Collaborative Research: Translating Prosody in an English/Chinese Language Tutoring System

韵律是人类交际中不可或缺的一部分，但二语学习者却很少学习韵律。 在许多语言中，如果不了解韵律，就无法识别或产生主题转换、对比焦点，甚至是简单的疑问句/陈述句区别。 然而，一种语言的韵律与另一种语言的韵律之间的“翻译”是一个很少研究的现象。 本研究通过识别两种语言中表达相似意义的韵律现象之间的对应关系来解决普通话和英语学习者的“韵律翻译”问题。 本研究主要是对母语和二语的韵律现象及其所表达的意义进行比较。 根据实验室收集的数据，我们构建了适合于描述每种语言中这些现象的韵律变化的计算模型，并对L1和L2受试者进行了测试。 该模型在一个交互式教学系统中进行了测试，该系统采用自适应、自定进度的方法进行韵律教学。 该系统根据学生的表现，通过逐步增强独特的韵律特征来自动修改训练和测试示例。 通过对两种语言的二语学生的纵向研究来评估这种方法的成功性，以了解新技术是否提高了学生识别和产生二语韵律变化的能力。 通过为韵律教学提供方法和计算支持，这项工作不仅可以使学生获得更像母语的流利程度，而且还可以为训练学生在学习新语言的单词和句法之外的其他语用语言现象提供一个模型。

Prosody is an integral part of human communication, but one thatsecond language (L2) learners rarely learn. Topic shifts, contrastivefocus, and even simple question/statement distinctions, cannot berecognized or produced in many languages without an understanding oftheir prosody. However, 'translating' between the prosody of onelanguage and that of another is a little-studied phenomenon. Thisresearch addresses the 'prosody translation' problem for MandarinChinese and English L2 learners by identifying correspondences betweenprosodic phenomena in each language that convey similar meanings. Thework is based on comparisons of L1 and L2 prosodic phenomena and themeanings they convey. Computational models of prosodic variationsuitable for representing these phenomena in each language areconstructed from data collected in the laboratory, with results testedon L1 and L2 subjects. The models are tested in an interactivetutoring system which takes an adaptive, self-paced approach toprosody tutoring. This system modifies training and testing examplesautomatically by imcremental enhancement of distinctive prosodicfeatures in response to student performance. The success of thesystem is evaluated via longitudinal studies of L2 students of bothlanguages to see whether the new techniques improve students' abilityto recognize and produce L2 prosodic variation. By providing a methodand computational support for prosody tutoring, this work will notonly enable students to attain more native-like fluency but it willprovide a model for training students in other pragmatic languagephenomena --- beyond learning the words and the syntax of a newlanguage.