A sentence‐level speech training system for hearing‐impaired children

Abstract

Hearing‐impaired children, or even adults, cannot necessarily pronounce words or sentences fluently, even though they can clearly articulate individual vowels. The system described here aims at helping teachers train hearing‐impaired children by showing the differences between the children's pronunciations and the correct ones given by teachers. The system displays the speech waveform uttered by a trainee, together with several useful correlates including frequency spectra, vocal tract area functions, and the phonetic symbols for estimated vowels. The lateral shapes of the vocal tract are also estimated for vowel segments and displayed together with the correct shapes so that the trainee can practice the correct articulation of vowels referring to the place of articulation and the lip opening. The fundamental frequency contour and the waveform envelope of the trainee's speech are also displayed together with the teacher's, so that the trainee can practice pronunciations with correct prosody. This system is designed so as to be used also for self‐training by older children with hearing impairment.