My Slide Presentation

First Review: Collins English Dictionary Online

 

In the last few weeks, I have been working quite a lot with online dictionaries. At the beginning, I started using WordReference whenever I needed to look up a word. However, I realised that it was rather confusing when looking up a word due to the large number of translations that it offered just for a single word, mainly from English into Spanish and viceversa. Therefore, I became interested in monolingual online dictionaries and that is why I focused my interest on Collins online language dictionaries and thesaurus.

Before making it available on the internet, the printed version appeared known as Collins English Dictionary. It was published by HarperCollins, a publishing company owned by News Corporation. Nowadays, they have developed an important collection of dictionaries, not only regarding English, but also many other languages such as German, Spanish or Italian, among others. It is, in fact, due to their great success, that the company has decided to make it available on the internet for free in the following website: http://www.collinslanguage.com/

EXAMPLES OF THE RESEARCH

I would like to give some examples of what the online dictionary can offer to all users, focusing mainly on its monolingual usage:

• Verb: Speak

• Noun: Car

• Preposition: Up

• Adjective: Quick 

 

As it can be appreciated, if the dictionary finds that there are other words or expressions that also contain the word that is being looked up, it provides the possibility of choosing between one or another in order to make the research as accurate as possible. At the same time, it is also worth pointing out how it gives proper descriptions or definitions bearing in mind the different possible meanings of a word, as in the case of up.

 

COMPARISON BETWEEN COLLINS ENGLISH DICTIONARY ONLINE AND THE URBAN ONLINE DICTIONARY

In this section of my review, I would like to compare the kind of explanations or definitions that Collins Online Dictionary offers as opposed to the Urban Online Dictionary:

Collins Online Dictionary : Bitch                                                                                                    

Urban Online Dictionary: Bitch

 

Collins Online Dictionary tends to be more polite and serious than Urban Online Dictionary. Yet, the Urban Online Dictionary offers something that the Collins Dictionary does not, that is pictures, for example, this is the picture that can be found when the word bitch is looked up:

 

 

THE MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE COLLINS ONLINE DICTIONARY

According to Collinslanguage.com, their main objective is:

“The purpose of Collins dictionaries is simple: to take as sharp and as true a picture of language as possible. Every month we feed more data into our database. This means that Collins dictionaries remain up to date which in turn ensures that when you use a Collins dictionary, you are one of the best-informed language users in the world.”

 

THE VARIETY OF LANGUAGES

Regarding the English online version, it should be mentioned that the dictionary is monolingual and, therefore, it only provides definitions of words and maybe some synonyms and fixed expressions. Opposing this, there are the French, Spanish, Italian and German online versions which are bilingual always regarding English, that is: French-English/English-French, Spanish-English/English-Spanish, Italian-English/English-Italian and German-English/English-German.

 

ADDITIONAL SERVICES, such as A TRANSLATION SYSTEM

Moreover, it should be worth pointing out that Collins English Dictionary online also offers a free translation service. This service offers real-time translation in 552 language combinations for Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Swedish languages. It also provides:

• Virtual Keyboard – allows text input in more than 40 languages
• Spell-checker – checks spelling in 8 languages
• Dictionary – provides words search and translation in 20 language pairs
• Decoder – converts unreadable Russian text to the proper encoding
• Transliteration – displays Russian text with Latin characters
• Printing – prints original or translated text
• Email – sends email in more than 40 languages
• Interface localization – 11 languages

 EXAMPLE OF THE TRANSLATION SYSTEM

To conclude with the review, I am going to check how the translation service works, from English into Spanish, although there are many other language, but probably these two will be the most developed ones.

Original text

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has been overheard describing an exchange he had with a female voter in Rochdale as a ‘disaster’, calling her a ‘bigoted woman’.
Gillian Duffy, a 66-year-old widow, told Gordon Brown that she was concerned about immigration from Eastern Europe.

In the video, Mr Brown can be heard responding to her and appears to end the conversation amicably, telling her she came from a ‘good family’.

But as he got into his car and sped away with his microphone still on, he can be heard berating his staff for allowing the encounter.

He told an aide: ‘That was a disaster. Should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that?’

When the aide said they did not know who was responsible, the Prime Minister snapped: ‘ridiculous’.

His companion suggested that television crews who filmed the encounter, in a residential street in Rochdale, would not broadcast it.

But Mr Brown said: ‘They will use it.’

The aide asked what Mrs Duffy had said, and Mr Brown replied: ‘Everything. She’s just a sort of bigoted woman who says she used to be Labour.’

Translated version

El Primer Ministro, Gordon Brown, ha sido oído por casualidad describiendo un cambio que él tenía con un votante femenino en Rochdale como “un desastre”, llamándola “a una mujer intolerante”. 
 Gillian Duffy, una viuda de 66 años, dijo a Gordon Brown que ella estuvo preocupada por la inmigración de Europa del Este. 
 
 En el vídeo, Sr. Brown puede ser oído respondiéndole y parece terminar la conversación cordialmente, diciéndola ella vino “de una familia buena”. 
 
 Pero cuando él entró en su coche y se apresuró lejos con su micrófono todavía en, él puede ser oído reprobando su personal para permitir el encuentro. 
 
 Él dijo a un ayudante: “era un desastre. Nunca debería haberme puesto con aquella mujer. ¿Idea de quién era esto?” 
 
 Cuando el ayudante dijo que ellos no sabían quién era responsable, el Primer Ministro se rompió: “ridículo”. 
 
 Su compañero sugirió que los equipos de televisión que filmaron el encuentro, en una calle residencial en Rochdale, no lo transmitieran. 
 
 Pero Sr. Brown dijo: “ellos lo usarán.” 
 
 El ayudante preguntó a lo que Sra Duffy había dicho, y Sr. Brown contestó: “todo. Ella es sólo una especie de mujer intolerante que dice que ella solía ser de Trabajo.”

 

PERSONAL OPINION

From my point of view, the Collins Online Dictionary is very complete, in the sense that it provides accurate descriptions and definitions of words as well as good translations of words with regard to the bilingual dictionaries available on the net. At the same time, the translation service seems to be a good tool and, although some mistakes can be appreciated, in general, it works fine. And, of course, it is not a complicated dictionary and everything is explained clearly step by step.

Information sources:

• HarperCollins. (2010, March 15). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:54, March 16, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=HarperCollins&oldid=350073389
• Collins English Dictionary. (2010, January 7). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:55, March 16, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Collins_English_Dictionary&oldid=336343771
• Collins Dictionary Online. 2010. Retrieved on March 16, 2010, from http://www.collinslanguage.com/
• Urban Dictionary. 2010. Retrieved on March 16, 2010, from http://www.urbandictionary.com/

Third Review: Machine Translator

In the following review, I have translated four texts with the MT  Google Translate. The main purpose of this review is to show the large variety of mistakes that a MT can make.

Firstly, I have included the original text and, then, I have translated the original version with the MT. Thirdly, I have translated the text myself, providing an accurate translation of the original one. And, finally, I have analysed some of the main errors that the MT has produced in each translation. [the first version of this review contains colours in order to differenciate in an easier way the main mistakes of the MT. You can check it here]

FIRST TEXT 

• Original text in English

Volcanic ash: Europe flights grounded for third day 

Virtually all of Europe’s major airports remain closed as a huge plume of volcanic ash drifts south and east across the continent from Iceland.
Millions of air travellers are stranded as thousands of flights are being cancelled for a third day.
The disruption from the spread of ash would continue into Sunday, European aviation agency Eurocontrol said.
Airlines are losing some £130m ($200m) a day in an unprecedented shutdown of commercial air travel.
“Forecasts suggest that the cloud of volcanic ash will persist and that the impact will continue for at least the next 24 hours,” a statement from Eurocontrol said at around 0830 GMT. 

• Google translator version

La ceniza volcánica: vuelos de Europa a tierra por tercer día.
Prácticamente todos los principales aeropuertos de Europa permanecen cerrados como enorme columna de cenizas volcánicas se desplaza al sur y al este a través del continente de Islandia.
Millones de viajeros aéreos están varados en miles de vuelos han sido cancelados por tercer día consecutivo.
La interrupción de la expansión de cenizas continuará hasta el domingo, Eurocontrol Agencia Europea de la aviación, dijo.
Las aerolíneas están perdiendo unos £ 130 millones (200 millones de dólares) al día en un cierre sin precedentes del transporte aéreo comercial.
“Las previsiones indican que la nube de ceniza volcánica se mantendrá y que el impacto continuará por lo menos durante las próximas 24 horas”, dijo un comunicado de Eurocontrol en torno a las 0830 GMT. 

• Human translation

Ceniza volcánica: se para el servicio aéreo europeo por tercer día consecutivo.
Virtualmente todos los principales aeropuertos europeos permanecen cerrados a medida que una enorme columna de ceniza volcánica se mueve empujada por el viento a través del continente desde Islandia.
Millones de viajeros aéreos se han quedado tirados ya que miles de vuelos están siendo cancelados por tercer día consecutivo.
La interrupción por la expansión de ceniza continuaría hasta el domingo, ha informado Eurocontrol, la agencia europea de aviación.
Las líneas aéreas están perdiendo unos 130 millones de libras (200 millones de dólares) al día en una paralización sin precedentes del transporte comercial aéreo.
“Las previsiones sugieren que la nube de ceniza volcánica persistirá y que el impacto continuará durante al menos las próximas 24 horas”, ha declarado un comunicado de Eurocontrol alrededor de las 08.30 GMT. 

• MAIN MISTAKES OF THE MACHINE TRANSLATOR

Conjunctions: The conjunction “as” is repeated twice along the text and the MT has not translated it correctly in any of the cases. In the first case, it does not have a comparative meaning, but a causal one; in the second case, it has been understood as a preposition and, once again, it should be translated with a causal meaning (ya que, puesto que; in the first case, it would be also possible to translate it as a medida que).

Prepositions: The preposition “from” translated as “de la” which is rather nonsense. The sentence means something like “the disruption due to the spread of ash…” and, therefore, it could be translated with a causal meaning or using the preposition “por” (la interrupción por la expansión de la ceniza…)

Meaning of words: In some cases, the MT has misunderstood the meaning of some words, such as “grounded”, “drifts” or “suggest”, which, from my point of view, should have more accurate translations. Moreover, the translation of the verb “said” is translated literally and I think that in Spanish they do not sound as good as in English.

Verb tenses: In general, tenses are well used by the MT. However, there is a clear mistake with the passive from “are being cancelled” which has been translated as “han sido cancelados”. Although it does not sound bad in Spanish, the correct form would have been “están siendo cancelados”.

Indefinite article: The MT has forgotten to translate the indefinite article in “a huge plume of…”. It should be pointed out that, in Spanish, indefinite articles are as important as in English and, thus, they should not be forgotten.

Sentence order: In general terms, the text can be well understood. Yet, there are some sentence constructions that might sound slightly awkward.  For instance, “transporte aéreo comercial” which sounds a lot better if the order is changed “transporte comercial aéreo”. Furthermore, “European aviation agency Eurocontrol” has been translated correctly, but I think that with an apposition would sound better (Eurocontrol, la agencia europea de aviación).

 

SECOND TEXT 

• Original text in  English

Cheryl Cole Wants Dignified Divorce 

Cheryl Cole is planning to “divorce with dignity”.
The ‘Fight for This Love’ singer - who split from her soccer star spouse Ashley Cole in February following allegations he had cheated on her with several women – is reportedly planning to take control of legal proceedings in order to end her marriage amicably.
“She is speaking to Ashley, they are texting - she even calls him babe – but as much as she loves him, there is no way back. This is divorce with dignity, it is Cheryl’s style. 

• Google translator version

Cheryl Cole quiere divorcio digno
Cheryl Cole es la planificación de “divorcio con dignidad”.
La “lucha por la cantante This Love” - que se separó de su esposa la estrella de fútbol Ashley Cole de febrero después de las denuncias que había engañado con varias mujeres – está planeando tomar el control de los procedimientos legales para poner fin a su matrimonio de manera amistosa.
“Ella está hablando con Ashley, son mensajes de texto - que incluso le llama bebé – pero tanto como ella lo ama, no hay vuelta atrás. Este es el divorcio con dignidad, que es el estilo de Cheryl. 

• Human translation

Cheryl Cole quiere un divorcio digno
Cheryl Cole esta planeando “divorciarse con dignidad”.
La cantante de “Fight for this love” -que se separó de su cónyuge la estrella de fútbol Ashley Cole en febrero siguiendo las alegaciones de que le había sido infiel con varias mujeres- está, según se informa, planeando tomar el control de los procedimientos legales para poner fin a su matrimonio de manera amistosa.
“Está hablando con Ashley, se mandan mensajes -ella incluso le llama babe- pero por mucho que ella le quiere, no hay vuelta atrás. Esto es un divorcio con dignidad, es el estilo de Cheryl”. 

• MAIN MISTAKES OF THE MACHINE TRANSLATOR

Relative clauses: With no apparent reason, the MT tends to construct relative clauses, even though there is no evidence of any relative clause in the original version. For instance, “she even calls him babe” which has been translated as “que incluso le llama bebé” or “…with dignity, it is Cheryl’s style” translated as “que es el estilo de Cheryl”.

Articles and pronouns: In this second translation, the MT has not indentified the need for an indefinite article in the Spanish version and, therefore, it has translated the title of text as “Cheryl quiere divorcio digno” which sound rather “naked” in Spanish, since a native Spanish speaker would have the intuition that the indefinite article “un” is missing. What is more, in the last sentence, “This is divorce with dignity”, the MT has added spontaneously a definite article “el” and translated the demonstrative pronoun as “este”. Personally, I cannot understand the reason for the construction of such sentence.

Prepositions: The MT has made the mistake of translating the preposition “in” as “de”, which is rather strange, because in most of the cases the English preposition for “de” is “of”.

Meaning of words: In general, the MT has made a good choice of the words when translating. Yet, in the case of “spouse”, the translator has used the word “esposa” which, on the one hand, is wrong because there is not agreement in gender with the subject and, on the other hand, the correct translation of the word would be “cónyuge”.

Verb tenses: Sometimes, the MT is in trouble when it has to translate the present continuous of some verbs. The verb “is planning” has been translated as a noun “planificación” and the same has happened with “are texting” translated as “mensajes de texto”. However, the MT has been able to recognize the present continuous in “is speaking”.

Sentence construction: The MT is not capable of understanding some structures. For example, “but as much as” or “following allegations”, maybe because it does not recognize the lexicon or simply the grammatical structure. Besides, it should be added that titles of songs do not need to be translated as it can occur that it ends up mixed with the rest of the text and, therefore, nothing can be understood (The “Fight for This Love” singer > La “lucha por la cantante This Love”).

 

THIRD TEXT 

• Original text in English

Nickelback-How you remind me 

Never made it as a wise man
I couldn’t cut it as a poor man stealing
Tired of living like a blind man
I’m sick of seeing without a sense of feeling
and this is how you remind me
This is how you remind me of what I really am
This is how you remind me of what I really am 

(chorus)
It’s not like you to say sorry
I was waiting on a different story
this time I’m mistaken
for handing you a heart worth breaking
and I’ve been wrong
I’ve been down
into the bottom of every bottle
these five words in my head
scream are we having fun yet 

 

• Google translator version

Nickelback-Como me recuerdas 

Nunca lo hizo como un hombre sabio
No podía cortarlo como un hombre pobre robando
Cansado de vivir como un ciego
Estoy harto de ver sin un sentimiento de
y así es como me recuerdas
Así es como me recuerdas lo que realmente soy
Así es como me recuerdas lo que realmente soy 

(Estribillo)
No es como que digas lo siento
Estaba esperando en una historia diferente
esta vez estoy equivocada
para entregar un corazón digno de romperse
y me he equivocado
He estado en
en la parte inferior de cada botella
estas cinco palabras en mi cabeza
grito se nos divertimos aún 

• Human translation

Nunca actué como un hombre sabio
No pude detenerme, cual mendigo que necesita robar
Cansado de vivir como un hombre ciego
Estoy harto de ver sin poder sentir
Y es así como me recuerdas
Es así como me recuerdas lo que realmente soy
Es así como me recuerdas lo que realmente soy

(Estribillo)
No es que tengas que disculparte
Soy yo quien estaba esperando una historia diferente
Esta vez estoy avergonzado
Por encargarte un corazón que merece la pena romper
Y estuve equivocado
Estuve deprimido
En el fondo de cada botella
Estas cinco palabras en mi cabeza
Gritan: ¿Nos estamos divirtiendo juntos todavía? 

• MAIN MISTAKES OF THE MACHINE TRANSLATOR

In general, more mistakes can be appreciated in this third text, probably because it is a song and it requires more precision as, sometimes, subjects are omitted and so forth.

Agreement of number and gender: In the first sentence of the song, the MT has not been able to recognize the gender of the verb and, thus, it has used the 3^rd person singular but, in a way, it is understood that 1^st person singular is needed. Moreover, the sentence “and I’ve been wrong” has been translated in the feminine and it should have been translated as “equivocado”. Besides, in the last sentence, the verb “scream” has a plural subject which means that it should have been translated in the 3^rd person plural (gritan).

Meaning of words & expressions: The meaning of some words has been misunderstood by the MT. For instance, “cut” translated as “cortar” (detener), “down” translated as “en” (deprimido) or “into the bottom” translated as “en la parte inferior” (en el fondo).

Prepositions: The MT has made a mistake with the preposition “for” which has been translated as “para”. It is true that “for” can mean “para” but,  in this case, it has a causal meaning and, thus, it is more appropriate to translate it as “por”.

Sentence construction: There are some sentences which have been translated incorrectly, maybe because the MT did not recognize the lexicon or the grammatical structure. For instance: “It’s not like you to say sorry” > “No es como que digas lo siento”; “…a heart worth breaking” > “un corazón digno de romperse”.

Questions in direct speech: There is no way of understanding the translation made by the MT with regard to the question. The only thing correct in the translation is the choice of the number (1^st person plural), the rest of the question is nonsense. (Are we having fun yet? > Nos estamos divirtiendo todavía?).

  

FOURTH TEXT 

• Original text in English

The Lion King 

A young lion prince is born in Africa, thus making his uncle Scar the second in line to the throne. Scar plots with the hyenas to kill King Mufasa and Prince Simba, thus making himself King. The King is killed and Simba is led to believe by Scar that it was his fault, and so flees the kingdom in shame. After years of exile he is persuaded to return home to overthrow the usurper and claim the kingdom as his own thus completing the “Circle of Life“. 

• Google Translator version

El Rey León
Un león joven príncipe ha nacido en África, con lo que su tío Scar el segundo en la línea de sucesión al trono. Scar parcelas con las hienas para matar al rey Mufasa y Simba Príncipe, con lo que el propio rey. El rey muere y Simba es llevado a creer por la cicatriz que era culpa suya, por lo que huye del reino de vergüenza. Después de años de exilio, está convencido de regresar a sus hogares para derrocar al usurpador y la reclamación del reino como su propia completando así el “Circle of Life“. 

• Human Translation

El Rey León
Un joven príncipe león nace en Africa, convirtiendo de ese modo a su tío Scar el segundo en la línea de sucesión al trono. Scar planea con las hienas matar al rey Mufasa y el príncipe Simba, haciendo así que el sea el rey. Scar mata al rey y hace creer a Simba que él es el culpable así que Simba huye del reino avergonzado. Después de años de exilio, persuaden a Simba para que vuelva a casa con el fín de derrocar al usurpador y reclamar el reino como suyo, completando así “El Círculo de la Vida”. 

• MAIN MISTAKES OF THE MACHINE TRANSLATOR

Order of sentences/Sentence construction:  The very first sentence of the text sounds a bit funny “un león joven príncipe”. Clearly, there is a slight mess with regard to the order of the adjectives and nouns. Furthermore, the expression “thus making” has been translated incorrectly twice. In both cases, the word “making” has not been translated and, therefore, the sentence has been incomplete. Likewise, the name of Simba’s uncle, Scar, has been translated into Spanish (cicatriz) which make the sentence completely nonsense. In addition, the last expression “Circle of Life”, although it is between quotation marks, could have been translated into Spanish (Círculo de la vida).

Verb tenses: It is visible that the MT has some problems when translating the passive form of some verbs; this is the case of “is born” or “is persuaded”. When this happens, the best solution may be to change the order of the sentence and the tense of the verb into the present simple; that is, instead of saying “Simba es convencido para…”, change it into “Convencen a Simba…”.

Meaning of words: The MT has made a big mistake with the word “plots” which has been translated as a noun and not as a verb. Likewise, the expression “in shame” could have been translated better, by using the adjective instead of the preposition plus the noun (en vergüenza > avergonzado).

Agreement in number: In the sentence “…persuaded to return home”, “home” has been translated in the plural even though there is no evidence of a need for the plural, since it is talking about Simba and, therefore, it should be singular.

 

SUMMARY OF THE MAIN MACHINE TRANSLATOR MISTAKES 

Above all, lexical errors can be appreciated. Just by paying attention to the title of the first text, it could be realised how the word grounded is not translated accurately. Another example is the word stranded which has been translated as están varados and, in this particular case, it means something like se han quedado tirados. In addition, the MT does not take into account that words can have more than one meaning in some cases; that is the case of in shame (third text), among many others, which has been translated as de vergüenza, but probably the translation avergonzado suits better there. Another important mistake is that the MT tends to translate everything into Spanish and, sometimes, names should remain in their original language; that is the case of Fight for this love, which is the name of a song, and Scar, the name of Simba’s uncle. Likewise, it is worth mentioning that, in the case of the first text, the author uses repeatedly the word said which might sound perfect in English in a journalistic text, yet it does not sound that good in Spanish and, therefore, the sentence happens to be slightly awkward. 

Regarding grammar mistakes, the MT is not able to recognise some verb tenses in the three texts. For example, in the first text, would continue has been translated as continuará, which is a future simple. In the second text, in order to translate is planning, the MT has chosen es la planificación, which is nonsense because it has been translated as a noun instead of a verb. And, finally, in the third text, the MT has decided to translate the passive is born as ha nacido, which is a present perfect. 

Moreover, on the syntactic level, word order has been the main protagonist, that is the case of European aviation agency Eurocontrol translated as Eurocontrol Agencia Europea de la aviación which in Spanish would be translated as an apposition Eurocontrol, la agencia europea de aviación. Furthermore, in the third text, the MT has omitted the verb making when translating the sentence into Spanish (thus making his uncle Scar the second in line to the throne > con lo que su tío Scar el segundo en la línea de sucesión al trono). Besides, there have been some errors when translating prepositions into Spanish, such as in February translated as de febrero. Likewise, some mistakes with regard to gender and number can be seen (spouse > esposa, in any case it should have been esposo; return home > a sus hogares, which should be translated as a su hogar). Also, it should be of great importance mentioning that the MT has introduced the relative pronoun que when it was not necessary, for instance, This is divorce with dignity, it is Cheryl’s style translated as Este es el divorcio con dignidad, que es el estilo de Cheryl. 

Finally, from a stylistic point of view, it must be said that £130m has been translated as £ 130 millones and it would have been more precise to translate it as a unit, that is, 130 millones de libras. 

(Summary of the main important mistakes) 

References: 

• Google Translate. 2010. Retrieved on April 25, 2010, from http://translate.google.com/?hl=es#
• BBC news. 2010. Volcanic ash: Europe flights grounded for third day. Retrieved on April 25, 2010, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8626505.stm
• FemaleFirst. 2010. Cheryl Cole wants dignified divorce. Retrieved on April 25, 2010, from http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/celebrity/Cheryl+Cole-32169.html
• IMDb, The Internet Movie Database. 2010. The Lyon King. Retrieved on April 25, 2010, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110357/plotsummary
• Letra de How you remind me. Retrieved on May 1, 2010, from http://www.quedeletras.com/letra-cancion-how-you-remind-me-bajar-43238/disco-silver-side-up/nickelback-how-you-remind-me.html

Second Review: Forvo, the Pronunciation guide

Last week, while I was attending my Language Resources course, I was having a look at Delicious’s bookmarks when I found this pronunciation guide on the Internet. At the beginning, I did not pay much attention to it, but when our teacher mentioned it a couple of times, I said to myself: Let’s have a try!

Although it might sound rather surprising, Forvo has become the largest pronunciation guide in the world just in a year’s time. It was born as an idea in 2007, and is online since January 2008. Moreover, and I am sure many of you would be proud to know, the owner of this site is Forvo Media SL, from San Sebastián (The Basque Country).

Forvo.com is a website that allows access to pronunciation sound clips in many different languages in an attempt to make easier the learning of languages. Likewise, what it is amazing about this website is that all sound clips are created by its users, who also have the chance to vote on each clip, positively or negatively, so that it ensures that those sound clips which have a better quality have priority over lesser sound clips when being listened to.

Moreover, it must be pointed out that it offers a huge variety of languages, not only English. For instance, laguages such as Amharic, Assamese, Kotava, Babarian and so forth are presented, which are rarely heard.

EXAMPLE OF THE RESEARCH

I would like to give an example of how this website works.

• The first step would be to type in a word. Let’s put as an example the word Umbrella.

• Then, with a slight click in the tiny square that says “Go”, the website leads the user to the next page where the results of the search are presented:

• At the bottom of the page, it can be read “Umbrella 2 pronunciation”. Therefore, if we click on it, what we find is the next thing:

The pronuntiation guide offers us the different pronunciations of the word, provided by the users. Finally, we only need to choose one of the two and listen to it. (In this case, the second pronunciation does not work or, at least, nothing can be heard).

COMPARISON BETWEEN FORVO AND OTHER PRONUNCIATION GUIDES FOUND ON THE INTERNET

• Howjsay.com

Very similar to Forvo is the website howjsay.com. Although it does not contain as much data as Forvo, it is very easy when trying to look up a word. However, another important difference that might make it slightly restrictive, is the fact that words are not uoloaded to the page by the users and it is precisely this property that I like from Forvo. Nonetheless, users can add comments and suggest new uploads to the page, as it can be appreciated on the picture below.

EXAMPLE OF A RESEARCH

Its functionality is very similar to Forvo’s as I have already mentioned. First, you just need to type in the word you are interested in and, then, click were it says “sumit”.

After that, you do not need to do anything else, the word just comes out pronounced automatically. Yet, it does have an innovation that Forvo does not include on his web page. There is the possibility to translate that word -by Google Translate- into a large number of languages, such as Korean, Persian, Hindi and many others. For example:

• Fonetiks.org

Fonetiks.orgis rather different from Forvo and howjsay.com. It is mainly based on isolated sounds of consonants and vowels; that is, it is not focused on the pronunciation of words, but of sounds. In fact, it provides online pronunciation guides to 9 varieties of the English language and 9 other languages, instant sound and pronunciation samples by over 40 native speakers.

In the presentation page, there is some sort of a comparison made between different dialects of English regarding mainly the differences in the pronounciation of sounds from one language into another. Users can listen to the pronunciation of sounds in American English, British English, Irish English, Scottish English, Welsh English, Australian English, Canadian English, Indian English and South African English which are divided into categories such as single vowel sounds, two vowel sounds and so forth.

Apart from all these, it is also interesting the fact that it has more activities in order to practice pronunciation. For instance, it offers a variety of English dialogues, an interactive reading course and many other activities which are available on the web page. In the picture below, there is an example of a dialogue which emphasises the use of the relative pronoun ”whose”.

PERSONAL OPINION

From the three pronunciation guides that I have been checking so that I could write my second review, I would say that Forvo has been the most attractive one, since the involvement of the users is wider than in the other two. Yet, it is interesting the translation service that howjsay.com provides for the users and, at the same time, the diversity of activities offered by fonetiks.org is quite helpful for the development and improvement of the pronunciation for those who do not have the chance to go to other countries in order to practice the language.

Information sources:

• Forvo.com. (2010, March 3). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:22, March 23, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Forvo.com&oldid=347544470
• Forvo: The pronunciation guide. (2010). Retrieved on March 23, 2010, from http://forvo.com
• Fonetiks.org (2000-2009). Retrieved on May 2, 2010, from http://www.fonetiks.org/
• Howjsay.com (2006-2010). Retrieved on May 2, 2010, from http://www.howjsay.com/