Say It: English Pronunciation

Developed by Oxford University Press, Say It is an English Pronunciation app designed to help English students improve the clarity of their pronunciation by learning how to pronounce words they already know.

Say It app has a unique learning technique that’s especially great for visual learners. The broad range of vocabulary in the app – the full word list has over 35,000 entries – is incredibly helpful. If you’re not very confident about judging your pronunciation by listening to your recorded voice, then maybe looking at a visual representation of your voice might help.

A visual representation, you may ask? Allow me to explain. This app generates a picture of the sound wave created when you speak a word. All you have to do is compare the visual sound wave of your voice to the sound wave produced by a native speaker. Moreover, this app has the option of slowing down any recording. So if it’s a particularly long word such as “hypothetically”, you can touch and drag on a difficult part, to slow it down and make it easier to learn.

Say It app comes with 100 free British English words, 4 tests and 12 sounds, taken from the best-selling English File course and Oxford’s dictionaries. It’s quick, effective and fun to use.

Is Say It app free?

You can sign up for a limited free version, but to access all the features, they’ll need to upgrade to the premium version.

Features

• Users can record the pronunciation of a word. The app then translates the word into a graph that can be used to compare the students’ pronunciation to the model. This helps them see if the shapes and phases of the words are similar, and if the stress markers are shown in the same areas.
• Users can play their pronunciation audio slowly to notice variations between their recording and the model.
• Users can create a list of words they’d like to practice regularly.
• Students can send the pronunciation audio to their teacher or friends using the Share button.
• Included in the app is a guide with teaching tips, demonstrating how the app can be used in class or in private lessons.