Intonation tutor by SPIRE (In-SPIRE): An Online Tool for an Automatic Feedback to the Second Language Learners in Learning Intonation

Anand P A, Chiranjeevi Yarra, Kausthubha N K and Prasanta Kumar Ghosh

Abstract:

In spoken communication, intonation often conveys meaning of an utterance. Thus, incorrect intonation, typically made by second language (L2) learners, could result in miscommunication. We demonstrate In-SPIRE tool that helps the L2 learners to learn intonation in a self-learning manner. For this, we design an interactive self-explanatory front end, which is also used to send learner`s audio and hand-shake signals to the back-end. At the back-end, we implement a system that takes the learner`s audio against a specific stimuli and computes pitch patterns representing the intonation. For this, we apply pitch stylization on each syllable segment in the audio. Further, we compute a quality score using the learner`s patterns and the respective ground-truth patterns. Finally, the score, the patterns of the learners and the ground-truth are sent to the front-end for display as a feedback to the learners. Thus, the learner could correct any mismatch in his/her intonation with respect to the ground-truth. The proposed tool benefits the learners who do not have access to effective spoken language training.

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Cite as: P A, A., Yarra, C., N K, K., Ghosh, P.K. (2018) Intonation tutor by SPIRE (In-SPIRE): An Online Tool for an Automatic Feedback to the Second Language Learners in Learning Intonation. Proc. Interspeech 2018, 546-547.

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BiBTeX Entry:

@inproceedings{P A2018,
author={Anand {P A} and Chiranjeevi Yarra and Kausthubha {N K} and Prasanta Kumar Ghosh},
title={Intonation tutor by SPIRE (In-SPIRE): An Online Tool for an Automatic Feedback to the Second Language Learners in Learning Intonation},
year=2018,
booktitle={Proc. Interspeech 2018},
pages={546--547} }