Proc. of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS), Vol. 1, pp. 305-308, Barcelona, 2003
Physical and computer-based tools for teaching Phonetics
T. Arai
Abstract: Tools for teaching phonetics were considered. We especially focused on two types of tools: physical and computer-based. There are several important aspects of each type. For physical tools, 1) they are real and they enable students to understand the material intuitively; 2) we can show students phenomena in real-time; and 3) students can use them for hands-on experiments. For computer-based tools, 4) we can deal with complex and/or high-speed phenomena virtually; 5) we can visualize unseen phenomena; 6) multi-media environments are possible; 7) we can effectively use the World Wide Web. In this paper, existing physical and computer-based tools were evaluated in the light of the seven points above. In addition, a new attempt was proposed, an integration of a physical model of the human vocal tract and a computer- based model. Although there are many of tools already in existence, we need to develop tools that are particularly suited for teaching phonetics.