I recommend setting up the familiar voice feature in LACE AI as soon as possible. It’s easy to do — see below.
Training with a familiar voice changes the experience for me.
For example, my nephew lives 3,000 km away and I see him but once a year.
We often talk about words and language. While training with his voice on the topic of “Vocabulary builder,” I found a word he’d appreciate. It felt like a lucky coincidence and caught my interest. I was immediately more engaged.
I feel more productive when I train with the voices of people that I know personally. While these voices may be familiar, I occasionally have difficulty understanding due to factors such as accents, dental appliances, or rapid speech patterns. While training, I can see how this will enhance my listening capabilities in real-life. So it feels more productive.
In The Advantage of Knowing the Talker, Pamela Souza et al (2013) said, “as the speaker’s voice becomes more familiar, the listener accumulates knowledge about their unique vocal characteristics, including pitch, intonation, and speech patterns.” Souza et al. showed that the advantage of the familiar talker is greater in a more adverse listening situation, i.e., in the highest level of background noise in their study.
Instructions for setting up familiar voices:
On the home screen, tap My Voices > and scroll down to Tell Me More > Invite. You can invite via text or email. It’s a good idea to ask the person ahead of time if they are willing. It will take them a couple of minutes at the most to read the text or email message, click on the link, allow the microphone on their device to be used, and read a passage aloud.
The next time you log into LACE AI, tap Train > Voices. On this screen you can select the new voice. You can also unselect the system voices (the default voices in the program) if you prefer to train only with familiar voices.
Related posts: LACE AI Coaching notes #1
