56 research outputs found
Semantic radical consistency and character transparency effects in Chinese: an ERP study
BACKGROUND: This event-related potential (ERP) study aims to investigate the representation and temporal dynamics of Chinese orthography-to-semantics mappings by simultaneously manipulating character transparency and semantic radical consistency. Character components, referred to as radicals, make up the building blocks used dur...postprin
EVALITA Evaluation of NLP and Speech Tools for Italian Proceedings of the Final Workshop
Editor of the proceedings of EVALITA 2016
Automatic Screening of Childhood Speech Sound Disorders and Detection of Associated Pronunciation Errors
Speech disorders in children can affect their fluency and intelligibility. Delay in their diagnosis and treatment increases the risk of social impairment and learning disabilities. With the significant shortage of Speech and Language Pathologists (SLPs), there is an increasing interest in Computer-Aided Speech Therapy tools with automatic detection and diagnosis capability.
However, the scarcity and unreliable annotation of disordered child speech corpora along with the high acoustic variations in the child speech data has impeded the development of reliable automatic detection and diagnosis of childhood speech sound disorders. Therefore, this thesis investigates two types of detection systems that can be achieved with minimum dependency on annotated mispronounced speech data.
First, a novel approach that adopts paralinguistic features which represent the prosodic, spectral, and voice quality characteristics of the speech was proposed to perform segment- and subject-level classification of Typically Developing (TD) and Speech Sound Disordered (SSD) child speech using a binary Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. As paralinguistic features are both language- and content-independent, they can be extracted from an unannotated speech signal.
Second, a novel Mispronunciation Detection and Diagnosis (MDD) approach was introduced to detect the pronunciation errors made due to SSDs and provide low-level diagnostic information that can be used in constructing formative feedback and a detailed diagnostic report. Unlike existing MDD methods where detection and diagnosis are performed at the phoneme level, the proposed method achieved MDD at the speech attribute level, namely the manners and places of articulations. The speech attribute features describe the involved articulators and their interactions when making a speech sound allowing a low-level description of the pronunciation error to be provided. Two novel methods to model speech attributes are further proposed in this thesis, a frame-based (phoneme-alignment) method leveraging the Multi-Task Learning (MTL) criterion and training a separate model for each attribute, and an alignment-free jointly-learnt method based on the Connectionist Temporal Classification (CTC) sequence to sequence criterion.
The proposed techniques have been evaluated using standard and publicly accessible adult and child speech corpora, while the MDD method has been validated using L2 speech corpora
Recommended from our members
Opportunities for communication in integrated settings: young deaf children
The integration of deaf children into mainstream schools was heralded by the 1981 Education Act, but has been dogged by conflict about the appropriateness of two dominant approaches to communication. The oral/aural approach, most often followed, is concerned with teaching deaf children to learn to listen and listen to learn. The emphasis has been on the need to 'normalize' deaf children in order to promote their learning and development. The manual/visual approach has focused on sign usage to promote a child's development as a communicator and learner and can be tailored to the child's prospective membership of Deaf/deaf and hearing cultures.
The aim of this study is to explore both the oral/aural and the manual/visual approach in relation to young deaf children's experiences of integration. Rather than focusing on modality specific aspects of communication, this study examines the wide range of both resources and strategies deaf children have for interaction in a variety of educational environments, using modality independent tools. This permits a broader examination of deaf children's opportunities for communication in integrated settings than has previously been undertaken.
The research involved detailed analysis of direct observation data collected in nursery and reception classes over a period of eighteen months, during which time the experiences of a group of deaf children and matched hearing peers were compared and contrasted. It is argued that the preoccupations of professionals, and their purposes in promoting particular approaches to language and communication need to be challenged if deaf children are not to be disabled by oppressive practices in the name of integration. It is recommended that further research should aim to advance inclusive and empowering education for deaf children through more adequately recognizing the contribution of Deaf/deaf people to processes of enquiry
- …