TTSMaker - Bring your texts to life with the magic of text-to-speech

Article written in part with the help of ChatGPT

What is TTSMaker?

TTSMaker is a free text-to-speech tool that stands out for its ability to support a multitude of languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and many more. It also offers a wide variety of vocal styles.

Whether for reading aloud texts and e-books, or downloading audio files, TTSMaker stands out as a formidable online text-to-speech tool.

How does it work?

Here's how to quickly convert text to audio using TTSMaker:

1. Access the platform: Start by visiting the TTSMaker website to access the main interface.
   
   
2. Insert text: Locate the text insertion area and paste the content you wish to convert into speech.
   
   
3. Choose language and voice style: Explore the available options to select the language and voice style best suited to your project.
   
   
4. Advanced settings (if required): TTSMaker offers a range of parameters for fine-tuning your result, including sound quality, volume, pitch and pause time between paragraphs.
   
   
5. Start conversion: Once everything is configured to your preferences, click on the "Start conversion" button. Depending on the length of your text, conversion may take a few minutes.
   
   
6. Listen and download: After conversion, you can listen directly to the result. If you're satisfied with the result, download the audio file in the format you've defined (MP3, OGG, AAC, OPUS or WAV).

What can I use it for?

◾ Using text-to-speech for students with special educational needs (Nicolas Gaube)

For Nicolas Gaube (aka"A happy teacher!") text-to-speech is a technology that can be a valuable tool to help students with special educational needs with their learning by artificially generating voice from text.

In the following video, he shows us how to set up and use a text-to-speech site (TTSMaker) to support reading and comprehension for students with dyslexia or other learning disabilities.

💡 Commenting on this video, Stéphane Clerc,specialized teacher and inclusive school trainer for theDijon academy, offered two remarks that I find very pertinent:

1. It's important to mark pauses after a certain number of words, especially if the lexicon used is new, or even unknown to students, and if the syntax is complex. Pauses should be longer than a second, however, to give students time to assimilate information, go back over it, etc. Cf André Tricot's webinar on research into the contribution of digital technology to EBEP (CanoTech);
   
   
2. Place questions before the text, to focus students' attention right from the start of reading.

◾ Giving voice to a text (Mooneen Raferty - Living Lab SOFA du Cnam)

In this article from Living Lab SOFA, Mooneen Raferty, an English teacher at Cnam des Pays de la Loire, explains how she decided to use the TTSMaker tool in her training courses to help her students progress in English.

In particular, she explains that she used it in two ways. Firstly, she copied a list of words that her students were struggling with in class, or that they didn't know how to pronounce, and converted them into an audio file using TTSMaker. This way, her learners could come back to these words and repeat the sounds or intonation at home. She also created a short exercise with a gap-fill text on the use of the verbs "être" and "avoir ". Once the exercise was completed, the student could listen to the answers, rather than simply reading them. This makes it possible to work on both written and spoken language.

◾ TTSMaker: Converting written text into read text (Vincent Backeljau)

In the following video, Vincent Backeljau (aka"Master Robot") cycle 10-12 teacher atInstitut de l'Annonciation (Belgium), shows us how he uses the TTSMaker tool to create audio files of dictations.

My opinion of TTSMaker's potential

TTSMaker proves to be a versatile and accessible tool that opens up interesting prospects in the field of education and training. The ability to convert text into high-quality audio files, in several languages and with a variety of vocal styles, offers teachers and trainers alike an effective way of making their educational content more effective and engaging.

Whether creating interactive course materials or facilitating the comprehension of complex information, TTSMaker stands out as a valuable asset for enriching the learning experience and making it more inclusive for all.

Gérald TIROT

• Sources

Backeljau, Vincent. "Master robot |". Master robot, March 2, 2023, https://www.master-robot.be/2023/03/02/ttsmaker-convertir-un-texte-ecrit-en-texte-lu/.

Giving voice to text - Le Cnam - Living Lab Sofa. October 19, 2023, https://living-lab.cnam.fr/donner-de-la-voix-a-un-texte/.

JustGeek. Convert text to voiceover for free with TTSMaker. https://www.justgeek.fr/convertir-texte-en-voix-ttsmaker-111278/.

TTSMAKER Free Text To Speech. https://ttsmaker.com/.

Using Text-to-Speech for students with special educational needs. www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_ZzC0u4ZV0. Accessed October 24, 2023.