children learnthe music of alanguage first.
Duet is a voice-first language programme for schools where learning happens by doing. In five-minute missions, students watch a real scene, speak in duet with a native voice, then hold a real conversation.
Speaking takes timing, stress and melody, and none of it fits on a card.
one mission, four steps, five minutes
Each mission is a situation a child could really find themselves in: buying bread at a bakery, asking the way at the zoo, ordering on a school trip.
-
1
watch
A 5–10 second scene from real life, with natural sound. The meaning appears for two seconds, then fades, so the picture carries the story instead of a translation.
About 10 seconds -
2
echo
The student speaks in duet with a native voice, a quarter of a second behind, following the rise and fall of the sentence. A live pitch line shows when they are in time.
60 seconds -
3
talk
A short conversation with a friendly character who answers in one or two sentences and quietly models the right words. Pause for four seconds and a gentle choice appears.
About 3 minutes -
4
unlock
The mission joins a map of things the student can now do, and nearby situations open up next. No points and no streaks: real abilities families can see.
The moment of pride
built on seventy years of speech research
The Echo step uses prosodic shadowing: speaking along with a native voice, focused on melody rather than meaning. It began in 1950s speech laboratories and became a staple of interpreter training. Try it.
what happens in the brain
melody before words
Researchers teach shadowing in three steps, easiest first. Duet's Echo step is the middle one, and the Watch step before it means students already understand most of what they hear.
- 1
Mumble
Copy the sound and rhythm only.
- The Echo step2
Melody
Copy pitch, stress and rhythm, without worrying about every word.
- 3
Words and meaning
Copy every word while following what it means.
- 250–500milliseconds behind the native voice
Too close to translate
Shadowing studies going back to the 1950s put the limit of speech reaction near a quarter of a second. Past half a second, learners fall back on memory.Source: Speech shadowing - ear → mouththe brain's dorsal stream
A direct line from hearing to speaking
Speaking while listening uses the pathway that maps sounds onto mouth movements. Brain scans of shadowing show hearing and speech areas working together.Hickok & Poeppel 2007; NeuroImage, 2009 - 9lessons in the study
Measured listening gains
In a study of 43 university English learners, nine shadowing lessons improved how well they heard individual sounds, at both levels tested.Hamada, Language Teaching Research, 2016 - 60 sper Echo, then stop
Short on purpose
Shadowing is intense, and learners report tiring in long sessions. Each Echo loops a short clip for one minute rather than pushing through a long one.Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 2018
what your students gain
Your students already learn by making, building and presenting. Duet brings the same approach to languages: real situations, their own interests, and abilities they can show.
they speak from day one
Students learn by doing, so they start by speaking. No word lists to get through before the first real conversation.
mistakes stay in the conversation
No red marks, buzzers or failed-attempt counters. If a student pauses, Duet offers a gentle choice and the conversation keeps moving.
missions around what they love
On day one, each student names three things they enjoy. Missions grow from there: the football match, the bakery, the trip to the zoo.
they hear real speech
Shadowing trains the ear on natural, native-speed speech, with its linked words and dropped sounds, rather than slow textbook audio.
mastery they can show
Each finished mission adds a real ability to the student's map: "I can buy bread at a bakery." Families see what their child can do, not a score.
bring duet to your school
Tell us a little about your school and we will arrange a walkthrough with the Prosoda Labs team.
[email protected]