We present a set of phonetics teaching resources as modules in a more generic framework for web-based tutoring in the areas of phonetics, spoken language resources, and multimedia communication. These tools have been developed initially to supplement more traditional classroom teaching materials but experience has shown that students used these tools independently in their own study time, and indeed became interested in developing their own tool applications to help them understand the subject more thoroughly.
Currently the toolkit consists of standalone interactive modules and lecture notes, including interactive Java and CGI tools for waveform generation and display, database access, phonetic alphabets, stylised articulatory phonetic animations with and without underlying phonological models, development and testing of syllable models construction of web-based hyperlexica and basic techniques for visual and speech synthesis.
Our main emphasis has been on interactivity and widespread access for the student. The toolkit offers more flexibility than current CD-based tutorials in that it does not use canned examples (in the sense of stored video sequences, files and predefined frequency and amplitude specifications for waveform display) but rather calculates the examples on-the-fly, and is easily updated, maintained and extended in the web context, and permits additional interaction between student and tutor (chat lounge, email). Our presentation will demonstrate the underlying motivation, the computational linguistic and phonetic modelling and the actual use of these tools as phonetic teaching resources.