A language-teaching avatar - Module 5

C2 Proficiency · Open Cloze · Expert Proficiency Resource Book, Pearson Education

For questions 1–8, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each space. Use only one word in each space. There is an example at the beginning.

One of the trickiest tasks for an adult studying another language is (0) ___ your tongue around unfamiliar sound patterns. Poor pronunciation often (1) ___ learners back, preventing them from being fully effective (2) ___ it comes to actually using the language. Priya Day of Sheffield University may have (3) ___ up with a solution to this perennial problem. She has designed a talking avatar which (4) ___ by the name of Tara. Tara shows people the precise mouth movements they should be making in (5) ___ to produce a given word in the target language. (6) ___ with an external view of Tara's head, the system also displays the internal workings of her mouth and tongue as the words are spoken. These images were generated from magnetic resonance images taken from Day's own head and neck as she was speaking. In a small pilot trial with learners (7) ___ first language was Arabic, Day found that Tara helped improve their pronunciation much more than simply listening and repeating (8) ___ had been heard.

A language-teaching avatar

Available as a free printable PDF worksheet with an optional answer key.

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