Simple implementation of Text to Speech.

VoiceReadText.java

import android.content.Context;
import android.speech.tts.TextToSpeech;
import android.speech.tts.UtteranceProgressListener;
import android.widget.Toast;
import java.util.Locale;

/*** the implementation of TextToSpeech */
public final class VoiceReadText{
 private static TextToSpeech tts;
 private static boolean READING = false;
// public static final String UTTERANCE_ID = TextToSpeech.Engine.KEY_PARAM_UTTERANCE_ID;

 /** check reading state */
 public static boolean isReading(){
	return READING;
 }

 protected VoiceReadText(){}

 /** initializing with french language */
 public static void setContext(final Context ctx){
	setContext(ctx, Locale.FRANCE);
 }

 /**
	* initialize the TTS by setting the context
	* this should be the very first method that should be
	* called before any other, otherwise the app will
	* terminate prematurely
	* @param ctx the Activity context,
	* @param lang the Locale language to be used
	*/
 public static void setContext(final Context ctx, final Locale lang){
	tts = new TextToSpeech(ctx.getApplicationContext(),
	 new TextToSpeech.OnInitListener() {
		@Override
		public void onInit(int status) {
		 if (status != TextToSpeech.ERROR){
			// confugure how it will read
			//pitch, rate, language, engine, ...
			tts.setLanguage(lang);
		 }}});
	tts.setOnUtteranceProgressListener(new UtteranceProgressListener(){

		@Override
		public void onStart(String p1)
		{
		 READING = true;
		}

		@Override
		public void onDone(String p1)
		{
		 READING = false;
		}

		@Override
		public void onError(String p1)
		{
		 Toast.makeText(ctx.getApplicationContext(), p1,
										Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
		}
	 });
 }
 
 /**
 * stop whatever is being read and 
 * read this given text aloud 
 * @param txt the text to be read
 */
 public static void read(String txt){
	read(txt, TextToSpeech.QUEUE_FLUSH);
 }

 /**
 * start reading text aloud 
 * @param txt the text to be read
 * @param queueMode can be :
 * TextToSpeech.QUEUE_ADD or
 * TextToSpeech.QUEUE_FLUSH
 */
 public static void read(String txt, int queueMode){
	//you can use TextToSpeech.QUEUE_ADD 
	//to append to the end of the queue
	tts.speak(txt, queueMode, null);
	READING = true;
 }

 /*** stop reading text aloud */
 public static void stop(){
	tts.stop(); READING = false;
 }

 /*** close TTS and release resources */
 public static void shutDown(){
	stop(); tts.shutdown();
 }
}