• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2005

This paper introduces a 'Hanmal' Korean language diphone database for speech synthesis, which has been publicly available since 1999 in the MBROLA web site and never been properly published in a journal. The diphone database is compatible with the MBROLA programme of high-quality multilingual speech synthesis systems. The usefulness of the diphone database is introduced in the paper. The paper also describes the phonetic and phonological structure of the database, showing the process of creating a text corpus. A machine-readable Korean SAMPA convention for the control data input to the MBROLA application is also suggested. Diphone concatenation and prosody manipulation are performed using the MBR-PSOLA algorithm. A set of segment duration models can be applied to the diphone synthesis of Korean.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.287-293
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• 2024

This research studied the cognitive impact of classes using artificial intelligence on aviation technical school students. First, we developed a class consisting of a class based on traditional presentation materials and a class composed of speech-to-text (STT)-based artificial intelligence materials. A 133 students from an aviation education institution participated in two types of classes. We measured students' cognitive load and Mind Wandering test results before and after class, and conducted an achievement evaluation. As a result of the test analysis, we confirmed that extraneous cognitive load was reduced, content concentration increased, and achievement improved. In the future, we hope that AI-based STT classes will be widely used in schools that teach technology.

• Journal of Korean Clinical Health Science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1469-1477
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the understanding about speech therapy and the satisfaction of counseling about speech therapy according to the characteristics of mothers who have children with disabilities, and to devise the clinical instruction methods to provide the effective speech therapy by identifying the correlation between the two variables. Methods: This study conducted a survey for 78 mothers of children with disabilities who use speech therapy labs in university. 17 questions were composed to investigate the understanding degree about speech therapy and 24 questions were composed to investigate the satisfaction degree about speech therapy counseling. Results: First, the survey showed that mothers who have the higher education level have the higher understanding degree about language(p<0.01). Second, the survey showed that mothers who have the higher education level have the lower satisfaction degree about counseling process(p<0.5). In the view of job status, mothers who have a job have the higher satisfaction degree about counseling time(p<0.5). Third, the survey showed that in the view of mothers'understanding degree about speech therapy and satisfaction degree about counseling, mothers who have the higher understanding degree about language, speech therapy tools and speech therapy area have the higher satisfaction degree about counseling. Conclusions: This study showed the necessity to understand the subjects'needs exactly and communicate with mothers actively. In addition, the concrete and various methods should be devised in order to increase the understanding degree about speech therapy and increase the satisfaction degree of counseling about the clinical practice environment and language therapy process.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.13-20
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• 2023

This study explores the potential of automated speech recognition (ASR) in assessing English learners' pronunciation. We employed ASR technology, acknowledged for its impartiality and consistent results, to analyze speech audio files, including synthesized speech, both native-like English and Korean-accented English, and speech recordings from a native English speaker. Through this analysis, we establish baseline values for the word error rate (WER). These were then compared with those obtained for human raters in perception experiments that assessed the speech productions of 30 first-year college students before and after taking a pronunciation course. Our sub-group analyses revealed positive training effects for Whisper, an ASR tool, and human raters, and identified distinct human rater strategies in different assessment aspects, such as proficiency, intelligibility, accuracy, and comprehensibility, that were not observed in ASR. Despite such challenges as recognizing accented speech traits, our findings suggest that digital tools such as ASR can streamline the pronunciation assessment process. With ongoing advancements in ASR technology, its potential as not only an assessment aid but also a self-directed learning tool for pronunciation feedback merits further exploration.

• Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.73-85
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• 2016

Speech-print mapping awareness is defined as the awareness of the principles underpinning how speech sound is matched to print symbols. Chinese is unique in that it follows the one syllable one character mapping principle. The present study examined the predictive power of speech-print mapping awareness in young children's word reading. Seventy-four Hong Kong children from the first and second kindergarten years were tested with phonological awareness, visual skills, syllable-level mapping awareness, and Chinese reading ability at Time 1. Chinese reading abilities were tested again 1 year later. It was found that syllable-level mapping awareness predicted Chinese word reading abilities 12 months later. Further, it seemed that the link of syllable mapping to Chinese reading is particularly significant for beginning readers. The findings suggest that understanding the language-specific speech-print mapping principle is critical for reading acquisition at the early stage of reading development.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.43-51
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to survey Speech-Language Pathologists' perception on evaluation and treatment of "swallowing disorders". An online questionnaire was sent to the 279 subjects attending undergraduate/graduate programs in speech therapy department and/or SLPs who work in various settings. The survey consisted of three parts: 1) background information and educational/clinical experiences that are associated with dysphagia (swallowing disorder), 2) the current state of diagnosis and treatment of dysphagia of clinical practice (certified SLPs only), 3) the recognition of diagnosis, treatment, education for dysphagia. Each item of the survey was scaled by the participants on a five-point Likert scale of 1 to 5 (1 being not at all and 5 being extremely) or self-reported answers. The results of the survey showed that SLPs have high interest in "swallowing disorder", but most of them regarded them very difficult to diagnose and treat. The reason is that they have not been trained as a swallowing specialist. Therefore it is necessary to provide more opportunities for education and practice to establish the expertise of SLPs.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.41-53
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to determine how elementary school students' self-acceptance, social support and internal locus of control affect their speech anxiety. A questionnaire survey was distributed to 570 fifth and sixth graders attending 4 elementary schools located in Seoul. A total of 534 surveys were completed and were analyzed with SPSS WIN 12.0 including frequency test, t-test, Pearson's correlations analysis, simultaneous multiple regression and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The findings of this study are summarized as follows. First, among self-acceptance, social support, internal locus of control and speech anxiety, gender affected speech anxiety. Second, speech anxiety was most affected by self-acceptance, followed by social support, internal locus of control and gender in the order of mention. Third, social support had moderating effects on the relationship between self-acceptance and speech anxiety.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.137-168
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to prepare the basis for a more objective evaluation of oral fluency by comparing speech patterns of Korean native speakers and L2 Korean learners. For this purpose, the current study focused on the analysis of speech materials of the 21st century Sejong spoken corpus and Korean learner corpus. We compared the oral fluency of Korean native speakers and Korean learners based on speech rate, pause, and discourse markers. The results show that the pattern of Korean learners is different to that of Korean native speakers in all aspects of speech rate, pause, and discourse markers; even though proficiency of Korean leaners show increase, they could not reach the oral fluency level of Korean native speakers. At last, based on these results of the analysis, we added suggestions for setting the evaluation criteria of oral fluency of Korean learners.

• Journal of Korean language education
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.255-292
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• 2018

Most grading scales of Korean language proficiency tests are based on existing grading scales that are not empirically verified. The purpose of this study is to develop an empirically verified scale descriptor. The 'Performance data-driven approach' that is suggested by Fulcher (1987) was used to develop the detailed description of characteristics for each level of performance. This study is focused on the functional phase of speech samples analysis (coding data) to create explanatory categories of discourse skills into which individual observations of speech phenomena can be scored. The speech samples that were collected through this study demonstrated stages of speech that can be a foundation of a grading scale. The data used in the study was collected from 23 native speakers of Korean. Speech samples were recorded from simulated speaking tests using the 'REFUSAL' task, and transcribed for analysis. The transcript was analyzed using discourse analysis. The result showed that the 'REFUSAL' task needs to go through four functional phases in actual communication. Furthermore, this study found specific and detailed explanatory categories of discourse competence based on the actual native speaker's speech data. Such findings are expected to contribute to the development of more valid and reliable speaking assessment.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.19-25
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• 2020

This study examined thirty-one Korean students' pronunciation of an English passage using a speech recognition application, Speechnotes, and two Canadian raters' evaluations of their speech according to the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) band criteria to assess the possibility of using the application as a teaching aid for pronunciation education. The results showed that the grand average percentage of correctly recognized words was 77.7%. From the moderate recognition rate, the pronunciation level of the participants was construed as intermediate and higher. The recognition rate varied depending on the composition of the content words and the function words in each given sentence. Frequency counts of unrecognized words by group level and word type revealed the typical pronunciation problems of the participants, including fricatives and nasals. The IELTS bands chosen by the two native raters for the rainbow passage had a moderately high correlation with each other. A moderate correlation was reported between the number of correctly recognized content words and the raters' bands, while an almost a negligible correlation was found between the function words and the raters' bands. From these results, the author concludes that the speech recognition application could constitute a partial aid for diagnosing each individual's or the group's pronunciation problems, but further studies are still needed to match human raters.