Systems and Methods for an Automated Pronunciation Assessment System for Similar Vowel Pairs
- Author(s):
- Evanini, Keelan
- Patent Issued:
- Nov 08, 2016
- Patent Number:
- 9,489,864
- Source:
- ETS Patent
- Document Type:
- Patent
- Family ID:
- 51061670
- Subject/Key Words:
- Patent, Active Patent, Pronunciation, Non-Native Speakers, Automated Scoring of Speech, Automatic Speech Recognition, Automated Scoring and Natural Language Processing, Vowel Quality
Abstract
Computer-implemented systems and methods are provided for assessing non-native speech proficiency. A non-native speech sample is processed to identify a plurality of vowel sound boundaries in the non-native speech sample. Portions of the non-native speech sample are analyzed within the vowel sound boundaries to extract vowel characteristics associated with a first vowel sound and a second vowel sound represented in the non-native speech sample. The vowel characteristics are processed to identify a first vowel pronunciation metric for the first vowel sound and a second vowel pronunciation metric for the second vowel sound, and the first vowel pronunciation metric and the second vowel pronunciation metric are processed to determine whether the non-native speech sample exhibits a distinction in pronunciation of the first vowel sound and the second vowel sound.