Thesis (M. Sc. (Computer Science)) --University of Limpopo, 2019 / A Text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis system is a software system that receives text as input and produces speech as output. A TTS synthesis system can be used for, amongst others, language learning, and reading out text for people living with different disabilities, i.e., physically challenged, visually impaired, etc., by native and non-native speakers of the target language. Most people relate easily to a second language spoken by a non-native speaker they share a native language with. Most online English TTS synthesis systems are usually developed using native speakers of English. This research study focuses on developing accented English synthetic voices as spoken by non-native speakers in the Limpopo province of South Africa. The Modular Architecture for Research on speech sYnthesis (MARY) TTS engine is used in developing the synthetic voices. The Hidden Markov Model (HMM) method was used to train the synthetic voices. Secondary training text corpus is used to develop the training speech corpus by recording six speakers reading the text corpus. The quality of developed synthetic voices is measured in terms of their intelligibility, similarity and naturalness using a listening test. The results in the research study are classified based on evaluators’ occupation and gender and the overall results. The subjective listening test indicates that the developed synthetic voices have a high level of acceptance in terms of similarity and intelligibility. A speech analysis software is used to compare the recorded synthesised speech and the human recordings. There is no significant difference in the voice pitch of the speakers and the synthetic voices except for one synthetic voice.

In recent years, Facebook has become a tool for practicing English. Language educators have been trying to integrate the social context of a community of practice into formal teaching, as a complement to classroom-based learning. However, social media platforms are used independently outside of the school context. For example, many English-language learners use the application Facebook Groups to choose a community of practice that shares the same purpose of language learning. With the aim of contributing to the understanding of English-language learners’ independent use of Facebook, this paper seeks to explore their online practices through non-participant observation and a qualitative analysis of the content shared and commented on the group wall. 858 posts (and related comments) shared by the members of an English language-learning group, open to the public, were analysed with the purpose of finding out which aspects of foreign language learning seem to be particularly relevant for the group and which of the four basic language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are they trying to develop. Another important aspect is whether the interactions in the group are conducted in English as expected. The results show that reading skills tend to be promoted to a greater extent than the other skills. It was then observed that the group members use the English language consistently, with very few exceptions. In general, therefore, this study shows that the Facebook Groups contribution to learning English through participation in an English-language learning community such as the one observed here is rather limited and unbalanced.

Cette recherche a pour objet l’usage du numérique dans les apprentissages des lycéens-adolescents en contexte socioéducatif malien. Elle vise à comprendre comment ceux-ci utilisent les outils du numérique dans la réalisation de leurs activités didactiques en classe de français langue seconde et hors la classe et s’interroge sur le rôle de ces outils dans l’apprentissage informel des langues inscrites à leur programme scolaire. Une enquête ethnographique a permis d’observer un échantillon de lycéens-adolescents, repartis entre quatre lycées de Bamako, dans les différents espaces sociaux qu’ils parcourent au quotidien : le lycée et ses différents espaces, le domicile familial et le « grin ». Le « grin » est un vocable du bambara (première langue nationale du Mali) qui désigne à la fois un groupe d’amis du même âge et les différents lieux où ceux-ci se rencontrent. La recherche s’appuie sur des entretiens, des journaux de bord et l’observation de situations d’utilisation d’outils numériques pendant laquelle des photographies ont été prises afin de saisir comment chaque lycéen-adolescent bricole des ressources pour ses apprentissages à partir des outils dont il dispose dans chaque contexte. Le positionnement épistémologique relève de la pensée par cas, qui a permis de reconstruire des portraits de lycéens à partir de situations d’utilisation d’outils numériques. Chaque situation décrite est appréhendée comme inscrite dans une configuration sociale particulière où sont en jeu des identités, des relations d’interdépendance afin de rendre compte de quelles façons l’actualisation des usages se fait selon les lieux. Le téléphone ayant été identifié dès le seuil de l’enquête comme le principal outil de médiation des pratiques numériques des lycéens évoluant dans le contexte socioéconomique malien, il s’est aussi agi d’envisager son importation en classe en tant que phénomène scolaire, et donc d’interroger la forme scolaire de la relation pédagogique à la lumière des usages identifiés auprès des lycéens lors de l’interaction didactique. Ainsi, des entretiens ont été conduits auprès d’enseignants de français suivis pendant leurs cours et de responsables de l’administration scolaire afin de déterminer comment ces derniers s’emparent de ce phénomène, quelles significations ils lui attribuent et quelles en sont les incidences sur les rapports au pouvoir et au savoir qui sont au fondement de la relation éducative scolaire. Ces entretiens ont été analysés dans la perspective de l’Analyse Critique du Discours. Les résultats mettent au jour des tensions qui se nouent autour des usages pédagogiques du téléphone entre d’une part l’enseignant et ses élèves et d’autre part l’enseignant et l’administration scolaire. A la lumière de ces tensions, des pistes pédagogiques sont proposées afin que les enseignants puissent se réapproprier les outils numériques nomades importés en classe par les élèves. / This study focuses on the use of digital technology for learning amongst adolescent high school students in the Malian socio-educational context. It seeks to understand how these learners use digital tools to carry out pedagogical activities inside and outside French as a second language classes and it questions the role of the tools in informal language learning within their school curriculum. An ethnographic study enabled us to observe a sample of adolescent high school students in four Bamako high schools, in the different social spaces in which they move on a daily basis: the high school and its different spaces, the family home and the “grin”. The “grin” is a word from Bambara (first national language in Mali), which describes both a group of friends of the same age and the different places where they meet one another. The study uses interviews, logbooks and the observation of situations in which digital tools are used, during which photographs were taken, to capture how each adolescent high school student puts together learning resources from the tools available in each context. The epistemological position comes from case thinking, which enabled us to reconstruct portraits of high school students from the situations in which they use digital tools. Each situation described is seen as being set in a particular social configuration where identities and interdependence relations are at stake. Thus we report how uses evolve according to place.The mobile phone was identified at the start of the study as being the main mediation tool for high school students’ digital practices in the Malian socio-economic context. The goal then was to consider how the mobile phone was imported into the classroom as a school phenomenon and thus to examine the school form of the pedagogical relationship, in light of the high school students’ uses identified during didactic interaction. Thus, interviews were conducted with French teachers during their lessons and with senior school authority members in order to determine how they appropriate this phenomenon, what significance they attribute to it and how it impacts on the power and knowledge relations, which are at the foundation of the school educational relationship. The interviews were analysed from the standpoint of Critical Discourse Analysis. The results reveal tensions which emerge around the pedagogical uses of the mobile phone between, on the one hand, the teacher and his/her students and, on the other hand, between the teacher and the school authority. In view of these tensions, pedagogical suggestions are offered so that teachers can re-appropriate mobile digital tools brought into the classroom by students.