To remedy this, the University of Tartu in Estonia and the University of Valladolid in Spain, in partnership with Mobi Lab, introduced SayEst in 2022. This is the first mobile app specifically designed for teaching the pronunciation of the Estonian language.
SayEst is perfectly tailored for those who may be nervous about practicing their Estonian with experienced speakers, since its automatic speech recognition feature provides users with real-time feedback.
The app, which is available for free on Android devices, allows users to practice their pronunciation of Estonian vowels and consonants through a variety of tutorial videos, practical exercises, and demonstrations. SayEst is perfectly tailored for those who may be nervous about practicing their Estonian with experienced speakers, since its automatic speech recognition feature provides users with real-time feedback.
“Although perfect pronunciation is not necessary to speak a language at a good level, language learners are often afraid of making mistakes and therefore practice less than they might like,” said Anton Malmi, one of the app's creators and a Junior Research Fellow in Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics at the University of Tartu. “Practicing pronunciation with SayEst allows learners to gain confidence without fear of criticism,” he added.
SayEstis available on GooglePlay here!
This article was written by Natalie Jenkins as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.
