YAKIToME seems almost to good to be true for English Language Learners. It lets you copy and paste pretty much anything you want and the convert the text to speech.
You can choose the type of voice (it uses ATT technology, which I’ve had a link on my website to for a longtime because it’s so good), the rate of speed (there are numerous settings), and even customize pronunciation for certain words. You choose to see the text when you’re listening to it being spoken. And you can create private groups if you want.
Most importantly, unlike some other well-intentioned similar applications I’ve posted about it, it seems to work without any technical difficulties. Plus, it’s free.
I have a number of text-to-speech links displayed at the top of several of the pages on my website, and will add the YAKIToMe link there.
July 29, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Thanks for the great link, Larry. This is a very useful free website, indeed. In fact, I think it’s the only truly free high-quality TTS website out there. I don’t know how they stay in business, but I’m going to keep using them as long as they’re alive.
September 1, 2009 at 9:41 am
thanks for the link.. very useful one..
September 9, 2009 at 3:49 pm
Hi Larry,
Thanks for that link. If you like that site, you should also try out iSpeech.org. They also have free service and the voice is much more natural. Thanks for the post!
September 22, 2009 at 5:05 am
Larry,
Thanks for the link. You should look into iSpeech.org. It is free, really easy to use and the voices are much better, especially for someone learning English. The voices are so good, they can be used in presentations. BTW, iSpeech.org powers the mobile application http://www.DriveSafe.ly which saves lives by making it possible for drivers to hear their texts & emails without touching the phone while they are driving.
February 1, 2013 at 8:49 pm
One problem, it does not update all corrected pronunciations. I wish they correct that asap.