Syllable Recognition Research Articles

Pemanfaatan Media Kartu Kata Bergambar dalam Meningkatkan Kemampuan Membaca dan Kognitif pada Anak Usia Dini di RA Al Jannah Jakarta Utara

This study aims to examine the use of picture word card media which is carried out with several methods or ways of recognizing vocabulary in each theme in improving early childhood reading and cognitive skills in RA Al Jannah. This study uses a qualitative approach with literature study methods and in-depth interviews. The instruments used are interview and observation sheets as well as several studies that examine the theme. The data produced are primary and secondary data. The data analysis carried out was to review the literature and triangulation of data based on the results of interviews and observations. The introduction of word cards is carried out every day consistently and repeatedly, picture word cards are also used in the form of games and also singing, there are several models of word cards used in RA Al Jannah, namely theme word cards, harmony word cards, fishing word cards, bingo word cards, and reminder card cards. The strategy for improving early childhood reading skills carried out with the media of picture word cards is in a gradual way, namely through a phonetic approach, syllable recognition, whole language, interactive and fun activities. Cognitive improvement strategies carried out in Ra various games, namely by means of word grouping games and memory games, examples of memory games carried out are games with reminder word cards, bingo word cards, picture guessing games, and fishing games with syllables.

Optical Medieval Music Recognition—A Complete Pipeline for Historic Chants

Manual transcription of music is a tedious work, which can be greatly facilitated by optical music recognition (OMR) software. However, OMR software is error prone in particular for older handwritten documents. This paper introduces and evaluates a pipeline that automates the entire OMR workflow in the context of the Corpus Monodicum project, enabling the transcription of historical chants. In addition to typical OMR tasks such as staff line detection, layout detection, and symbol recognition, the rarely addressed tasks of text and syllable recognition and assignment of syllables to symbols are tackled. For quantitative and qualitative evaluation, we use documents written in square notation developed in the 11th–12th century, but the methods apply to many other notations as well. Quantitative evaluation measures the number of necessary interventions for correction, which are about 0.4% for layout recognition including the division of text in chants, 2.4% for symbol recognition including pitch and reading order and 2.3% for syllable alignment with correct text and symbols. Qualitative evaluation showed an efficiency gain compared to manual transcription with an elaborate tool by a factor of about 9. In a second use case with printed chants in similar notation from the “Graduale Synopticum”, the evaluation results for symbols are much better except for syllable alignment indicating the difficulty of this task.

Executive functions as predictors of learning prerequisites in preschool: A longitudinal study

IntroductionThis study focuses on 'learning prerequisites', cognitive and non-cognitive skills crucial for school success, often measured in preschoolers. Executive Functions (EF), like inhibition and cognitive flexibility, are vital among these prerequisites. While EF's role in early literacy and numeracy is acknowledged, some components are often overlooked. ObjectiveThe study aims to longitudinally explore the link between EF, assessed at the beginning of the preschool year and the learning prerequites, measured at the end of the same preschool year. Method and ResultsEvaluating 70 preschoolers (62.30 months, SD 4.55), results showed that certain EF measures predicted performance in literacy and numeracy tasks. Specifically, response inhibition predicted rhyme and syllable recognition, series completion, and cognitive flexibility predicted rhyme recognition. Moreover, EF, particularly response inhibition, correlated with overall metaphonology and pre-math abilities. ConclusionThe findings suggest the importance of integrating EF enhancement in early educational interventions, aiding in selecting and optimizing EF skills crucial for later academic success.

Research on Strategies for Improving Primary School Chinese Pinyin Ability Based on Blended Learning

The teaching of Pinyin is the basis of Chinese teaching in primary schools. The level of Chinese spelling ability will have a direct impact on students’ future learning and cognition of things. How can we better improve the classroom quality of primary school Chinese and the learning efficiency of students? This is a question that needs to be considered. In the teaching process, blended learning can fully leverage students’ subjectivity and teachers’ leadership, thereby improving students’ overall level. Through conducting educational quasi experiments, selecting the same teaching content for teaching design, selecting research subjects, and setting up experimental and control groups in the experiment, the experimental group adopts a mixed teaching mode, while the control group continues to use traditional teaching mode. Finally, test questions are used for summary evaluation and interviews with parents. The implementation effect is summarized through data analysis. The experimental results show that compared with traditional single classroom teaching, The blended learning classroom is lively and interesting, effectively solving problems such as students’ difficulty in reading tones and overall recognition of syllables. From this, it can be seen that the blended learning mode is one of the effective ways to improve primary school Chinese spelling ability. During the learning process, tasks are assigned online before class, materials are collected, and various teaching methods are used to analyze and expand after class. Students use blended learning mode to preview online, expanding knowledge in offline classrooms, this learning model also provides ideas for teaching other teaching content.

Rhythmic modulation of prediction errors: A top-down gating role for the beta-range in speech processing.

Natural speech perception requires processing the ongoing acoustic input while keeping in mind the preceding one and predicting the next. This complex computational problem could be handled by a dynamic multi-timescale hierarchical inferential process that coordinates the information flow up and down the language network hierarchy. Using a predictive coding computational model (Precoss-β) that identifies online individual syllables from continuous speech, we address the advantage of a rhythmic modulation of up and down information flows, and whether beta oscillations could be optimal for this. In the model, and consistent with experimental data, theta and low-gamma neural frequency scales ensure syllable-tracking and phoneme-level speech encoding, respectively, while the beta rhythm is associated with inferential processes. We show that a rhythmic alternation of bottom-up and top-down processing regimes improves syllable recognition, and that optimal efficacy is reached when the alternation of bottom-up and top-down regimes, via oscillating prediction error precisions, is in the beta range (around 20-30 Hz). These results not only demonstrate the advantage of a rhythmic alternation of up- and down-going information, but also that the low-beta range is optimal given sensory analysis at theta and low-gamma scales. While specific to speech processing, the notion of alternating bottom-up and top-down processes with frequency multiplexing might generalize to other cognitive architectures.

Perceiving speech during orthographic syllable recognition: Beyond phonemic identity

In the cue-distractor paradigm, individuals observe a spoken distractor syllable while responding to a visual cue referring to a syllable. When the task is to utter the cued syllable, distractors sharing fewer subphonemic properties with the cued syllable (below the level of phonemes) lead to slower reaction times (RTs), indicating representations involved in speech perception and production are closely linked. The present study investigated whether a subphonemic level of representation is involved when the task was to manually indicate (but not produce) an orthographically cued syllable. Results revealed RT modulations closely mirroring those reported previously for uttered responses. In an additional experiment, phonetic variants of phonologically identical distractors were presented, but RT modulations were unaffected by this manipulation. The present findings indicate that perceiving speech accesses a relatively detailed phonological level of representation which is closely aligned with representations pertinent in orthographic syllable recognition and in speech production.

DeepLontar dataset for handwritten Balinese character detection and syllable recognition on Lontar manuscript

The digitalization of traditional Palmyra manuscripts, such as Lontar, is the government's main focus in efforts to preserve Balinese culture. Digitization is done by acquiring Lontar manuscripts through photos or scans. To understand Lontar's contents, experts usually carry out transliteration. Automatic transliteration using computer vision is generally carried out in several stages: character detection, character recognition, syllable recognition, and word recognition. Many methods can be used for detection and recognition, but they need data to train and evaluate the resulting model. In compiling the dataset, the data needs to be processed and labelled. This paper presented data collection and building datasets for detection and recognition tasks. Lontar was collected from libraries at universities in Bali. Data generation was carried out to produce 400 augmented images from 200 Lontar original images to increase the variousness of data. Annotations were performed to label each character producing over 100,000 characters in 55 character classes. This dataset can be used to train and evaluate performance in character detection and syllable recognition of new manuscripts.

Investigating the Effect of Mother Tongue on the Iraqi Undergraduates’ Use of English Segmentals and Syllables

This study investigates the effect of mother tongue on the Iraqi undergraduates’ use of English segmentals and Syllables. English segmentals and Syllables are two basic topics that are studied under the domains of phonetics and phonology. Those Iraqi undergraduates consist of Iraqi EFL learners (the two terms are used interchangeably in this study). English segmentals and Syllables involve consonants, vowels, diphthongs, consonant clusters and vowel clusters. The problem of the study is that EFL Iraqi students have no capacity to recognize English consonants and syllables. However, the following questions are focused upon in this study:1) What are the English consonants and vowels which are not recognized by Iraqi undergraduates under the effect of their mother tongue?2) What are the types of consonant and vowel clusters which are not recognized by Iraqi undergraduates under the effect of their mother tongue?The aims of the study include investigating the effect of learners’ mother tongue on their recognition of English segmentals and syllables, knowing whether Iraqi learners at the university level face difficulties in the recognition of consonants and vowels, ensuring whether EFL Iraqi students have difficulties in the recognition of consonant clusters and vowel clusters, and determining whether the difficulties faced by Iraqi EFL learners are caused by the learners’ mother tongue.It is hypothesized that Iraqi EFL undergraduates do not recognize some English consonants, English vowels, diphthongs, some types of consonant clusters and vowel clusters. In addition, it is hypothesized that the incorrect answers of Iraqi learners’ recognition of consonants, simple vowels, diphthongs, consonant clusters and vowel clusters are more than the correct ones.To achieve its aims and verify its hypotheses, the study adopts a quantitative method of investigation. The study chooses a sample for the present study, designs the test containing items concerned with consonants, vowels, and consonant clusters and vowel clusters. It includes only a recognition question. After applying the test on 100 undergraduate students of fourth stage/Department of English/College of Education for Humanities/University of Thi-Qar, the study arrives at some conclusions, some of which include that most Iraqi EFL learners find difficulty in recognizing some consonants, they appeared to be efficient in recognizing some simple vowels and diphthongs, they have the capacity to distinguish only some consonants but they are unable to recognize other consonant clusters and they appeared to be also inefficient in recognizing all vowel clusters.

COVID-19 masks: A barrier to facial and vocal information.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become used to wearing masks and have experienced how masks seem to impair emotion and speech recognition. While several studies have focused on facial emotion recognition by adding images of masks on photographs of emotional faces, we have created a video database with actors really wearing masks to test its effect in more ecological conditions. After validating the emotions displayed by the actors, we found that surgical mask impaired happiness and sadness recognition but not neutrality. Moreover, for happiness, this effect was specific to the mask and not to covering the lower part of the face, possibly due to a cognitive bias associated with the surgical mask. We also created videos with speech and tested the effect of mask on emotion and speech recognition when displayed in auditory, visual, or audiovisual modalities. In visual and audiovisual modalities, mask impaired happiness and sadness but improved neutrality recognition. Mask impaired the recognition of bilabial syllables regardless of modality. In addition, it altered speech recognition only in the audiovisual modality for participants above 70 years old. Overall, COVID-19 masks mainly impair emotion recognition, except for older participants for whom it also impacts speech recognition, probably because they rely more on visual information to compensate age-related hearing loss.

Oral Business English Recognition Method Based on RankNet Model and Endpoint Detection Algorithm

The prosodic feature of “stressed syllables” plays an important role in business English learning. For the majority of nonnative language learners learning English, the pronunciation of native language can easily affect the expression of spoken English. For those who cooperate and communicate in business, if they want to have more idiomatic and accurate spoken English, they need to control the necessary condition of stress first. This puts forward new requirements for the existing speech recognition technology: more accurate recognition of stressed syllables, reading complex and different emotional colors, and helping to correct oral expression. The experimental results show that (1) the higher the Fisher Ratio of the feature, the easier it is to distinguish the stressed syllables; adjusting the weight of features can effectively improve the recognition accuracy. (2) The recognition rate will decrease with the increase of noise. (3) InwMS method can distinguish features better than min-max method, but the recognition rate of stressed syllables is very low. Linear recognition based on single feature is not recommended. (4) The error rates of the two methods are 20.6% and 19.32%. If any feature of the fusion feature is removed, the error recognition rate of the model will increase by at least 3%. (5) For sentence stress recognition based on fusion features, the recognition error rate on RankNet model is as high as 42.51%. The final result of system operation is good, simple, and convenient.

Influence of Audibility and Distortion on Recognition of Reverberant Speech for Children and Adults with Hearing Aid Amplification.

Adults and children with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) have trouble understanding speech in rooms with reverberation when using hearing aid amplification. While the use of amplitude compression signal processing in hearing aids may contribute to this difficulty, there is conflicting evidence on the effects of amplitude compression settings on speech recognition. Less clear is the effect of a fast release time for adults and children with SNHL when using compression ratios derived from a prescriptive procedure. The aim of the study is to determine whether release time impacts speech recognition in reverberation for children and adults with SNHL and to determine if these effects of release time and reverberation can be predicted using indices of audibility or temporal and spectral distortion. This is a quasi-experimental cohort study. Participants used a hearing aid simulator set to the Desired Sensation Level algorithm m[i/o] for three different amplitude compression release times. Reverberation was simulated using three different reverberation times. Participants were 20 children and 16 adults with SNHL. Participants were seated in a sound-attenuating booth and then nonsense syllable recognition was measured. Predictions of speech recognition were made using indices of audibility, temporal distortion, and spectral distortion and the effects of release time and reverberation were analyzed using linear mixed models. While nonsense syllable recognition decreased in reverberation release time did not significantly affect nonsense syllable recognition. Participants with lower audibility were more susceptible to the negative effect of reverberation on nonsense syllable recognition. We have extended previous work on the effects of reverberation on aided speech recognition to children with SNHL. Variations in release time did not impact the understanding of speech. An index of audibility best predicted nonsense syllable recognition in reverberation and, clinically, these results suggest that patients with less audibility are more susceptible to nonsense syllable recognition in reverberation.

Tibetan Sorting Method Based on Hash Function

Sorting the Tibetan language quickly and accurately requires first identifying the component elements that make up Tibetan syllables and then sorting by the priority of the component. Based on the study of Tibetan text structure, grammatical rules and syllable structure, we present a structure-based Tibetan syllable recognition method that uses syllable structure instead of grammar. This method avoids complicated Tibetan grammar and recognizes the components of Tibetan syllables simply and quickly. On the basis of identifying the components of Tibetan syllables, a Tibetan syllable sorting algorithm that conforms to the language sorting rules is proposed. The core of the Tibetan syllable sorting algorithm is a hash function. Research has found that the sorting of all legal Tibetan syllables requires eight components of information. The hash function is based on this discovery and can be assigned corresponding weights according to different sorting verify the effectiveness of the Tibetan sorting algorithm, we established an experimental corpus using the Tibetan sorting standard document recognized by the majority of Tibetan users, namely the New Tibetan Orthographic Dictionary. Experiments show that this method produces results completely consistent with standard reference works, with an accuracy of 100%, and with minimal computational time.

EFFECT OF DIGITAL NOISE REDUCTION AND DIRECTIONALITY ALGORITHMS IN HEARING AIDS ON TEMPORAL ENVELOPE DISTORTION AND SPEECH RECOGNITION

Background Digital signal processing algorithms tend to alter temporal cues in the speech signal and yet individuals with hearing impairment rely strongly on these cues for speech perception. Hence, there is a need to assess the effect of these algorithms on temporal cues and speech perception. The present study aimed to quantify, in a wide dynamic range compression hearing aid, the individual and combined effects of digital noise reduction and directionality algorithms on temporal cues, syllable recognition, and sentence recognition. Temporal cues were quantified by the envelope difference index (EDI). Material and methods The study included 20 individuals (in the age range of 21 to 44 years) with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Sentence recognition, syllable recognition, and EDI were obtained at different levels in four different aided conditions – digital noise reduction algorithm only, directionality only, both digital noise reduction and directionality on, and both algorithms off. Sentences were presented in noise at +5 dB signal-to-noise ratio from 180° azimuth. Results Compared to independent activation of the algorithms, the combined algorithms significantly improved speech recognition scores at all presentation levels. The temporal changes induced by the algorithms were only mild, even though EDI was the highest when all the algorithms and the directional microphone were activated. Conclusions The noise reduction algorithms and compression induce temporal changes; however speech recognition improved when the algorithms were activated, presumably due to countervailing psychophysical factors.

Relationships Between Phonological Awareness and Reading in Spanish: A Meta‐Analysis

AbstractPrevious meta‐analyses of the relationship between phonological awareness (PA) and reading have been conducted mostly in children who speak English, a language with an opaque writing system. In this study, we present a meta‐analysis that examined mean correlations between three PA tasks testing phonemic, syllabic, and intrasyllabic awareness and three reading tasks testing word reading, nonword reading, and reading comprehension in Spanish, a language with a near‐transparent writing system. A random‐effects model of 47 articles (N = 7,956) was used for a multiple correlation study that showed a significantly moderate correlation between some of the PA subcategories and the reading tasks in Spanish‐speaking children. The largest correlation values were found between syllabic awareness and reading, which highlights the importance of syllable recognition during reading acquisition. In addition, we found that intrasyllabic awareness also plays an important role in reading in Spanish. The findings are discussed from a cross‐linguistic perspective.

ZDOLNOŚCI SŁUCHOWE U OSÓB Z FORMALNYM WYKSZTAŁCENIEM MUZYCZNYM I BEZ TAKIEGO WYKSZTAŁCENIA

IntroductionAuditory perception can be enhanced by musical training and practice. Considering the multiple brain areas involved in musical learning, good auditory perceptual skills can contribute to phonological awareness, speech recognition in the presence of noise, reading, syllable recognition, and other language skills.Material and methodsThere were 30 adults between 18 and 27 years old who participated. They were divided into two groups: 15 individuals without formal musical training (Non-Musicians) and 15 individuals with 5 years or more of formal musical training (Musicians), paired by gender and age. Procedures used for assessing their hearing skills were the Duration Pattern test, Staggered Spondaic Word test, Masking Level Difference test, and Dichotic Consonant–Vowel test.ResultsIn all tests, the Musicians group showed a higher average score than the Non-Musicians. In the MLD test, the average level difference was 3 dB higher for the Musicians than for the Non-Musicians (p = 0.001). There were also statistically significant mean differences between the groups for the DP test, SSW test in the right ear, and DCV test (number of errors).ConclusionsIndividuals with formal musical training show better auditory attention abilities, which are important for developing good listening skills, resulting in good communication and linguistic performance compared to individuals without prior musical training.

Multimodal Data Fusion of Electromyography and Acoustic Signals for Thai Syllable Recognition.

Speech disorders such as dysarthria are common and frequent after suffering a stroke. Speech rehabilitation performed by a speech-language pathologist is needed to improve and recover. However, in Thailand, there is a shortage of speech-language pathologists. In this paper, we present a syllable recognition system, which can be deployable in a speech rehabilitation system to provide support to the limited speech-language pathologists available. The proposed system is based on a multimodal fusion of acoustic signal and surface electromyography (sEMG) collected from facial muscles. Multimodal data fusion is studied to improve signal collection under noisy situations while reducing the number of electrodes needed. The signals are simultaneously collected while articulating 12 Thai syllables designed for rehabilitation exercises. Several features are extracted from sEMG signals and five channels are studied. The best combination of features and channels is chosen to be fused with the mel-frequency cepstral coefficients extracted from the acoustic signal. The feature vector from each signal source is projected by spectral regression extreme learning machine and concatenated. Data from seven healthy subjects were collected for evaluation purposes. Results show that the multimodal fusion outperforms the use of a single signal source achieving up to [Formula: see text] of accuracy. In other words, an accuracy improvement up to [Formula: see text] can be achieved when using the proposed multimodal fusion. Moreover, its low standard deviations in classification accuracy compared to those from the unimodal fusion indicate the improvement in the robustness of the syllable recognition.

EFFECTS OF AN ELECTRONIC GAME ON EARLY LITERACY SKILLS

ABSTRACT The attainment of the alphabetic principle is one of the earliest signs of successful literacy acquisition. Public school students from the Dominican Republic have low literacy skills, partly because of not being systematically exposed to the alphabetic principle while learning to read. This paper presents the results of an intervention to teach the alphabetic principle using a tablet-based game. Nineteen kindergarten students were randomly assigned to a control and an experimental group during the last month of the 2017 school year. Students from the experimental group played with the game for ten sessions of 20 minutes each. Students from the experimental group outperformed the control group in syllable recognition after the intervention. The intervention did not influence other reading skills. Automatic syllable identification has been shown to boost early literacy acquisition, although it is not sufficient for students to become fluent readers.

Assessment of speech perception and quality of life after cochlear implant in postlingual deaf adults

Objective:The study is aimed to evaluate impacts of cochlear implantation on speech perception and quality of life in postlingual deaf adults, and to explore the correlation between speech perception and quality of life using Nijimegen Cochlear Implantation Questionnaire and Mandarin version of Minimum Speech Test Battery. Method:Thirty-six postlingual deafpatients were recruited, including 20 males and 16 females. Patient age was 20 to 72 years old（52±16） when CI was implanted, and the hearing loss duration was 2 to 25 years（14±6） before cochlear implantation. The single syllable recognition rate score were tested by using Mandarin version of Minimum Speech Test Battery, and the quantify quality of life was tested by using Nijimegen Cochlear Implantation Questionnaire. Result:Speech recognition and quality of life have significantly improved in patients with CI after cochlear implantiont. The scores of basic sound perception, advanced sound perception, speech ability, self-confidence, social activity ability, and social ability have improved, but the differences were not statistically significant. The Mandrin single-syllable recognition rate scores were related to basic sound perception（r=-0.36; P=0.004）, advanced sound perception（r=-0.41; P=0.002）, and speech ability（r=-0.67; P=0.001）, and the differences are statistically significant. Conclusion:The postlingual deafnesses ability of auditory, speech perception and the quality of life have improved significantly in patients with CI after cochlear implantiont.

Combining predictive coding and neural oscillations enables online syllable recognition in natural speech

On-line comprehension of natural speech requires segmenting the acoustic stream into discrete linguistic elements. This process is argued to rely on theta-gamma oscillation coupling, which can parse syllables and encode them in decipherable neural activity. Speech comprehension also strongly depends on contextual cues that help predicting speech structure and content. To explore the effects of theta-gamma coupling on bottom-up/top-down dynamics during on-line syllable identification, we designed a computational model (Precoss—predictive coding and oscillations for speech) that can recognise syllable sequences in continuous speech. The model uses predictions from internal spectro-temporal representations of syllables and theta oscillations to signal syllable onsets and duration. Syllable recognition is best when theta-gamma coupling is used to temporally align spectro-temporal predictions with the acoustic input. This neurocomputational modelling work demonstrates that the notions of predictive coding and neural oscillations can be brought together to account for on-line dynamic sensory processing.

Chinese Tone Recognition Based on 3D Dynamic Muscle Information

To advance the study of lip-reading recognition in accordance with Chinese pronunciation norms, we carefully investigated Mandarin tone recognition based on visual information, in contrast to that of the previous character-based Chinese lip reading technique. In this paper, we mainly studied the vowel tonal transformation in Chinese pronunciation and designed a lightweight skipping convolution network framework (SCNet). And, the experimental results showed that the SCNet was sensitive to the more detailed description of the pitch change than that of the traditional model and achieved a better tone recognition effect and outstanding antiinterference performance. In addition, we conducted a more detailed study on the assistance of the deep texture information in lip-reading recognition. We found that the deep texture information has a significant effect on tone recognition, and the possibility of multimodal lip reading in Chinese tone recognition was confirmed. Similarly, we verified the role of the SCNet syllable tone recognition and found that the vowel and syllable tone recognition accuracy of our model was as high as 97.3%, which also showed the robustness of our proposed method for Chinese tone recognition and it can be widely used for tone recognition.