the speech unit
would have been uttered in both slow (paused) speech and fast speech
(with all of the missing and linked sounds). Learners can listen to them
either as a string of words spoken in citation form (i.e., as each would be
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FIGURE 1
Screen Shot of Transcription From Streaming Speech
said in isolation), or they can hear the entire phrase or sentence as
originally uttered in the authentic context.
The final two chapters do not follow the same format as the first eight.
Chapter 9 allows users to select one of the eight speakers and practice
intensively using the chosen speaker as a model. Chapter 10, “A Window
FIGURE 2
Learners Can Play Back Selected Speech Units
SOFTWARE REVIEWS 561

on Speech,” summarizes the discourse-features syllabus and provides
excellent transcription practice and speech unit exercises.
Overall, Streaming Speech represents a truly outstanding use of
multimedia in the service of listening and pronunciation teaching. It has
no extraneous bells and whistles. The excellent graphics, audio, and
animation are all implemented judiciously and effectively. In particular,
the use of Flash allows learners to observe the direction of the pitch
change while hearing the utterance spoken. The use of authentic speech
is in stark contrast to the vast majority of programs for pronunciation
that use stilted, unnatural-sounding recordings. The program honestly
and wisely does not promise automatic speech recognition and pronun-
ciation evaluation, as so many other commercial packages purportedly
offer. Technically, the program runs smoothly, at least in Internet
Explorer on the computer running Windows Me that I used for testing.
(It did not run in Mozilla in Windows XP.)
For possible future modifications and additions, I would offer two
suggestions. First, instead of, or perhaps in addition to, the pitch
contours provided for the various tones, actual fundamental frequency
representations might be included (e.g., as could easily be done using
Praat; see Boersma & Weenink, 2005). Providing fundamental frequency
would allow learners to see, for example, the degree of fall or rise of the
pitch. Second, learners’ output could be verified by allowing them to
record their utterances to an online voice board (e.g., Horizon Wimba’s
Voice Tools; see http://www.wimba.com), so that an instructor could
provide individual feedback.
REFERENCES
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2005). Praat (Version 4.3.12 for Windows) [Computer
software]. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam, Institute of Phonetic Sciences.
Available from http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/
Brazil, D. (1997). The communicative value of intonation in English. Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press.
DOROTHY M. CHUN
University of California at Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California, United States
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