Sounds of Speech is an education app developed by The University of Iowa Research Foundation. Available for $3.99, it was updated to v4.00 on August 06, 2024, and currently holds a 2.25 out of 5 rating based on 44 reviews. Before downloading, make sure your device has at least 104 MB of free space and runs Android 12+ or iOS 13.0+.
Video: Sounds of Speech Overview
Description
Notice: This Contains English Only Content. Spanish and German not included.
Sounds of Speech can be played on Windows and macOS using Android emulators such as BlueStacks. Download an APK version and follow our BlueStacks installation guide to get started. For help with downloading or installing APK files, visit our forums.
User Reviews and Ratings
★★☆☆☆Grrr I should have read closer
I was on the website where they have English Spanish and German, so thought the app would have German. Nope, it doesn’t. Yes, it says that in the description. My bad. But still really annoying. I hoped that I could count on it being updated with German someday, but apparently the latest update was 2 years ago, so figuring it won’t. Dang it.
Update to add the animations of the voiceless stops and fricatives have voicing - “tuh” instead of “t” etc. This is terrible!! At least the videos are correc
★★★★★Great Teaching Tool for English Teachers
I teach English as a second language. The combination of 1) video, showing a close-up of a face pronouncing the sounds, and 2) animation, showing a side view of the inner workings of lips, teeth and tongue, makes this a wonderful resource for my students.
★★★★★Great App for Graduate School
I love this app!! I am a graduate student for speech and have used this app many times to double check place, manner and voice. The app is very user friendly and straight forward. I love the video examples in animation as well as the real life videos of people making each phoneme. The app is also visually pleasing with clear colors of each anatomical structure. A great tool during my schooling.
★★★☆☆Needs improvement
I used to love this site because it would give you a list of words examples for each sound . Another downside of the app is that it doesn’t show you the sound for the complete word , rather it breaks it into parts but I want to be able to hear its pronunciation in both forms . As an English language student and linguistics student I find it a bit problematic not to have enough examples . Please make the app quality as good as your site . A big thanks though for all the good work you have already
★★☆☆☆The animations are misleading
The animations are misleading because the model pronounces final /p/ of “top” as aspirated when it is, in fact, unaspirated. She does this with all stops in word-final position. It’s incorrect. Moreover, there’s no modeling of the /t/ allophone [ɾ] as in “butter.”