Saturday, July 7, 2012

Google Chrome Add-on: Phonetically Intuitive English (PIE)

A Big Problem with English
We all know the English language has a poor correspondence between spelling and pronunciation, which means a word's spelling may not reflect its pronunciation well, and its pronunciation may not reflect its spelling well either. This problem affects two groups of people:
  • People who learn English as a second language (ESL) may be familiar with a word's written form but may have problems hearing or saying it;
  • Children in English-speaking countries may speak English fluently but undergo a long struggle to learn reading and writing.
Enter PIE!

The project, Phonetically Intuitive English (PIE), may help to overcome the above problems effectively! 
PIE is a scheme and a Chrome browser extension to show diacritics on normal English words to make their pronunciations crystal clear. Just look at this quick example, which shows a sentence's American English pronunciation in detail:



PIE also provide a Lite mode for advanced English learners:



Such forms benefit both ESL learners and children in English-speaking countries:
  • ESL learners can immediately acquire a word's pronunciation as they scan its spelling augmented by diacritics.  Learn More »
  • Children in English-speaking countries can immediately read aloud a word in this form and then get familiar with the word's spelling.  Learn More »
And better yet...
Interested? Become a PIE user now! It's FREE.

Visit the Google Chrome page here: Phonetically Intuitive English (PIE)

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