Development research on e-learning material helping acquiring English rhythm and sound changes

为了使日本英语学习者获得像母语一样的自然语音，我们试图开发一个计算机程序来识别和评估学习者的语音实现与教师语音的接近或遥远程度。我们使用DP匹配方法对样本句子中嵌入的英语语音的凝聚同化和连读进行了评价程序。将程序评价结果与人工评价结果进行比较，发现了相当高的效度和相关性，表明我们的自动识别评价系统具有一定的实用价值。我们还研究了哪种反馈方式最能帮助学习者意识到发音在产生更好的英语节奏中的重要方面。我们针对实验对象测试了三种不同的模式：视觉、听觉和语言。结果是，听觉反馈往往在三者中得到最好的识别。

In order for Japanese learners of English to acquire native-like sounding natural speech, we attempted to develop a computer program which recognizes and evaluates the extent to which learners' phonetic realization is either close or distant against the teacher speech. We used a DP matching method to make the evaluation program of coalescent assimilation and linking of English sounds embedded in the sample sentences. As the result of comparing the program's evaluations with the human evaluations, considerably high validity and correlation were found, suggesting our automatic recognition and evaluation system will be of use. We also conducted a research on which feedback modality will best help the learner to realize the important aspects of pronunciation in producing better English rhythm. We tested three different modalities against experimental subjects : visual, auditory, and linguistic. As the result, the auditory feedback tended to be best recognized among the three.