Asia Broadband had previously integrated AT&T’s Natural Voices Program, consisting of a text-to speech (TTS) engine that converts written words into natural sounding English speech, into its multimedia educational applications to enable new learning methods and enhance the interactive experience of its end-users following a five-month development and localization effort.
The Education Information Center selected the language training solution with the aim of utilizing the localized interface, keyboard text input, verbalization of web-page contents, volume/speed control, oral test designer and editor and multiple voice functions. It is hoped that these features will help students to realize, understand and experience high-quality interactive English learning.
Yuguo Zhang, CEO of Asia Broadband, noted that traditional English language training in China rarely meets the student’s need for oral and listening skills as local schools face a shortage of quality native speaking teachers. With the TTS program, ESL learners in China and the rest of the Asian region can now be provided with more opportunities to improve their oral English skills.
The program is scheduled to be delivered to over 240 primary and middle schools in Pudong New Area of Shanghai in 2005. An initial group of 20 schools expect to start using the TTS product in the first quarter of 2005.
