Web-accessible resources for teaching phonetics

Abstract

The paper covers two aspects of the usability of the Internet resources in teaching phonetics. First of all, the Internet may be used to disseminate information and teaching materials. Search facilities provided by normal, search engines are too coarse, however, to be really useful if one wants to find suitable teaching resources (course notes, tutorials etc.). One way to address this problem is to use a structured inventory of hyper-links to relevant materials. A working group within the Socrates/Erasmus thematic network on Speech Communication has set up a searchable inventory of web accessible materials, relevant to teaching phonetics. The principles underlying the structuring of the database will be described and illustrated by examples from the database. A second possible use has to do with Open and Distance Learning (ODL). Phonetics, however, requires both sounds and images to be realistic, and for many areas the possibility to perform experiments is essential. With the advent of internet-based tools like audio and video players and programming languages like Java new possibilities have opened up for realistic, high-quality phonetics resources. The presentation will demonstrate a perception test, which may be run inside a normal web browser and which is accessible over the Internet.