Hello world!

A blog to update people on what we're doing with CALL-SLT and let them leave comments. In the event that you don't already know what CALL-SLT is, here's the text on our home page, where you'll find more information and a link to the live demo.

If you've ever tried to learn a foreign language, you'll know that one of the most valuable things you can do is to practice speaking with someone who already knows that language. But often, there's no one you can practice with, or you know a few people but don't want to take up their valuable time. So you study grammar, read books, watch movies, or use an online site. It's much better than nothing, and some sites offer you tools that give you feedback on your pronunciation. But you probably still wish you could practice interactive conversation.

CALL-SLT is an automatic system that you can use as a simple conversation partner. It tells you what you're supposed to say, using words in your own language. Then you try to express it in the language you're learning. The machine uses speech recognition to figure out what you said and match it against what you were meant to say, and then tells you if it thinks you got it right. You can usually answer in more than one way. We have versions of the system for several different languages. Currently, we support French, English, Japanese, German and Greek.