Unscripted voice to text story:
Hello the speech to text Program that I have chose to use is Google read and write. This is a program that I chose because I use it for school with my students. Something that I have found really tricky about this program with students in a classroom is that it picks up quite a bit of outside noise. Something else quite tricky for students is punctuation. With the outside noise students have to either be really close to the computer or they have to have a microphone to help their audio pickup. If a student has an accent or is not a native English speaker this can be especially tricky or if they have a speech delay of some kind get quite frustrated with this because the program is not picking up the word that they want it to. With using the punctuation you have to say the word that you want to show so for example to have it. You need to say. But me saying it just out didn’t show up if you wanted to use a, you need to say the word and then it will show up. This is something that has been reworked over time using Google read and write and is a lot better than it used to be. Using this form of speech to text and Google read and write and feeling frustrated with it reminds me sometimes of texting using Siri in my car when I’m driving. I have apple carplay in my vehicle so please don’t think that I text and drive. Using the Siri app you can respond to text messages but similar to this program you have to say the punctuation that you want. So for example if you want an! She need to say the word. Something that I find Gets Lost in Translation when doing this is my expression and or emotion or excitement. I really enjoy using emojis and punctuation when I choose to text and so having an automated computer do it for me I find that I lose a lot of that. although this can be frustrating the convenience of a speech-to-text especially when driving is nice because you’re doing two things at one time. Something interesting that I’m noticing while I use the tool Google read and write is that I’m speaking quicker than it’s typing for me I usually do speak quite quickly but I’m trying to slow down because I want the program to pick up everything that I’m saying. I also notice saying that my thoughts are quite jumbles because I’m focussing on the speed that it is typing my ideas and having to focus on saying the word. Is slightly distracting. I know that for this assignment you wanted to hear a story or an anecdote but truthfully I wasn’t sure what to say that would take up 5 minutes of time so I thought it would be a better use of resources and time to speak about what I’m using and what I’m noticing about it and this would help in my an analysis later. Thank you for reading my thoughts that I have spoken And I hope that you have enjoyed it!
Written text analysis
- How does the text deviate from conventions of written English?
My speech to text varies from the written language in a number of ways. Firstly, my thoughts are not as organized, something I did acknowledge, as they would be in written text. Secondly, the punctuation and how I wanted to articulate a point are not as clear. Thirdly, it feels much more casual than my written text, especially something for a scholarly purpose such as the MET program. It feels almost wrong to be posting and submitting this!
- What is “wrong” in the text? What is “right”?
When looking back over my speech, what I find as glaringly wrong is the absence of organization in the text. There are no paragraphs to show my ideas being ordered. This also frustrated me as I was speaking because I didn’t feel like I had time to order my thoughts in a cohesive way that I could visually see. I also find flaws in the use of punctuation. Had I wanted to use the word ‘period’ to be spelled out, such as if I was talking about a period of time, I’m not sure how I would do that because it auto-corrected the word to the punctuation.
When looking at the success I had, the program Google Read and Write did a really good job of picking up my speech and articulating what I wanted. I did like that the spelling was overall very accurate, compared to when I’m writing and make careless keyboarding mistakes. I also was pleased with the speed at which it picked up what I was saying. I’ve used Google Read and Write with students before, and I was pleasantly surprised by the updates the program has made to accuracy and overall usability. I didn’t find it difficult to hear what I was saying nor did it mix up my words with something else.
- What are the most common “mistakes” in the text and why do you consider them “mistakes”?
As I’ve articulated already, some common mistakes occurred with punctuation. I consider this a mistake because it is not adding punctuation unless prompted by my voice. In spoken word, the person listening would be able to hear my inflections and pauses. In written word, we use punctuation to show where those pauses need to occur. Mixing the two in this assignment doesn’t fully capture either medium perfectly.
- What if you had “scripted” the story? What difference might that have made?
I was honestly a bit nervous to share something unscripted because my first thought was ‘what the heck am I going to talk about for 5 minutes straight!’ Once I started to consider how I could share about the platform, Google Read and Write I felt better, but still not as organized as I’d hoped. If this had been a ‘scripted’ story, I could have read a piece of literature or written down what I wanted to say and ensure that my thoughts came out in an organized fashion. I even would have preferred to record audio of me completing the speech to text so that the reader could hear my nervous giggle as I completed sentences that may or may not work in the cohesive story I was completing.
- In what ways does oral storytelling differ from written storytelling?
After completing this task, I can’t help but think of the popular Netflix show “The Circle.” Contestants communicate with one another through a screen, the circle, by sending voice-to-text messages. They can not see one another, and therefore certain contestants pose as catfish. It’s very interesting to see how text and emojis is communicated to complete strangers to communicate their personality. The tone isn’t communicated, similar to me completing my voice-to-text passage, the message isn’t communicated in the exact same way as speaking face-to-face.
As stated by Gnanadesikan (2011), “writing is only a means of expressing language; it is not language itself.” (p. 4). The written words that we have might outlast oral words, but the meaning behind them may not remain the same (Gnanadesikan, 2011 p. 3). Written storytelling can be preserved in books or papers and the reader is able to interpret them in their own way. Oral storytelling, on the other hand, allows for expression and connection. Furthermore, oral storytelling can be seen as more sacred because the impact of our oral words will only last if they are continually passed on. When I consider how oral stories can be passed on, I can’t help but connect to what I continue to learn about the Indigenous culture.
The Indigenous culture uses oral traditions to shape their ways of knowing and living. These oral traditions are used to share stories about life lessons with one another and hold the ancestral language as sacred within the cultural tradition (Hare, 2011 p. 90-92). Like the game of telephone, as referenced by Gnanadesikan (2011) the message has the potential to change over time (p. 3). The spoken word, therefore, will only last if we make a lasting effort to do so.
References:
Gnanadesikan, A. E. (2011).“The First IT Revolution.” In The writing revolution: Cuneiform to the internet. (Vol. 25). John Wiley & Sons (pp. 1-10).
Hare, J. (2011). Learning from Indigenous knowledge in education. In D. Long and O. P. Dickenson (Eds.) AcVisions of the heart, 3rd Edition (pp. 91-112). Toronto. Oxford University Press.