Project

Discipline

Translation game; CALL; E-learning; Crowdsourcing; Dialog game; Evaluation; Speech recognition

Lead
L'idée d'utiliser la reconnaissance de la parole pour l'apprentissage des langues est de plus en plus populaire. Les premiers systèmes focalisaient sur la prononciation ; différentes applications permettent aujourd'hui à l'apprenant de dialoguer avec l'ordinateur et lui donnent ainsi la possibibilité d'exercer ses capacités productives. Il reste à démontrer que ce type d'outil a un impact positif et, si oui, quels facteurs influence l'apprentissage. Ce projet vise à examiner systématiquement ces différents facteurs.
Lay summary
L'idée d'utiliser la reconnaissance de la parole pour l'apprentissage des langues est de plus en plus populaire. Les premiers systèmes focalisaient sur la prononciation ; différentes applications permettent aujourd'hui à l'apprenant de dialoguer avec l'ordinateur et lui donnent ainsi la possibilité d'exercer ses capacités productives. Il reste à démontrer que ce type d'outil a un impact positif et, si oui, quels facteurs influencent l'apprentissage. Ce projet vise à examiner systématiquement ces différents facteurs.  Notre point de départ sera l'outil CALL-SLT, développé dans le cadre d'un projet SNF antérieur. Durant la première moitié du projet, nous allons étendre le prototype, en particulier améliorer la reconnaissance vocale et les mécanismes de rétroaction vers l'apprenant, développer de nouvelles leçons en français et en anglais et intégrer le système dans un réseau social. Dans la seconde partie, nous allons mener des évaluations systématiques au collège, dans les universités et sur le Web.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 31.03.2014

Lead
The idea of using speech recognition in Computer-Assisted Language Learning is becoming increasingly popular. Early systems focussed on pronunciation practice; applications are now emerging designed to carry out simple conversations with students and give them the opportunity to practise spontaneous speaking skills. Despite positive anecdotal studies, it still remains to be demonstrated that conversation with a mechanical partner is in fact able to help students acquire language skills, and, if so, which features influence learning outcomes. The current project is aimed at systematic investigation of the issues involved.
Lay summary
The idea of using speech recognition in Computer-Assisted Language Learning is becoming increasingly popular. Early systems focussed on pronunciation practice; applications are now emerging designed to carry out simple conversations with students and give them the opportunity to practise spontaneous speaking skills. Despite positive anecdotal studies, it still remains to be demonstrated that conversation with a mechanical partner is in fact able to help students acquire language skills, and, if so, which features influence learning outcomes. The current project is aimed at systematic investigation of the issues involved. Our starting point is the CALL-SLT system, built under an earlier SNF-funded project. During the first half of the project, we will extend the existing prototype, in particular improving speech recognition and recognition feedback strategies, developing a substantial quantity of new English and French course content, and embedding the system inside a social network. In the second half, we will use these resources to carry out a series of substantial evaluations in secondary schools, universiities and on the web.

Direct link to Lay Summary

Last update: 31.03.2014

Active participation

Active participation

Number	Title	Start	Funding scheme

The idea of using speech recognition in Computer-Assisted Language Learning is becoming increasingly popular. Early systems focussed exclusively on pronunciation practice; now, however, applications are starting to emerge designed to carry out simple conversations with students and give them the opportunity to practice spontaneous speaking skills. Typically, a system of this kind will be deployed on the web, use small-vocabulary recognition, and structure interaction in some kind of game-like way. The novelty of the field, however, means that few solid results have emerged. Despite positive anecdotal studies, it still remains to be demonstrated that systems with these characteristics are in fact able to help students acquire language skills, and, if so, which features influence learning outcomes.Here, we propose a three-year project aimed at systematic investigation of the issues involved. Our starting point will be the CALL-SLT system which we built under an earlier SNF-funded project. We will develop the current CALL-SLT prototype in several directions; the goal is both to extend the state-of-the-art in speech-enabled CALL, and to enhance the system to the point where it will be feasible to carry out the experiments we have in mind. Specifically, we will implement and compare a range of different speech recognition and recognition feedback strategies, develop a flexible framework for specifying script-based interactive dialogue games, use this framework to develop a substantial quantity of course content, and embed the system inside a social network. Content development will focus on English and French as L2s, with a variety of L1s including at least French, German, Italian and English. During the second half of the project, we will use these resources to carry out a series of evaluations in secondary schools, universities and on the web. The web-based evaluations will be designed to contrast different versions of the system against each other and will be performed using crowd-sourcing methods, making it feasible to recruit large enough sets of subjects to perform controlled experiments. The resulting software base, including lingware and courseware, will be made generally available to the community in fully documented Open Source form. We will also release annotated learner speech corpora collected during the experiments.