Feature Brief

Speech Recognition & Pronunciation Practice

Summary The GlobalEnglish Corporate Learning Service uses the most advanced speech recognition technology in the industry.

Learners receive immediate word and sound feedback on their English pronunciation and are directed to remediation exercises that target the individual sounds that were dicult for them. This approach allows learners to identify and address specic pronunciation problem areas, increasing their ability to communicate eectively in spoken English.

Over the past year we surveyed more than 30,000 GlobalEnglish learners from leading global companies across the world, and speaking was cited as the most important skill learners wanted to improve. More specically, learners reported needing better communication skills to converse with both native and non-native speakers of English.

In response to this need, GlobalEnglish has incorporated the innovative EduSpeak speech recognition engine* into the Corporate Learning Service to help learners identify their speaking mistakes, practice pronunciation within a conversational context, participate in specic remediation practice, and track their progress. Our technology is sensitive to a broad range of accents and uses a composite of 1,500 male and female voices to ensure accurate evaluation of native and non-native speakers. The technology provides immediate feedback to learners and tracks the pronunciation of individual sounds to determine where more practice is needed. A customized list of sounds identied as troublesome is continually updated based on the learners individual performance.

* EduSpeak speech recognition software is licensed from SRI Internationals Speech Technology and Research (STAR) Laboratory, which is recognized as a world-leading speech technology organization.

Speech Recognition & Pronunciation Practice | Feature Brief

A New Type of Speech Recognition

EduSpeak has been specically developed to allow for variances of intelligibility, so GlobalEnglish learners are provided with feedback that is neither gender specic nor specic to speakers with a particular accent. Rather than just comparing learners speech to that of a native speaker or matching recordings with native speaker models, this technology identies elements that interfere with clarity and steers learners to focus on these elements.

A Thorough Learning Experience with Feedback

The implementation of speech recognition technology within the Corporate Learning Service enables learners to identify specic sounds that are impeding their pronunciation and also to improve their overall ability to be understood in English.

Learners receive immediate word-level feedback on their pronunciation of a phrase or sentence, indicating the accuracy of their pronunciation and how well they were understood. Learners can also listen to the recording and compare their pronunciation to that of a native speaker, and they can practice as many times as they would like.

The engine also identies specic problem sounds (phonemes) while evaluating learners pronunciation. These sounds are saved in a customized menu so that learners can be immediately directed to targeted practice activities for those phonemes. In addition, the problem phonemes continue to be tracked as learners progress through the service, so learners always have immediate access to practice activities for the specic sounds that are dicult for them.

Learners also have the opportunity to practice speaking in the context of business conversations. In the Communication Practice activities, learners use the grammar, expressions, and vocabulary theyve learned in an assignment to participate in a dialogue. The speech recognition engine determines whether or not learners provided the correct response and were understood.

Speech Recognition & Pronunciation Practice | Feature Brief

Specic Remediation Exercises

The additional pronunciation exercises provide detailed diagrams and animated mouth models to demonstrate how each sound is produced. Audio recordings demonstrate how the sounds should be pronounced when used in multiple words. This not only helps learners improve their pronunciation, but it also helps them distinguish among various similar sounds, enhancing their ability to listen eectively.

Learners receive customized guidance in using the remediation exercises, as the sounds that are typically dicult for speakers of their native language are highlighted, encouraging learners to focus on those sounds.

Learners can also work on their stress, rhythm, and intonation through the use of movies and targeted activities so they can increase their condence in all areas of spoken English.

Further Opportunities
Since so many spoken interactions occur between non-native speakers of English, the GlobalEnglish Corporate Learning Service includes audio recordings of diverse speakers of English with dierent accents and dialects from around the world, enabling learners to listen to important variations of spoken English. The Hear-It tool is also persistently available in the Corporate Learning Service and on the GlobalEnglish Productivity Toolbar that sits in an Internet browser so learners can easily listen to any text read aloud at various speeds and in several dierent English accents.

About SRI International

SRI Internationals Speech Technology and Research (STAR) Laboratory is recognized as a world-leading speech technology organization. Its sta includes engineers, computer scientists, and linguists, oering a ne balance of the skills required for leading-edge development. The EduSpeak SDK is a speech recognition system for computer learning and training applications such as foreign language education, English as a second language (ESL), reading development and interactive tutoring, and corporate training and simulation. SRIs patented pronunciation scoring technology provides feedback to language learners to help them compare how their spoken word or phrase pronunciation compares with that of a native speaker of the language they are learning.

Copyright 2010 GlobalEnglish Corporation. All rights reserved. GlobalEnglish and the GlobalEnglish logo are registered trademarks of GlobalEnglish Corporation, and the GlobalEnglish Corporate Learning Service and GlobalEnglish Productivity Toolbar are trademarks of GlobalEnglish Corporation in the United States and certain other countries. SRI International, the SRI International logo, EduSpeak, and the EduSpeak logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of SRI International. Flash is a registered trademark of Adobe Corporation. All other products and brand names are the trademarks of their respective owners.