Speed Of Speech Research Articles

Unravelling the relationship between language anxiety and foreign language speech fluency in a monologue production

ABSTRACT This study investigated the interplay between language anxiety of advanced foreign language learners and their speech fluency measured with temporal indices. Language anxiety levels of 59 university level students of English were identified with the Input, Processing and Output Anxiety Scale (the IPOAS; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1994. The effects of induced anxiety on three stages of cognitive processing in computerized vocabulary learning.’ Studies in Second Language Acquisition 16 (1): 1–17. doi:10.1017/S0272263100012560) and the Post-Session Survey on Anxiety. The former informed about the levels of anxiety experienced at three stages of linguistic processing, hence, input anxiety, internal processing anxiety, and output anxiety. The latter was applied to identify language anxiety levels exhibited during a monologue production, reported as task-specific language anxiety. Speech samples from the performance were analyzed for fluency breakdown (the number of filled and silent pauses), speed of speech (articulation rate), and composite measures (speech rate). The findings revealed that the advanced foreign language learners with higher levels of internal processing anxiety and output anxiety used filled pauses more frequently. Furthermore, the levels of output anxiety and task-specific language anxiety were inversely related to speech and articulation rate. The study also showed statistically significant differences in the production of filled pauses and speech rate between advanced foreign language learners with low and high levels of language anxiety as measured by the IPOAS.

A Comparative Analysis on the Listening Test of HSK and IELTS

To promote the improvement of the HSK, this study compares the listening tests of HSK Levels 4 to 6 with the IELTS Academic in terms of question setting, speech input, and discourse. The findings revealed that the listening test of HSK has unbalanced question structure, limited question types and lacks authenticity in speech. Significant improvements are needed in the reliability, validity and authenticity of the test. To solve these problems, this study refers to the mature experience of IELTS and proposes that HSK should balance the ratio of monologue to conversation questions, increase the question types, adjust the speed of speech, standardize the listening lexicon, and broaden the topic genres.

Enhancing English Pronunciation Assessment in Computer-Assisted Language Learning for College Students

The evolution of computer science and the innovations in language teaching methodologies have paved the way for computer-assisted language learning (CALL) technology to tackle pertinent challenges. While existing CALL systems primarily emphasize vocabulary and grammar acquisition, their evaluation mechanisms often rely on a limited set of criteria, resulting in a simplistic assessment of learners’ pronunciation skills. This oversight underscores the need for a more comprehensive approach. In response, this study targets Chinese college students’ English oral proficiency and aims to enhance the conventional computerized evaluation method. Our approach involves integrating multiple assessment parameters, including pitch, speed, rhythm, and intonation. For instance, pitch assessment is grounded on frequency central feature parameters, while speech speed evaluation considers speech duration, thus enriching the evaluation framework. Through experimental validation, the efficacy of our method in evaluating pitch, speed, rhythm, and intonation has been substantiated, reaffirming its reliability.

Insights Into Challenges Faced by Interpreting Trainees and Their Error Patterns

This study explored the challenges faced by trainees in Arabic and English interpreting by analyzing prevalent errors and investigating their underlying causes. A cohort of 31 female students underwent simultaneous interpretation tests in both languages. The data were used to identify challenges encountered during the interpretation process and analyze participants’ performance using Musa and Al-Maryani’s (2021) eclectic model. The study also examined the impact of L2 level on interpreting output. The findings show that omission is the most common error in interpreting both English and Arabic speech and is often employed as a coping technique for challenges such as speech speed, specialized terminology, structural differences, and numerical information. Hesitation was more pronounced when interpreting English into Arabic, indicating difficulties in directionality and language fluency. Regardless of language proficiency or level, all participants made similar errors when interpreting Arabic and English speech. These findings highlight the importance of developing comprehensive interpreter training that focuses not only on L2 proficiency, but also on strategies for managing the challenges encountered during interpretation, such as speech speed, specialized terminology, and directionality.

The ethical significance of user-control in AI-driven speech-BCIs: a narrative review.

AI-driven brain-computed interfaces aimed at restoring speech for individuals living with locked-in-syndrome are paired with ethical implications for user's autonomy, privacy and responsibility. Embedding options for sufficient levels of user-control in speech-BCI design has been proposed to mitigate these ethical challenges. However, how user-control in speech-BCIs is conceptualized and how it relates to these ethical challenges is underdetermined. In this narrative literature review, we aim to clarify and explicate the notion of user-control in speech-BCIs, to better understand in what way user-control could operationalize user's autonomy, privacy and responsibility and explore how such suggestions for increasing user-control can be translated to recommendations for the design or use of speech-BCIs. First, we identified types of user control, including executory control that can protect voluntariness of speech, and guidance control that can contribute to semantic accuracy. Second, we identified potential causes for a loss of user-control, including contributions of predictive language models, a lack of ability for neural control, or signal interference and external control. Such a loss of user control may have implications for semantic accuracy and mental privacy. Third we explored ways to design for user-control. While embedding initiation signals for users may increase executory control, they may conflict with other aims such as speed and continuity of speech. Design mechanisms for guidance control remain largely conceptual, similar trade-offs in design may be expected. We argue that preceding these trade-offs, the overarching aim of speech-BCIs needs to be defined, requiring input from current and potential users. Additionally, conceptual clarification of user-control and other (ethical) concepts in this debate has practical relevance for BCI researchers. For instance, different concepts of inner speech may have distinct ethical implications. Increased clarity of such concepts can improve anticipation of ethical implications of speech-BCIs and may help to steer design decisions.

ЗВУКОВАЯ КУКЛА: КАНТ, ЕВРЕИНОВ И ХЛЕБНИКОВ

Nikolai Evreinov’s report “The theatricalization of life. Ex cathedra” (1911) and Velimir Khlebnikov’s manifesto “Our Basis” (1919) demonstrate a similar idea of the beginning of human civilization. Both authors insist that the performative function of language preceded the communicative function, that performativity was the ground for complete understanding, and that present-day process control requires the attainment of a special speed of oral speech, through which the alienation of the primordial state is constructed. The symbol of performativity for both becomes a scrap of cloth that transforms the one gifted with it into a sound puppet, so that language is interpreted along the lines of the puppet game. The origins of such commonality are found in Kant’s treatise “The Conjecturable Вeginning of Human History” (1876). The assimilation of Kant’s ideas is assumed, not directly, but through the interpretation of the Fall in the fundamental theology and middle school religion lessons. The anthropological interests of Evreinov and Khlebnikov proved productive in challenging the dream of synthetic total art.

Challenges in English Listening Comprehension: A Study of Public Schools in Rupandehi

One of the four fundamental and inseparable language skills that most language learners strive to acquire to communicate successfully in a variety of circumstances is listening. However, listening skills are neglected in school education. This study aimed at examining problems faced by students in listening comprehension in English classes. I selected 60 students as respondents using a random sampling procedure from six public schools studying English in Rupandehi. Three sets of closed-ended questionnaires with 25 items on students’ problems with listening comprehension were administered to elicit the data from them. To carry out the study, I employed a survey research design as a research method. The study indicated that the content of the listening text (e.g., unfamiliar vocabulary and too long and complex listening text) was the major problem with listening faced by the students. The second problem related to the listener included a lack of concentration with long listening texts and the existence of noise in the place. The third listening problem was associated with the speaker and the physical setting, which was concerned with the speaker’s speed of speech and different accents. The results indicated that the majority of respondents sometimes suffered from problems related to the content of the listening text, the listener and speaker, and the physical setting. The findings of this study can enhance teachers’ and students’ knowledge of the issues with listening comprehension.

Zooming into the L2 Speech Fluency Markers of Anxious and Non-Anxious Advanced L2 Learners – an Extreme Case Sampling Report

The study examines selected temporal markers of L2 utterance fluency in the speech of advanced L2 learners who exhibit high (HLA) and low (LLA) language anxiety levels. Out of the pool of 59 participants, six HLA and six LLA individuals were selected for an in-depth analysis on the basis of their scores on the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (the FLCAS) (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986). Speech samples from a monologue task were examined for selected L2 utterance fluency measures: filled (FP) and silent pause (SP) frequency, mean length of silent pause (MLSP), articulation rate (AR), speech rate (SR), and mean length of run (MLR). The results provided insights into the L2 speech fluency profiles of anxious and non-anxious individuals. The analysis disclosed relatively higher frequency and disparate application of FPs, slower speed of speech, and more varied profiles in MLR in the HLA group as compared to the LLA group. The findings yield pedagogical and methodological implications.

Using Online Media for Extensive Listening Practices: Students’ Self-Reflections from the Extensive Listening Logbook

Despite the fact that technology and online media’s great contributions on extensive listening practices, students who are unaccustomed to such activities would find the practice challenging. The current study investigated 20 first-semester university students undertaking extensive listening practices which were recorded into logbooks. The researchers aimed to map out students’ reflections on challenges and satisfaction towards the media and listening practices under a descriptive qualitative research, utilizing document analysis. Results of data analysis shows that the freedom of choice given to students while undertaking extensive listening activities through online media brought positive responses on the overall students’ satisfaction on the listening practice. Nevertheless, the unsorted levels of difficulty, unfamiliar words, foreign accents, and speed of speech from the media became the barriers mostly encountered in understanding the language contents. Furthermore, unsatisfactory listening experiences were also reported by a few students. Thus, it is advisable that teachers who implement extensive listening practices to offer help for learners to be more aware of their current and future potential to make sure learning more efficiently. It is highly expected that through frequent interactions with the listening inputs from various sources, students would enhance their metacognitive strategies to have better control of their learning.

Strategi Komunikasi Kepala Madrasah dalam Membina Akhlakul Karimah Peserta Didik

The main problem is how the communication strategy in fostering students' akhlakul karimah. The research uses qualitative methods and theories of persuasive theory and behaviorism. The paradigm of this research is naturalism; the source of data is the head of the madrasa, teachers, education personnel and students (primary data) and documents of fostering akhlakul karimah MTs Ma'arif Pinrang (secondary data); the research instrument is the researcher himself and is assisted through data collection tools, namely observation guideline sheets, interview guidelines, digital cameras and tape recorders; data collection techniques are participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation; and testing the validity of the research results, namely credibility, transferadibility, and confirmability. The results showed: (1) The head of the madrasa in fostering the morals of students applies persuasive strategies by using assumption, integration, reward and arrangement techniques. Meanwhile, in applying the behaviorism strategy using 3 steps, namely stimulus, process and response. In the stimulus stage, the madrasah principal sets rules regarding the obligation to be morally good. At the communication process stage, the madrasah principal uses interpersonal communication of the redundancy, verbal and non-verbal communication types. The form of coaching uses exemplary coaching, habituation, advice, and punishment. From the entire series of application of communication strategies, it shows a response / improvement in the morals of students in terms of religiosity (religion), discipline, responsibility, peace-loving, environmental care and social care. (2) Supporting factors for communication are closeness, mutual respect, and feedback by students. While the inhibiting factors are voice intonation when communicating, speech speed or tempo and vocabulary due to ethnic differences.

The Association between Depression Severity, Prosody, and Voice Acoustic Features in Women with Depression

The aim was to define the association between the severity of depression, prosody, and voice acoustic features in women suffering from depression and its comparisons with nondepressed people. Prosody and acoustic features in 30 women with major depression hospitalized in a psychiatric ward and 30 healthy women were investigated in a cross-sectional study. To define the severity of depression, the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRS-D) was applied. Acoustic parameters such as jitter, shimmer, cepstral peak prominence (CPP), standard deviation of fundamental frequency (SD F0), harmonic-to-noise ratio, and F0 and also some speech prosodic features including the speed of speech, switching pause duration means, and durations of produced sentences with different modals were measured quantitatively. Also, six raters judged the patient’s prosody qualitatively. SPSS V.28 was used for all statistical analyses ( p < 0.05 ). There was a significant correlation between HRS-D with jitter, SD F0, speed of speech, and switching pause means ( p ≤ 0.05 ). The means of CPP and duration of producing emotional sentences differed between the depression and control groups. The HRS-D scores were significantly correlated with switching pauses in patients (Pearson coefficient = 0.47, p = 0.05 ). The results of the perceptual evaluation of prosody judged by six raters showed an 85% correlation between them ( p ≤ 0.001 ). Some acoustic and prosodic parameters are different between healthy women and those with depression disorder (e.g., CPP and duration of emotional sentences) and may also have an association with the severity of depression (e.g., jitter, SD F0, speed of speech, and switching pause means) in women with depression disorder. It was indicated that the best sentence modal to assess prosody in patients with depression would be exclamatory ones compared to declarative and interrogative sentences.

A study on content validity of TEM4 listening comprehension (2016-2023)

Test for English Majors-Band 4 (TEM4) is a large-scale nationwide criterion-referenced test for English majors in Chinese colleges and universities. Since its implementation in 1990, there have been continuous studies on its validity. However, most focused on its reading comprehension section and were based on the traditional classification validity view. Moreover, TEM4 was officially reformed in 2016, especially its listening comprehension section, but relevant validity study is still limited. Therefore, this study aims to assess the content validity of TEM4 listening comprehension after the reform, attempting to enrich the relevant validity study, helping test developers improve question types and promoting the pedagogical teaching to strengthen college students’ listening comprehension ability. Based on Bachman and Palmer’s framework of task characteristics and reference to the interlocutor characteristics proposed by Weir, this study established its framework and analyzed quantitative statistics on the linguistic characteristics of TEM4 listening comprehension. Three dimensions are included in the verification framework: language input characteristics, expected response characteristics, and the relationship between input and response. The study found that the selected TEM4 listening comprehension tests meet the requirements of the teaching and testing syllabuses in terms of length, vocabulary, topic, speech speed, and accent; the question types and expected skills are varied with prominent emphasis; the range and scope of relationship between input and response align with the test proposition principle. All the research results demonstrated a high content validity of TEM4 listening comprehension since its reform in 2016.

The generalized matrix equation for systematic evaluation of oral Russian self-study

Abstract Generalized Lyapunov matrix equations appear in the fields of controllability analysis and model reduction of bilinear systems, stability analysis and optimal stabilization of linear stochastic systems, etc. The author studies the numerical solution of the generalized Lyapunov matrix equation combined with the evaluation of the Russian spoken language self-study system. Taking the empirical analysis as the research object, we selected 120 oral test samples from 12 colleges and universities in the 2020 national four-level unified test of Russian majors, compared with the teaching syllabus and the examination syllabus, the data were analyzed from the perspectives of speech speed, vocabulary, grammar and vocabulary errors, and a series of important conclusions were drawn, according to the specific problems exposed by the students in the oral test, the current situation of oral Russian teaching is discussed from the aspects of oral teaching materials, oral teachers and oral teaching methods.

EARLY INTERVENTION OF SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS IN CHILDREN WITH CLEFT LIP AND PALATE

Children with cleft lip and palate (CLP) can have language and speech difficulties. This happens because of changes in the orofacial anatomical structure, so there are some limitations in articulation abilities. In addition to speech-sound disorders, children with cleft lip and palate often experience problems with language skills due to a limited vocabulary as well as syntactic and morphological abilities. Children with CLP can experience problems with sentence structure and speech speed (words per minute), so children with cleft lip and palate often experience language delays. The research conducted is a systematic research review. This research was conducted by searching for and selecting five types of data from the results of previous studies and from the results of clinical trials conducted on different ethnicities, races, and locations around the world. Research information was retrieved from databases, including PubMed, Wiley, and Google Scholar. The data analysis technique used in this systematic review is the data extraction method. The results showed that the search for articles that matched the searches and explanations about early handling of language development in children with cleft lip and palate, namely. Early intervention with parental assistance. There were five articles on the results of interventions in children with cleft lip and palate, namely, early intervention after the cleft lip and palate fusion process and educational support for parents.

Halo effects in rating data: Assessing speech fluency

Fluency is a common objective in English language learning and teaching. However, researchers have commented on the absence of a widely accepted definition of the construct and this sense of uncertainty may hinder efforts to measure fluency for purposes of research or assessment. To date, the extent to which rating instruments measure fluency independently from other areas of speech production such as complexity and accuracy has been under-explored. This is a significant gap because the literature broadly suggests that rater scores are susceptible to halo effects that have a distorting influence on the measurement of speaking skills and blur boundaries between assessment criteria. To investigate this issue, the current study examines a data set of scores assigned to 77 English language learners on two speaking tasks using an analytic rating scale featuring criteria for speech complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF). The tasks were transcribed and analysed using measures of CAF. Rater scores were analysed using many-facet Rasch measurement and multiple regression. Results revealed that rated fluency was influenced by lexical complexity, indicating that fluency scores represented more than the fluency construct outlined in the analytic scale. Measures of speech speed, phonation time ration, length of utterance, lexical complexity, total speaking time and repair fluency explained the largest amount of variance in the fluency scores. Implications for research, language teaching and assessment are discussed.

‘바른소리’ 교육프로그램 참여 노인의 언어기능 발달과 학습경험에 관한 연구

Objectives The purpose of this study is to analyze the development of language function and the meaning of learning experience of the elderly who participated in the Bareunsori(meaning ‘right sound’) education program for Korean articulation ability and accuracy of speech.
 Methods In this study, a case study was conducted with five learners aged 65 or older among the first and second learners of the Bareunsori education program operated by the Women’s Family Center (North) in Daejeon in 2022. For data collection, after the program was executed, the first and second individual interviews were conducted with semi-structured questions. The collected data was analyzed through processes such as transcription, open coding, categorization, and derivation of meaning
 Results As a result of the analysis, the elderly who participated in the Bareunsori education program recognized that their language functions, such as improved articulation ability, accuracy of speech through regulation and control of speech speed, reduction of lip tremor and stuttering, and accurate sentence reading, were recognized. These learning experiences of the elderly are interpreted as meanings such as introspection on one's own speech habits, experience of a new role in guiding learning to others with increased self-confidence due to improvement in language function, willingness to satisfy the inherent educational need, and reestablishment of the recognition of the mother language.
 Conclusions Language function, which declines with age, can be delayed or improved through correct sound education programs and learning methods, and the experience of participating in education opened up the quality of life and the possibility of new roles in old age. In addition, from the perspective of lifelong development, the significance of education for the elderly was confirmed in that it can continue to grow and develop, not just decline in old age

A Preliminary Longitudinal Study on Infant-Directed Speech (IDS) Components in the First Year of Life

Infant-directed speech (IDS) is an essential factor of mother-infant interaction and facilitates early language processing and word learning during dyadic interactions. This study aimed to longitudinally investigate emotional and prosodic components of IDS in the first year of life by analyzing children's responses to the different prosodic trends that mothers use during the observation of mother-child interactions. Seventeen mothers and infants were recruited for this study during their first hospitalization. The study involved observing communication changes in face-to-face interactions between the mother and child at three, six, and nine months after the child's birth. We analyzed the relationship between gaze direction, smiling, speech speed, and clarity. The results showed that the IDS differs in production when compared to the age of the child; at only nine months, there is high intensity. The same is evident from the results related to the elocution velocity. The verbal sensitivity of the mother and the ability to tune in to the affective states of the child, especially at nine months, can predict the child's understanding of future language.

New Insights into Potential Biomarkers in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment Occurring in the Prodromal Stage of Dementia with Lewy Bodies

Prodromal dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) can emerge with the onset of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Standard biomarkers can help identify such patients to improve therapy and treatment strategies. Our review aims to describe the latest evidence on promising biomarkers in prodromal DLB with MCI onset (MCI-LB). We selected articles on different biomarkers in MCI-LB from PubMed and conducted a narrative review. We identified potentially promising clinical biomarkers, e.g., (1) assessing autonomic symptoms specifically, (2) describing the cognitive profile in several subdomains including executive and visual functions, and (3) measuring the speed of speech. In addition, we describe the measurement of seeding amplification assays of alpha-synuclein in cerebrospinal fluid as a relevant biomarker for MCI-LB. Electroencephalographic markers, as in calculating the theta/beta ratio or intermittent delta activity, or analyzing peak frequency in electroencephalography-methods also potentially useful once they have been validated in large patient cohorts. The 18F fluorodesoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) technique is also discussed to investigate metabolic signatures, as well as a specific magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique such as for the volumetric region of interest analysis. These biomarker results suggest that MCI-LB is a promising field for the use of biomarkers other than established ones to diagnose early prodromal DLB. Further large-scale studies are needed to better evaluate and subsequently use these promising biomarkers in prodromal DLB.

LCSNet: End-to-end Lipreading with Channel-aware Feature Selection

Lipreading is a task of decoding the movement of the speaker’s lip region into text. In recent years, lipreading methods based on deep neural network have attracted widespread attention, and the accuracy has far surpassed that of experienced human lipreaders. The visual differences in some phonemes are extremely subtle and pose a great challenge to lipreading. Most of the lipreading existing methods do not process the extracted visual features, which mainly suffer from two problems. First, the extracted features contain lot of useless information such as noise caused by differences in speech speed and lip shape, for example. In addition, the extracted features are not abstract enough to distinguish phonemes with similar pronunciation. These problems have a bad effect on the performance of lipreading. To extract features from the lip regions that are more distinguishable and more relevant to the speech content, this article proposes an end-to-end deep neural network-based lipreading model (LCSNet). The proposed model extracts the short-term spatio-temporal features and the motion trajectory features from the lip region in the video clips. The extracted features are filtered by the channel attention module to eliminate the useless features and then used as input to the proposed Selective Feature Fusion Module (SFFM) to extract the high-level abstract features. Afterwards, these features are used as input to the bidirectional GRU network in time order for temporal modeling to obtain the long-term spatio-temporal features. Finally, a Connectionist Temporal Classification (CTC) decoder is used to generate the output text. The experimental results show that the proposed model achieves a 1.0% CER and 2.3% WER on the GRID corpus database, which, respectively, represents an improvement of 52% and 47% compared to LipNet.

A voice-driven embodied interaction system with response actions according to speech speed by the mora

Focusing on the correlation between speech sounds and body movements, we developed a voice-driven embodied entrainment character called InterActor that automatically generates communicative motions from speech, and demonstrated the effectiveness of the system. We also developed a communication agent that responds appropriately to utterance contents by focusing on words in speech using speech recognition. However, these systems simply generate body motions from the burst-pause of speech. The response actions corresponding to speaker’s speech speeds were not considered. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between an individual’s speech activity and speech speed[mora/s] from various speech experiments with the aim of facilitating speech according to speaker’s speech characteristics. We develop a voice-driven embodied entrainment system which performs nodding with different speeds according to speech speeds based on speech recognition. Based on the results of the speech experiments, we conduct an online evaluation experiment using videos of multiple speakers with different speaking speeds using the robot as a platform to verify the effectiveness of the response actions generated by the system.