There are so many tools on the web which you can use for free in helping you to develop your language skills. If you are learning a language, it is essential that you know the basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. You will be able to communicate effectively if you already know these basic skills and it will be your challenge to achieve language proficiency through them.

Speaking is one of the four basic skills and it is the productive oral mode skill. Like the other language skills, speaking is more complicated than it seems at first and it involves more than just pronouncing words. Speaking involves micro skills in which the speaker has to use the correct forms of words, pronounce the distinctive sounds, use stress and rhythmic patterns and so on and so forth.

Constant practice helps hone a language learner’s speaking skills. Learning how to speak like a native requires more practice and may require the presence of a native speaker in order to perfect their pronunciation. Podcasts, online tutors, audio tools and tapes are also available for pronunciation lessons either for free or for a fee.

I have stumbled upon a webpage which offers an animated speaking avatar that pronounces words with accents and intonations. I came across SitePal, which is developed by Oddcast, a company that is committed to creating a wide range of innovative avatars. SitePal was introduced in 2003 as an easy-to use and affordable speaking avatar solution that enables small businesses to enhance their web presence and improve business results with virtual speaking characters.

SitePal’s avatars are not really used for language learning but as interactive avatars which guide and inform website visitors about useful website content. There are several users on the internet who have said that the demo avatar is very useful in helping them develop their speaking skills while they are learning a foreign language.

The SitePal demo has a text box where the user can type a word; a language box where the user can choose which among the many languages the word is in; a voice box where the user can choose the avatar’s speaking voice;

In 2003, the company introduced SitePal, an easy-to-use and affordable speaking avatar solution that enables small businesses to enhance their web presence and improve business results with virtual speaking characters. With its ability to engage site visitors and reinforce a call to action, SitePal has been proven to increase site traffic, conversions, loyalty and sales. SitePal was named as one of the Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 companies and a 2006 Product to Watch by Small Business Technology Magazine. SitePal has also been covered by numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Inc.com.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Languages and Medias, Learning Methods. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.