Step 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.
About 10 secondsNative voiceYour student 250 ms behind
Children learn themusic of a languagefirst.
Weave is a voice-first language programme for schools where learning happens by doing. In five-minute missions, students watch a real scene, ride the wave of native speech, then hold a real conversation.
Book a meeting
Flashcards teach children words.Speaking takes timing,stress and melody.
One mission, five minutes
Each mission is a situation a child could really find themselves in: finding a book in the library, asking the way at the zoo, ordering on a school trip.
Step 2
Echo
The student speaks along with a native voice, a quarter of a second behind, riding the rise and fall of the sentence like a wave.
60 secondsStep 3
Talk
A short conversation with a friendly character who answers in one or two sentences. Pause for four seconds and a gentle choice appears.
About 3 minutesStep 4
Unlock
The mission joins a map of things the student can now do, and nearby situations open up next. No points, no streaks: abilities families can see.
The moment of prideSee a mission running in your school.
Book a meetingBuilt 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. Weave'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.
The 250–500 ms window
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 shadowingA direct line from ear to mouth
Speaking while listening uses the brain's dorsal stream, which maps sounds onto mouth movements. Brain scans of shadowing show hearing and speech areas working together.
Hickok & Poeppel 2007; NeuroImage, 2009Measured 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, 2016Sixty seconds, then stop
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, 2018What changes for your students
Your students already learn by making, building and presenting. Weave brings the same approach to languages: real situations, their own interests, and abilities they can show.
From the first lesson
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.
Confidence
Mistakes stay part of the conversation
No red marks, buzzers or failed-attempt counters. If a student pauses, Weave offers a gentle choice and the conversation keeps moving.
Their interests
Missions built 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.
Listening
They hear the language as it's really spoken
Shadowing trains the ear on natural, native-speed speech, with its linked words and dropped sounds, rather than slow textbook audio.
Mastery
Abilities 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 Weave to your school
Tell us a little about your school and we will arrange a walkthrough with the Prosoda Labs team.
[email protected]