Improved mixed language speech recognition using asymmetric acoustic model and language model with code-switch inversion constraints

Abstract

We propose an integrated framework for large vocabulary continuous mixed language speech recognition that handles the accent effect in the bilingual acoustic model and the inversion constraint well known to linguists in the language model. Our asymmetric acoustic model with phone set extension improves upon previous work by striking a balance between data and phonetic knowledge. Our language model improves upon previous work by (1) using the inversion constraint to predict code switching points in the mixed language and (2) integrating a code-switch prediction model, a translation model and a reconstruction model together. This integration means that our language model avoids the pitfall of propagated error that could arise from decoupling these steps. Finally, a WFST-based decoder integrates the acoustic models, code-switch language model and a monolingual language model in the matrix language all together. Our system reduces word error rate by 1.88% on a lecture speech corpus and by 2.43% on a lunch conversation corpus, with statistical significance, over the conventional bilingual acoustic model and interpolated language model.