Echoic Research Articles

Teaching Listening Skills to EFL Students Using AI-Driven Technology-Based Media

The aim of this paper is to find how much AI can be useful or as an aid in developing listening skill. A review has been made to past studies as well as the recent developments and innovations made by linguists and teaching community, yielding relevant observations. The present writing is an attempt at exhibiting how much the latest technology is effective which has been tailor-made to suit determined purpose directed at developing the listening skills of EFL learners. It is well established being significant and continues to gain importance in serving needs of education, sparking interest among students and teachers, the latter for innovating delivery of lessons. Teaching EFL college level students uses English as the medium of instruction for language teaching subjects. It is, however, noticed that difficulties crop up at school, where the students use native language for learning syllabi-related subjects, and where it is noticed that there is low comprehension capacity in the learners that needs to be pushed up to learn second language with success. The present research effort has brought to light the difficulties experienced by students in English learning as they struggle to reach a reasonable level of learning with success. This is despite there being other materials to use where old/traditional system is otherwise thought adequate. Modern approaches were brought into use by which AI-powered tools have removed difficulties they used to experience learning the traditional way resorting to written prescribed books; they experienced that books were monotonous and boring. The researchers made quite a few studies in different educational institutions and recognized the ability of AI aided media to make listening skill learning and teaching of English interesting and easy. AI has enabled educators to develop material and make it user-friendly and student-oriented for facilitating language learning easy. Language Listening builds enhanced capacity enabling EFL students to hear sounds of words of English using AI-aided tools. The present paper has discovered the utility of modern virtual tools as significant in facilitating learners’ success in developed listening skill. Tools which are created using AI have proved very help as they extend tremendous help in increasing and developing practical listening skills of not only the teachers but also, and primarily, the EFL students.

Speech sound development of young Dutch children with a developmental language disorder: A complex matter.

Approximately 50% of all young children with a developmental language disorder (DLD) also have problems with speech production. Research on speech sound development and clinical diagnostics of speech production difficulties focuses mostly on accuracy; it relates children's phonological realizations to adult models. Contrarily to these relational analyses, independent analyses indicate the sounds and structures children produce irrespective of accuracy. Such analyses are likely to provide more insight into a child's phonological strengths and limitations, and may thus provide better leads for treatment. Ram (1) To contribute to a more comprehensive overview of the speech sound development of young Dutch children with DLD by including independent and relational analyses, (2) to develop an independent measure to assess these children's speech production capacities; and (3) to examine the relation between independent and relational speech production measures for children with DLD. We describe the syllable structures and sounds of words elicited in two picture-naming tasks of 82 children with DLD and speech production difficulties between ages 2;7 and 6;8. The children were divided into four age groups to examine developmental patterns in a cross-sectional manner. Overviews of the children's productions on both independent and relational measures are provided. We conducted a Spearman correlation analysis to examine the relation between accuracy and independent measures. The overviews show these children are able to produce a greater variety of syllable structures and consonants irrespective of target positions than they can produce correctly in targets. This is especially true for children below the age of 4;5. The data indicate that children with DLD have difficulty with the production of clusters, fricatives, liquids and the velar nasal (/ŋ/). Based on existing literature and our results, we designed a Dutch version of an independent measure of word complexity, originally designed for English (word complexity measure-WCM) in which word productions receive points for specific word, syllable and sound characteristics, irrespective of accuracy. We found a strong positive correlation between accuracy scores and scores on this independent measure. The results indicate that the use of independent measures, including the proposed WCM, complement traditional relational measures by indicating which sounds and syllable structures a child can produce (irrespective of correctness). Therefore, the proposed measure can be used to monitor the speech sound development of children with DLD and to better identify treatment goals, in combination with existing relational measures. What is already known on the subject Speech production skills can be assessed in different ways: (1) using analyses indicating the structures and sounds a child produces irrespective of accuracy, that is, performance analyses; and (2) using analyses indicating how the productions of a child relate to the adult targets, that is, accuracy analyses. In scientific research as well as in clinical practice the focus is most often on accuracy analyses. As a consequence, we do not know if children who do not improve in accuracy scores, improve in other phonological aspects that are not captured in these analyses, but can be captured by performance analyses. What this study adds to the existing knowledge The overviews show these children are able to produce a greater variety of syllable structures and consonants irrespective of target positions than they can produce correctly in targets. Consequently, adding performance analyses to existing accuracy analyses provides a more complete picture of a child's speech sound development. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? We propose a Dutch version of a WCM, originally designed for English, in which word productions receive points for word structures, syllable structures and sounds, irrespective of accuracy. This measure may be used by Dutch clinicians to monitor the speech sound development of children with DLD and to formulate better treatment goals, in addition to accuracy measures that are already used.

Evaluasi Pembelajaran Menyimak di Kelas Tinggi

Listening skills also influence students' writing skills. In every writing lesson, students need inspiration through information or stories they hear from teachers or other people. Therefore, listening skills are correlated with writing skills. Furthermore, the connection between listening skills and reading lies in the pronunciation of the sound of a word. Without listening, students cannot identify the sounds of words so they may not be able to read. The important role of evaluating language learning in elementary schools is to become the basis for decision making and policy making, measuring student achievement, evaluating the curriculum, accrediting schools, monitoring the use of public funds, improving educational materials and programs. Learning evaluation functions for development and accreditation. In conducting language learning evaluations in elementary schools, test and non-test techniques can be used. The purpose of assessing listening skills learning is to find out whether everything experienced by students in learning is in accordance with basic competencies, especially indicators. Learning evaluation is divided into four types of evaluation, namely, Formative Evaluation, Summative Evaluation, Diagnostic Evaluation and Placement Evaluation.

Is Phonological-Only Instruction Helpful for Reading?: A Meta-Analysis

ABSTRACT Purpose Phonological awareness (PA), the awareness of sounds in spoken words, is strongly linked to reading outcomes. However, there is an ongoing debate regarding the effectiveness of PA instruction without including print (i.e. PA without exposure to words or letters). Specifically, is PA-only instruction just as effective in improving reading outcomes when compared to print-based instruction (e.g. phonics)? Method Robust variance estimation was used to examine the effectiveness of PA-only instruction across 38 independent studies and 293 effect sizes. The sample consisted of 3,880 participants in preschool through first grade. The average age of participants was 5 years 7 months. Moderator analysis were conducted to examine differences in effect across outcomes, comparison conditions and participant characteristics. Results PA-only instruction had a moderate overall effect (g = 0.57, 95% CI [0.40, 0.74], p < .001) on reading-related outcomes. PA-only instruction was less effective when compared to print-based instruction (g = −0.54, 95% CI [−0.80, −0.27], p < .001) and less effective for word reading outcomes (g = -0.33, 95% CI [−0.66, −0.01], p = .05) than for PA outcomes (g = 0.64, 95% CI [0.44, 0.84], p < .001). Conclusion PA-only instruction can be beneficial for reading-related outcomes, but the effect varies depending on two important contextual factors: 1) the reading outcome type and 2) the comparison condition. Specifically, PA-only instruction might be less effective in improving word reading outcomes than PA outcomes. In addition, it has less of an effect on reading-related outcomes when compared to print-based instruction like phonics.

A perceptual similarity space for speech based on self-supervised speech representations.

Speech recognition by both humans and machines frequently fails in non-optimal yet common situations. For example, word recognition error rates for second-language (L2) speech can be high, especially under conditions involving background noise. At the same time, both human and machine speech recognition sometimes shows remarkable robustness against signal- and noise-related degradation. Which acoustic features of speech explain this substantial variation in intelligibility? Current approaches align speech to text to extract a small set of pre-defined spectro-temporal properties from specific sounds in particular words. However, variation in these properties leaves much cross-talker variation in intelligibility unexplained. We examine an alternative approach utilizing a perceptual similarity space acquired using self-supervised learning. This approach encodes distinctions between speech samples without requiring pre-defined acoustic features or speech-to-text alignment. We show that L2 English speech samples are less tightly clustered in the space than L1 samples reflecting variability in English proficiency among L2 talkers. Critically, distances in this similarity space are perceptually meaningful: L1 English listeners have lower recognition accuracy for L2 speakers whose speech is more distant in the space from L1 speech. These results indicate that perceptual similarity may form the basis for an entirely new speech and language analysis approach.

Introduction to Magic E in Reading English Words CVCe

English vowels consist of five letters that have different pronunciations (sounds) in English words. There are 20 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds in English. It is a challenge for English teachers to teach English learners the concept of reading English words. English vowels with the symbols a, i, u, e, and o have different pronunciations when they are positioned between consonants in the word CVC and when the word CVC is added by the letter e in the word CVCe. Therefore, this paper analyzed the influence of the letter e (which is referred to as magic e) in the pronunciation of English vowel sounds. This research is qualitative research with documentation study methods to analyze and explain how the vowel sounds are pronounced in CVC and CVCe words so that English reading teaching steps are obtained that are easy to understand. The results showed that English vowels were pronounced as short vowel sounds in CVC words and pronounced as long vowel sounds in CVCe words. The steps to teach magic e that can be applied are to repeat the short vowel sound material, introduce the concept of sounds and letters, introduce the concept of short and long vowel sounds, read two words similar in the concept of CVC and CVCe, and practice reading the word CVCe regularly.

Обучение хорватских учащихся лексике русского языка с опорой на родной язык

This article discusses the main reasons underlying the difficulties and errors experienced by Croatian native speakers in mastering the lexical structure of another Slavic language, specifically Russian, in the initial stage of learning. The author's attention is focused on the student’s substitution of meanings of lexical units in Russian with words of the native language, due to interlingual or linguistic paronymy. In teaching Russian to Croatian native speakers, it is important to maintain the thematic and situational principle of teaching, the principle of sufficiency, and the principle of relying on the mother tongue. This paper provides examples of effective vocabulary mastering: the use of visual clarity, reliance on similar sounding words in the native language, internationalisms, archaisms, application of the tacit (implicit) knowledge mechanism, unconscious reliance on equivalent, similar sounding words from close South Slavic languages, particularly Serbian and Slovenian (as positive interference). Attention is focused on the development of logical thinking and independence, the correct use of the dictionary, and working with audio recordings and video materials. The article focuses on words with connotative meaning, linguocultural lexis, non-equivalent and partially equivalent lexis, and speech etiquette.

Subtitled speech: the neural mechanisms of ticker-tape synaesthesia.

The acquisition of reading modifies areas of the brain associated with vision and with language, in addition to their connections. These changes enable reciprocal translation between orthography and the sounds and meaning of words. Individual variability in the pre-existing cerebral substrate contributes to the range of eventual reading abilities, extending to atypical developmental patterns, including dyslexia and reading-related synaesthesias. The present study is devoted to the little-studied but highly informative ticker-tape synaesthesia, in which speech perception triggers the vivid and irrepressible perception of words in their written form in the mind's eye. We scanned a group of 17 synaesthetes and 17 matched controls with functional MRI, while they listened to spoken sentences, words, numbers or pseudowords (Experiment 1), viewed images and written words (Experiment 2) or were at rest (Experiment 3). First, we found direct correlates of the ticker-tape synaesthesia phenomenon: during speech perception, as ticker-tape synaesthesia was active, synaesthetes showed over-activation of left perisylvian regions supporting phonology and of the occipitotemporal visual word form area, where orthography is represented. Second, we provided support to the hypothesis that ticker-tape synaesthesia results from atypical relationships between spoken and written language processing: the ticker-tape synaesthesia-related regions overlap closely with cortices activated during reading, and the overlap of speech-related and reading-related areas is larger in synaesthetes than in controls. Furthermore, the regions over-activated in ticker-tape synaesthesia overlap with regions under-activated in dyslexia. Third, during the resting state (i.e. in the absence of current ticker-tape synaesthesia), synaesthetes showed increased functional connectivity between left prefrontal and bilateral occipital regions. This pattern might reflect a lowered threshold for conscious access to visual mental contents and might imply a non-specific predisposition to all synaesthesias with a visual content. These data provide a rich and coherent account of ticker-tape synaesthesia as a non-detrimental developmental condition created by the interaction of reading acquisition with an atypical cerebral substrate.

A closer look at ankyloglossia in children—A case series

ABSTRACT Ankyloglossia, often known as tongue-tie, is characterized by a small lingual frenum that obstructs normal tongue movement. It is a rare congenital oral abnormality. The most significant clinical symptom of movement restriction is evaluated clinically by requesting the patient to protrude and elevate their tongues, where the “heart-shaped” tongue can be seen. In children, ankyloglossia can lead to breastfeeding difficulties, speech disorders, poor oral hygiene, and bullying during childhood and adolescence. Regarding the management of ankyloglossia and its clinical importance, there are always divergent views. For successful outcomes, postoperative tongue exercises and speech therapy are essential. These treatments can also measure tongue motions to examine the sounds of letters and words. Recently, the laser approach has been frequently used in dentistry to treat children with ankyloglossia. The present clinical case series of ankyloglossia in children describes a variety of treatments, including electrocautery, laser, and scalpel. Kotlow’s classification, the patient’s age, and patient cooperation played a role in the treatment decision. All of the surgical methods described are effective, but they all call for a trained expert. Both the laser and the electrocautery methods were regarded as suitable for children and safe processes. This case series highlights the significance of early tongue-tie diagnosis and treatment to avoid complications and facilitate improvement in eating and speaking issues. Considering children’s fear and anxiety, laser frenectomy provides a more efficient and comfortable treatment for both the child patient and the dentist when compared to the other two methods.

Phonological Variation in Hawrami subDialect of Kurdish Language

This paper is entitled (Phonological Changes in Hawrami Dialect (A Current Descriptive Study)). It is to identify the phonological changes that occur in the sounds of everyday words and terms of speakers of different classes of this dialect, in the different environments of their appearance in the structure of morphemes and words. It also identifies the characteristics and causes of these changes and analyzes the laws that occur in these sound changes. With the classification of the types of changes and the most important structural changes, such as compatibility (complete and incomplete), incompatibility, fall, sound formation, sound change, displacement, sound separation. Also point out the causes of their occurrence such as (gravey noise, obesity, bilibials, palatal, vocal cords and place of articulation, etc). with their place of articulation at the beginning or middle or end of words and their classification into consonants and vowels.In addition to the introduction, conclusions and sources, the research is divided into two parts: the first part consists of phonology and phonemes, rules of sentence structure, characteristics and causes of phonological changes. The second section discusses phonological changes and their types and identifies structural changes.

ANALISIS KESALAHAN FONOLOGI PADA FILM BAHASA SANTRI “INTHIQ RASMIYYATAN” DAN RELEVANSINYA TERHADAP PEMBELAJARAN BAHASA ARAB

&lt;p style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;This research aims to find out the various forms of phonological errors that occur in the Arabic language film entitled Inthiq Rasmiyyatan and the causes of these phonological errors. The research method used in this research is descriptive qualitative with data obtained from the conversations of the cast of the santri language film Inthiq Rasmiyyatan. This research uses data collection techniques in the form of listening and recording techniques. Then, the data that has been obtained is analyzed using the error analysis technique or correct analysis. The results of this study reveal that 3 types of phonological errors occur in the conversations of the cast of the film, including phoneme replacement, phoneme reduction, and phoneme addition. The phonological errors occur due to the presence of Arabic phonemes that are almost similar or the influence of first language acquisition. The results of this study can be used as a reference for teachers in conducting learning activities and for Arabic learners in learning and using the language. This is done so that teachers and learners of Arabic can pay more attention to the pattern of the release of language sounds in words, phrases, and clauses. Thus, teachers and learners can pronounce each phoneme correctly in speaking Arabic daily.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Effect of Gadget Use on the Development of Language and Speech Ability in Children Under Five

Background: Language development is a hierarchical change that begins with hearing and learning through hearing through the sounds of words. This research aims to analyze the effect of gadget use on language and speaking abilities. Subjects and Method: An observational analytical research design using a cross sectional approach was carried out at Bayu Asih Hospital, Purwakarta and Rama Hadi Hospital, Purwakarta in November 2023. A total of 200 children under five were used using a random sampling technique. The dependent variable is language and speech delays. The independent variables are gadget use, mother's employment, mother's education, family income, and child's education. The instruments used were Early Detection of Communication Ability Disorders (DDGKB) and questionnaires. Data analysis uses path analysis. Results: The results of path analysis explain that there is an influence of gadget use (b=1.85; 95% CI=1.02 to 3.40; p=0.044), gender (b=1.85; 95% CI=1.02 to 3.40; p=0.044) and parental income (b =1.85; 95% CI=1.02 to 3.40; p=0.044), mother's employment (b=0.56; 95% CI=0.31 to 1.02; p=0.058), mother's employment (b=0.56; 95% CI=0.31 to 1.02 ; p=0.058) and mother's education (b=0.91; CI 95%=0.48 to 1.73; p=0.783) and child's education (b=0.74; CI 95%=0.42 to 1.34; p=0.325) on speech delays in children. Conclusion: Gadget use, gender, parental income, maternal employment, maternal education, and child education increase the risk of speech delays in children.

The Relationship Between Phonemic Awareness, Vocabulary and Musical Abilities in 5-6-year old Children in Kindergartens

Young children (5-6 years old) are building strong foundations in language and music. Their phonemic awareness is developing, allowing them to identify and manipulate sounds in words. Vocabulary is rapidly expanding, with children learning new words and their meanings. Musical abilities are blossoming, with many children enjoying singing, keeping rhythm, and exploring instruments. However, there can be variations in these skills, and even gender differences in performance on some tasks. This study investigated the phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and musical abilities of 5-6-year-old children. We explored potential correlations between these domains and any gender differences in performance. Forty children (20 girls and 20 boys) from three kindergartens (two urban, one rural) were tested in June 2022. Three assessments were employed: Eľkonin's test of phonemic awareness, COWAT speech fluency test (vocabulary), and Bentley's test of musical abilities. Pearson's correlation coefficient analyzed relationships between the tests. A positive correlation was found between all three tests, suggesting potential links between phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and musical abilities. Interestingly, girls outperformed boys significantly in both Eľkonin's and Bentley's tests. Within Eľkonin's test, children achieved the highest scores in syllable synthesis (subtest No. 4) and the lowest scores in syllable deletion (subtest No. 10). This study suggests a connection between phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and musical abilities in young children. Additionally, it highlights potential gender differences in specific aspects of these domains. Further research is needed to explore the cause of these findings and their implications for early childhood education.

Historic British Royal Memes

Historic British Royal Memes

Comparing online versus laboratory measures of speech perception in older children and adolescents.

Given the increasing prevalence of online data collection, it is important to know how behavioral data obtained online compare to samples collected in the laboratory. This study compares online and in-person measurement of speech perception in older children and adolescents. Speech perception is important for assessment and treatment planning in speech-language pathology; we focus on the American English /ɹ/ sound because of its frequency as a clinical target. Two speech perception tasks were adapted for web presentation using Gorilla: identification of items along a synthetic continuum from rake to wake, and category goodness judgment of English /ɹ/ sounds in words produced by various talkers with and without speech sound disorder. Fifty typical children aged 9-15 completed these tasks online using a standard headset. These data were compared to a previous sample of 98 typical children aged 9-15 who completed the same tasks in the lab setting. For the identification task, participants exhibited smaller boundary widths (suggestive of more acute perception) in the in-person setting relative to the online setting. For the category goodness judgment task, there was no statistically significant effect of modality. The correlation between scores on the two tasks was significant in the online setting but not in the in-person setting, but the difference in correlation strength was not statistically significant. Overall, our findings agree with previous research in suggesting that online and in-person data collection do not yield identical results, but the two contexts tend to support the same broad conclusions. In addition, these results suggest that online data collection can make it easier for researchers connect with a more representative sample of participants.

Phonemic Awareness Strategies in Teaching Reading in Kindergarten

Phonemic Awareness is not as new to the field of literacy as some may think, although it is only in recent years that it has gained attention. For over 50 years, discussions have continued regarding the relationship between a child’s awareness of the sounds of spoken words and his or her ability to read. The research deals with the teacher’s effectiveness in using phonemic awareness strategies to teach kindergarten reading. The study used a questionnaire as the main instrument in gathering data; total enumeration and descriptive research were employed. The participants were 50 kindergarten teachers from La Trinidad, Benguet. The study showed the effect of strategies and utilization of the strategies along the variables. It can be said that teaching in kindergarten requires a strong ability of teachers to process the features of reading to accommodate the learner's different levels of phonemic awareness. However, many challenges will need to be addressed while they do this in the process.

Analysis of elementary English word sounds in the 2022 revised national curriculum: Focusing on syllables, stress, and consonants.

Analysis of elementary English word sounds in the 2022 revised national curriculum: Focusing on syllables, stress, and consonants.

Single-neuronal elements of speech production in humans

Humans are capable of generating extraordinarily diverse articulatory movement combinations to produce meaningful speech. This ability to orchestrate specific phonetic sequences, and their syllabification and inflection over subsecond timescales allows us to produce thousands of word sounds and is a core component of language1,2. The fundamental cellular units and constructs by which we plan and produce words during speech, however, remain largely unknown. Here, using acute ultrahigh-density Neuropixels recordings capable of sampling across the cortical column in humans, we discover neurons in the language-dominant prefrontal cortex that encoded detailed information about the phonetic arrangement and composition of planned words during the production of natural speech. These neurons represented the specific order and structure of articulatory events before utterance and reflected the segmentation of phonetic sequences into distinct syllables. They also accurately predicted the phonetic, syllabic and morphological components of upcoming words and showed a temporally ordered dynamic. Collectively, we show how these mixtures of cells are broadly organized along the cortical column and how their activity patterns transition from articulation planning to production. We also demonstrate how these cells reliably track the detailed composition of consonant and vowel sounds during perception and how they distinguish processes specifically related to speaking from those related to listening. Together, these findings reveal a remarkably structured organization and encoding cascade of phonetic representations by prefrontal neurons in humans and demonstrate a cellular process that can support the production of speech.

THE ANALYSIS OF STUDENT'S DIFFICULTIES IN COMPREHENDING MACRO AND MICRO-SKILLS OF LISTENING

The research explored the challenges of students undertaking the TOEFL prediction test, specifically in the listening section. The study utilized descriptive qualitative research and employed a questionnaire. To attain proficiency in listening comprehension, students must grasp macro and micro skills, as Brown’s taxonomy outlines. The study demonstrated that students encounter difficulty in listening comprehension due to four major factors: sound, vocabulary, grammar, and pragmatic awareness. The findings indicated that students' struggle to understand spoken language lies in micro-skills, particularly at lower proficiency levels of recognizing word sounds. Consequently, introducing micro-skills is essential to enhance students' language knowledge.

Machine Learning Based Customized Solution for Deafness and Mute People

Individuals with hearing or speech impairments often possess a higher degree of familiarity with sign language due to its widespread usage. Consequently, a noticeable communication divide exists between those with such impairments and the general populace. A pivotal solution in bridging this gap involves employing human sign language interpreters. Regrettably, the scarcity of sign language interpreters worldwide in comparison to the number of individuals with hearing or speech impairments has resulted in certain individuals being unable to bear the cost of a human interpreter each time they engage in conversation. To address this issue, it is imperative to automate communication in a manner that liberates the deaf community from dependence on human translators. This article centers on the development of an application capable of real-time conversion between American Sign Language and text, along with supplementary functionalities aimed at dismantling the communication barriers faced by individuals with hearing or speech challenges when interacting with the broader public. the primary objective of this application is to accurately perceive and interpret the user's sign language. The initial stage involves training the system to recognize and interpret signs utilizing algorithms for object recognition and motion tracking. For this purpose, a convolutional neural network model was trained employing a meticulously curated American Sign Language dataset. Subsequently, the recognized signs are translated into English, forming grammatically sound words. Incorporated within the system are a language translator and a virtual sign keyboard, augmenting its capabilities. Moreover, a text-to-text transformer, structured on an encoder-decoder framework, is harnessed to identify grammatical inaccuracies and generate coherent phrases. For a comprehensive understanding of the process, detailed elaboration will follow in subsequent sections.