Preserving Endangered Languages using a Layered Web-based Archive

Many human languages, an essential part of culture, are in danger of extinction. UNESCO estimates that at least a half of the world's 6500 spoken languages will disappear within the next 100 years. This problem can be addressed to some extent by computer systems that collect, archive and disseminate dictionaries for various languages, thus performing the key function of preservation. The approach taken in this project was to develop a Web-based multilingual thesaurus, with mechanisms for the submission and retrieval of language data and metadata. This thesaurus was built on top of the FEDORA Web-based digital repository toolkit. Two distinct user interfaces were then developed as part of a proof of concept language preservation system, namely a Web interface and a cell phone interface. These were created using AJAX and J2ME+GPRS respectively. Both user interfaces were designed using an iterative User-Centred Design approach, and the back-end system was designed to meet the needs of the user interfaces, with a Web-based API. The resulting system proved to be useful as users indicated that they could preserve spoken languages by submitting and retrieving words in their own languages. The independent successful evaluations of the 2 user interfaces together demonstrate the feasibility of creating a preservation-directed archive as a layered Web-based digital repository, where the preservation function is separable and accessible through a well-defined Web-based API

Improving english language learners' public speaking performance using online peer feedback

The ubiquitous use of peer feedback in a public speaking course is lending a new level of credence as an educational tool. However, little is known about its efficacy in an online environment. To address this gap, the present study investigated the usage of online peer feedback within an Online Public Speaking Course (OPSC) website which was developed to allow students to interact within the context of giving and receiving feedback and practicing their own public speaking. Using a qualitative phenomenological research design, the study investigated i) types of online peer feedback, ii) students’ experience of using these feedbacks, and iii) changes in the students’ public speaking performance. Students were required to present public speaking, upload on the OPSC website for peers’ feedback and revised their speech. Evaluation of the students’ speech performance, online peer feedback record, students’ journal entries and semistructured focus group interview were the source of data collection. Results of the study showed firstly, students use three types of online peer feedback; Corrective, Motivational and Graphical feedback. Secondly, online peer feedback provided students the experience of i) better confidence level, ii) independent learning, iii) discussion among peers, and iv) infinite revision opportunities. Thirdly, online peer feedback improved students’ engagement with the audience with better i) delivery and voice control skills, ii) language and proficiency skills, and iii) organized presentation skills. It is recommended that all public speaking instructors, teachers and trainers experience online peer feedback in public speaking course as the study has provided innovative ways in the methodology of public speaking skills

Evaluating the Contributions of Video Representation for a Life Oral History Collection

Computer Science Departmen

Exposing the hidden vocal channel: Analysis of vocal expression

This dissertation explored perception and modeling of human vocal expression, and began by asking what people heard in expressive speech. To address this fundamental question, clips from Shakespearian soliloquy and from the Library of Congress Veterans Oral History Collection were presented to Mechanical Turk workers (10 per clip); and the workers were asked to provide 1-3 keywords describing the vocal expression in the voice. The resulting keywords described prosody, voice quality, nonverbal quality, and emotion in the voice, along with the conversational style, and personal qualities attributed to the speaker. More than half of the keywords described emotion, and were wide-ranging and nuanced. In contrast, keywords describing prosody and voice quality reduced to a short list of frequently-repeating vocal elements. Given this description of perceived vocal expression, a 3-step process was used to model vocal qualities which listeners most frequently perceived. This process included 1) an interactive analysis across each condition to discover its distinguishing characteristics, 2) feature selection and evaluation via unequal variance sensitivity measurements and examination of means and 2-sigma variances across conditions, and 3) iterative, incremental classifier training and validation. The resulting models performed at 2-3.5 times chance. More importantly, the analysis revealed a continuum relationship across whispering, breathiness, modal speech, and resonance, and revealed multiple spectral sub-types of breathiness, modal speech, resonance, and creaky voice. Finally, latent semantic analysis (LSA) applied to the crowdsourced keyword descriptors enabled organic discovery of expressive dimensions present in each corpus, and revealed relationships among perceived voice qualities and emotions within each dimension and across the corpora. The resulting dimensional classifiers performed at up to 3 times chance, and a second study presented a dimensional analysis of laughter. This research produced a new way of exploring emotion in the voice, and of examining relationships among emotion, prosody, voice quality, conversation quality, personal quality, and other expressive vocal elements. For future work, this perception-grounded fusion of crowdsourcing and LSA technique can be applied to anything humans can describe, in any research domain