License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.SLATE.2023.7
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-185218
URL: http://dagstuhl.sunsite.rwth-aachen.de/volltexte/2023/18521/
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Wills, Simone ; Bai, Yu ; Tejedor-García, Cristian ; Cucchiarini, Catia ; Strik, Helmer

Automatic Speech Recognition of Non-Native Child Speech for Language Learning Applications (Short Paper)

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OASIcs-SLATE-2023-7.pdf (0.5 MB)

Abstract

Voicebots have provided a new avenue for supporting the development of language skills, particularly within the context of second language learning. Voicebots, though, have largely been geared towards native adult speakers. We sought to assess the performance of two state-of-the-art ASR systems, Wav2Vec2.0 and Whisper AI, with a view to developing a voicebot that can support children acquiring a foreign language. We evaluated their performance on read and extemporaneous speech of native and non-native Dutch children. We also investigated the utility of using ASR technology to provide insight into the children’s pronunciation and fluency. The results show that recent, pre-trained ASR transformer-based models achieve acceptable performance from which detailed feedback on phoneme pronunciation quality can be extracted, despite the challenging nature of child and non-native speech.

BibTeX - Entry

@InProceedings{wills_et_al:OASIcs.SLATE.2023.7,
  author =	{Wills, Simone and Bai, Yu and Tejedor-Garc{\'\i}a, Cristian and Cucchiarini, Catia and Strik, Helmer},
  title =	{{Automatic Speech Recognition of Non-Native Child Speech for Language Learning Applications}},
  booktitle =	{12th Symposium on Languages, Applications and Technologies (SLATE 2023)},
  pages =	{7:1--7:8},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-291-4},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{113},
  editor =	{Sim\~{o}es, Alberto and Ber\'{o}n, Mario Marcelo and Portela, Filipe},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2023/18521},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-185218},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.SLATE.2023.7},
  annote =	{Keywords: Automatic Speech Recognition, ASR, Child Speech, Non-Native Speech, Human-computer Interaction, Whisper, Wav2Vec2.0}
}

Keywords: Automatic Speech Recognition, ASR, Child Speech, Non-Native Speech, Human-computer Interaction, Whisper, Wav2Vec2.0
Collection: 12th Symposium on Languages, Applications and Technologies (SLATE 2023)
Issue Date: 2023
Date of publication: 15.08.2023

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