En vitesse concentrates on the individual sounds accessed by a menu ordered according to frequency of occurrence, with a couple of illustrations of each sound, embedded in phrases or sentences. Au ralenti involves entry through phonetic categories, such as front vowels or nasal consonants. As well as giving more illustrations for each sound in context, it provides a definition for each and highlights certain points that are important for comprehension and performance. The second module at this level, En contact , focuses on aspects of sounds in combination. Here, at last, there are little pop quizzes for students to do on counting the number of syllables that are used in a video clip of text.
Immediate feedback is provided.
Once again, students will want to record their voices and try to imitate the video clip presentations. It covers breath groups, unemphatic and emphatic stress and rhythmic groups. All are illustrated by video clips that invite the learner to imitate the spoken French. It offers students a chance to review the IPA symbols by a set of recognition tests before it looks at the principles and models of the transcriptions being used. This aim is consistent with traditional approaches to the teaching of phonetics where correctly identifying spoken utterances and accurate pronunciation are seen as essential foundations for communicating in a foreign language.