SayEst: a mobile app for practicing Estonian pronunciation

SayEst is an Android mobile app designed to help users improve their Estonian pronunciation. Previous studies have shown that such tools and phonetic speech training can help to improve pronunciation (e.g., Savo & Peltola 2019; Taimi et al. 2014; Leppik & Tejedor-García 2019; Hacking, Smith & Johnson 2017). The app is available in English and Russian, focusing on vowels and consonants. There are different exposure, identification, and pronunciation exercises, and theoretical videos explaining Estonian pronunciation.

One-fourth of the Estonian population speaks Russian as their L1, and the number of Russian L1 learners of Estonian has increased in recent years. This has also increased the need for different tools for speech learning.

We are also collaborating with Tallinn University of Technology to develop and train an L2 speech verifier that will give the user feedback on each segment in a word.