Read-Aloud-Read-Along-App
Kurt Andro – July 11th 2016
An app designed to make reading foreign-language books and listening to audio books more enjoyable and to increase the learning effect.
You want to improve your foreign language skills?
- With a book or eBook?
- The right audio book for pronunciation?
- To look up words and phrases, various online or offline reference works?
- An edition of the book translated into your mother tongue?
Stop !!!
- Switching back and forth between three or more sources?
- That's no fun!
- There is no reading flow!
Get rid of it !!!
- The planned Read-Aloud-Read-Along-App gathers all elements in one place.
- Listening and reading in both languages takes place on a single screen page.
- There is no need to change apps or access other reference books.
Features
- Several readers in both languages, who differ in speed and accent, who can be activated individually and can be sorted in order.
- Adjustable pauses and break points before, between and after the different speakers.
Main screen
At the top
- Buttons for information
- Speaker settings
- Time settings
- and chapter selection
In the middle
- Short text sections (one to three sentences each) are displayed and read aloud in both languages
At the bottom
- The pause buttons
- and navigate between text sections
Info page
The audio playback is interrupted when the info page is displayed. This also applies to all other subpages.
You can toggle the language of the user interface using the link at the top.
On the info page
- The purpose and operation of the app are described
- Contributors and creators are named
Return to the main screen with the arrow button in the upper left corner.
Speakers
For both languages, one or more speakers (male and female) may be available who differ, for example, in speed or accent.
They can be activated individually. Their order can be changed by Drag & Drop.
Delays
Here you can set the times the app waits
- before the first speaker,
- between two speakers
- and after the last speaker
before it automatically resumes.
Alternatively, you can also activate break points here. At these points the app will stop and only continue after pressing the Play/Pause button.
Chapter
Here you can select forewords, chapters, etc. at which the display and audio playback should be continued.
That was nearly it.
Now (only) someone is missing who programs the app and cuts the required short but numerous text and audio files.
For me, the special potential of such an app lies in the fact that you could dare to have a comprehensive foreign-language book even with a low level of language skills. You set appropriate waiting times or breakpoints, select several speakers at appropriate speaking speeds and, if necessary, look at the translation of a sentence in detail, jump back effortlessly and, above all, do not have to deal with several sources.
The app could be used for free texts and audios as well as for commercial material. The conditions for the availability of all materials must of course be clarified before further processing. Existing or newly recorded audio files must be cut according to the text sections.
For this demo I used sentences from Project Gutenberg and Loyal Books.
A request at the end
If you know similar already existing apps, I ask you for a short info. I did some research in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store and didn't find anything similar.
Video about this App on Youtube
Read-Aloud-Read-Along-App 5:17
For privacy reasons (cookies, tracking ...) this video is not embedded in the site. The link will open it in a new browser window or tab directly in Youtube.