Automatic localization and diagnosis of pronunciation errors for second-language learners of English

An automatic system for detection of pronunciation errors by adult learners of English is embedded in a language–learning package. Four main features are: (1) a recognizer robust to non–native speech; (2) localization of phone– and word–level errors; (3) diagnosis of what sorts of phone–level errors took place; and (4) a lexical–stress detector. These tools together allow robust, consistent, and specific feedback on pronunciation errors, unlike many previous systems that provide feedbaconly at a more general level. The diagnosis technique searches for errors expected based on the student’s mother tongue and uses a separate bias for each error in order to maintain a particular desired global false alarm rate. Results are presented here for non–native recognition on tasks of differing complexity and for diagnosis, based on a data set of artificial errors, showing that this method can detect many contrasts with a high hit rate and a low false alarm rate

A corpus for interstellar communication

Introduction: SETI, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Many researchers in Astronomy and Astronautics believe the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence is a serious academic enterprise, worthy of scholarly research and publication (e.g. Burke-Ward 2000, Couper and Henbest 1998, Day 1998, McDonough 1987, Sivier 2000, Norris 1999), and large-scale research sponsorship attracted by the SETI Institute in California. Most of this research community is focussed on techniques for detection of possible incoming signals from extraterrestrial intelligent sources (e.g. Turnbull et al 1999), and algorithms for analysis of these signals to identify intelligent language-like characteristics (e.g. Elliott and Atwell 1999, 2000). However, recently debate has turned to the nature of our response, should a signal arrive and be detected. For example, the 50th International Astronautical Congress devoted a full afternoon session to the question of whether and how we should respon

An online system for entering and annotating non-native Mandarin Chinese speech for language teaching

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-62).This thesis describes the design and implementation of an intuitive online system for the annotation of non-native Mandarin Chinese speech by native Chinese speakers. This system will allow speech recognition researchers to easily generate a corpus of labeled non-native speech. We have five native Chinese speakers test the annotation system on a sample bank of 250 Chinese utterances and observe fair to moderate inter-rater agreement scores. In addition to giving us a benchmark for inter-rater agreement, this also demonstrates the feasibility of having remote graders annotate sets of utterances. Finally, we extend our work to Chinese language instruction by creating a web-based interface for Chinese reading assignments. Our design is a simple, integrated solution for completing and correcting of spoken reading assignments, that also streamlines the compilation of a corpus of labeled non-native speech for use in future research.by Andrea Johanna Hawksley.M.Eng

Spanish students at UK universities : computer-mediated responses to academic writing problems

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo