Speak With Confidence Using Encore!!! Language Learning and Google Translate

You have signed up for a very well planned language class sequence, attended all the classes, you have done all the homeworks and even done well on the written tests. Yet when you go out to the street and try to have a conversation with someone on the street, words don’t come to you. If the words do come they come very slowly and you start losing confidence. You start feeling the listener may not understand what you are saying, or worse, may mock you. This situation occurs to most language learners. One can overcome this challenge through several means:

i) you could find a patient and trusted friend who is willing to listen to your halting speech and give you feedback and encouragement;

ii) you could hire a private tutor who for a fee will work with you; or

iii) you can use the method described below in which you use the Encore!!! Language Learning app and the Google Translate app’s speech to text and translate function.

To learn a new language one has to go through several steps:

i) one has to associate new words and phrases with what one already knows;

ii) learn a new arrangement of words according to a different set of grammar rules;

iii) commit this learning to memory so it can be quickly recalled;

iv) learn not to “translate” from the native or known language;

v) train the ear to understand new sounds and intonations;

vi) train the tongue muscles to create the new sounds as well as rhythm of a new language so the listener can understand without much effort.

To develop a long term memory of new words, phrases and sentences and to be fluent in new grammar rules one has to use these new items hundreds of times. This is where the method originated by Encore!!! Language Learning app plays a key role. The ability to make a playlist of language elements (words, phrases, etc.) and customize the number of times each element is repeated with a pause allows one to “listen-speak-repeat” as many times as one wishes. This can be done many times till the brain is rapidly able to recall them. By “speaking” what one hears during the “pause” and by trying to match what one hears allows one to start training the tongue muscles to articulate correctly. 

Once you can recall the new language elements rapidly (you can text your recall by using the “TEST” function in Encore!!! Language Learning app you may want to check if your articulation can be understood by others. For this, as mentioned above, in case you feel uncomfortable speaking with native speakers you don’t know, and if you don’t have patient friends or tutors available, you can use the Google Translate app’s speech to text facility. 

Before describing the benefits of first learning elements of a new language through Encore!!! App and then using Google translate app for checking your speaking ability it is important to note that there are several more sophisticated ways to improve your pronunciation which depend on breaking your spoken and recorded phrases  into “waveforms” and then overlaying these on the “correct” pronunciation. One can then try to adjust one’s diction to match the “correct” form. There are two  important downsides to these types of apps in our opinion. The motivation for the vast majority of language learners is to “communicate” i.e. understand what the other speaker is saying and be understood by others. If you go to an international conference you will find people from different countries speaking to each other in English. Most of these people will be speaking with accents and diction that is different from what one qualifies as “proper English”. Yet these people understand each other very well. 

Google translate app can translate a text written in the language you are trying to learn  into your native (or known) language as shown in Figure A. One can also tap the “microphone” to go into the  “Microphone ON” and turn your spoken words (in the new language) into text and then translate them into your native language as shown in Figure B. In case you mispronounce words the Google Translate can provide you feedback (see Figure C) and you can alter your diction till you get the correct interpretation.

Figure A: In the text translation mode one can type in the language you wish to learn (Spanish in this case) and see the translation. You can also “listen” to the text using the “speaker” icon.

Figure B: By tapping the “microphone”  icon one goes into the speech to text mode where you can speak and the app will convert your speech  into text and then translate it. 

Figure C: Here we show a case where the diction is not correct and the “app” misinterprets what one wishes to say.

The Google Translate app is able to understand even if there are small differences in accent (just like a real person can) so one can get quick feedback if one is understandably speaking. This allows one to develop confidence in one’s speaking abilities in private and then gradually start using the new language with others.

Author: Dr. Jasprit Singh, President Gurmentor, Inc.

A Learning Company https://gurmentor.com

Professor Emeritus, Electrical Engg. & Comp. Sci. and Applied Physics

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor