Phonetic and Perception Simulation Programs, Model 5151

Phonetic and Perception Simulation Programs, Model 5151, is a pedagogical tool for acoustic phonetic and communication disorders sciences.  These interactive programs were designed by Professor Byoung W. Kim and John Grozik (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) to provide a rich environment for learning and experimenting with basic acoustic phonetic principles.  The software can be purchased separately (i.e., as a standalone program) or as an option for Multi-Speech or CSL.

Applications

These programs are designed to teach basic phonetic science principles to students in acoustic phonetics and communication science courses.

Students can be given assignments to explore various portions of the programs' models to reinforce concepts discussed in class.  If a data projector is available, the teacher can use the programs to clearly show phonetic science principles to the class.

In a clinical environment, it can be useful for clinicians to have these programs to help reacquaint themselves with the basic science underlying various clinical acoustic and aerodynamic measures.

These programs are ideal complements to the many other programs for pedagogical applications that are available from Kay.

Both programs have modules for presenting the interactive models of acoustics, kinematics, and aerodynamics.

The Phonetic Simulation program allows the user to click
 on various sounds to see the articulatory gesture
 animation and hear the resultant sound.  In the model 
above, all three traditional phonetic parameters (Place,
 Manner, and Voiced/Voiceless) are well integrated
 into a single model of articulatory kinematics.

The screen shot from the Aerodynamics model shows,
 interactively, the aerodynamic correlates to various 
sounds.  In the example above, when the button for
 a specific sound is clicked, the model shows
 pressure, resistance, and flow rate at various 
points in the vocal tract.

A  flowchart provided in the Perception program shows, 
simply and clearly, the unique functional relationship
 between the acoustic source-filter process of speech sound
 production and the acoustic-perceptual cues generated
 by the process. 

The screen shot above is from the program's online explanation. 
 A complete explanation for each model is available.

Summary

The Phonetic and Perception Simulation Programs present a powerful and easy-to-use interactive environment for students to learn the underlying principles of speech science.  These principles are more easily grasped using a "learning-by-doing" approach provided by the software.

By presenting these interactive models, these complex concepts are made more concrete and "come to life."   These programs are ideal complements to Kay's other pedagogical products.

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