Systems and methods for assessment of non-native spontaneous speech

摘要

Computer-implemented systems and methods are provided for assessing non-native spontaneous speech pronunciation. Speech recognition on digitized speech is performed using a non-native acoustic model trained with non-native speech to generate word hypotheses for the digitized speech. Time alignment is performed between the digitized speech and the word hypotheses using a reference acoustic model trained with native-quality speech. Statistics are calculated regarding individual words and phonemes in the word hypotheses based on the alignment. A plurality of features for use in assessing pronunciation of the speech are calculated based on the statistics, an assessment score is calculated based on one or more of the calculated features, and the assessment score is stored in a computer-readable memory.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method of assessing speech pronunciation, comprising:
receiving speech for analysis via a computer-readable storage medium; performing automatic speech recognition on speech using a processor to generate word hypotheses for the speech, the word hypotheses identifying a set words recognized by an automated speech recognizer in the speech using one or more data processors; performing time alignment between the speech and the word hypotheses using the automatic speech recognizer to associate the word hypotheses with corresponding sounds of the speech; calculating statistics regarding individual words and phonemes of the word hypotheses using the processor based on said alignment; calculating a plurality of features for use in assessing pronunciation of the speech based on the statistics using the processor; and calculating an assessment score based on one or more of the calculated features.