• Search Research Projects
  • Search Researchers
  • How to Use
  1. Back to previous page

Developing a learner-adaptive captioning system to improve second language listening

Research Project

Project/Area Number 17K02925
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Section一般
Research Field Foreign language education
Research InstitutionInstitute of Physical and Chemical Research (2019)
Kyoto University (2017-2018)

Principal Investigator

MESHGI Kourosh  国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, 革新知能統合研究センター, 研究員 (80774835)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) Mirzaei Maryam  国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, 革新知能統合研究センター, 特別研究員 (10810509)
Project Period (FY) 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2019)
Budget Amount *help
¥4,420,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,020,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000)
Fiscal Year 2018: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000)
Fiscal Year 2017: ¥2,470,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥570,000)
KeywordsPSC / Surprisal Model / L2 listening / ASR error analysis / Listening Difficulty Idx / Instantaneous Hints / Adaptive Captions / Individualized Cues / Cognitive Load / Lexical Complexity / Syntactic Complexity / NLP / Learner adaptation / Online machine learning / Active learning / Data-driven / automatic scaffolding / CALL / ASR / Listening Comprehension
Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project aimed at developing a user-adaptive caption system to realize an individualized platform for training second language listening skills. In this caption, words are synchronized by the utterance, and only difficult words are shown in the caption. The difficulty of the words is determined using word frequency and specificity, speech rate, lexical and syntactic complexity, and automatic speech recognition (ASR) errors as the indicators of acoustic/speech difficulty. ASR errors have been analyzed, and identified patterns were evaluated by experiments to ensure that they cause difficulties for L2 listeners. A listening difficulty index has been proposed using these factors. Additionally, a data-driven difficulty detector is built on top of these factors. In the proposed caption, learners can improve the word selection by feedback (adaptation), and timely and useful cues are embedded in the caption for ambiguous and difficult words/phrases (hints).

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

Improved listening skill of Japanese learners of English; Popular among university students and teachers; Facilitated training listening skill and using authentic material such as TED talks; Introduced a novel type of captioning method in Japan.

Report

(4 results)
  • 2019 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report ( PDF )
  • 2018 Research-status Report
  • 2017 Research-status Report
  • Research Products

    (4 results)

All 2020 2019 2017

All Journal Article (3 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 3 results,  Peer Reviewed: 3 results,  Open Access: 2 results) Presentation (1 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 1 results)

  • [Journal Article] Sentence Complexity as an Indicator of L2 Learner's Listening Difficulty2020

    • Author(s)
      M.S. Mirzaei, K. Meshgi, and T. Nishida
    • Journal Title

      EuroCALL'20: CALL for Widening participation

      Volume: 1 Pages: 1-1

    • Related Report
      2019 Annual Research Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] Learner Adaptive Partial and Synchronized Caption for L2 Listening Skill Development2019

    • Author(s)
      M. S. Mirzaei, K. Meshgi
    • Journal Title

      EuroCALL’19: Call and Complexity

      Volume: TBD

    • Related Report
      2018 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] Toward Adaptive Partial and Synchronized Caption to Facilitate L2 Listening2019

    • Author(s)
      M. S. Mirzaei, K. Meshgi
    • Journal Title

      FLEAT VII: Language Learning with Technology Facing the Future

      Volume: TBD

    • Related Report
      2018 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Listening Difficulty Detection to Foster Second Language Listening with Partial and Synchronized Caption2017

    • Author(s)
      M.S. Mirzaei, K. Meshgi, T. Kawahara
    • Organizer
      EuroCALL’17, Southampton, England, Aug 2017
    • Related Report
      2017 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research

URL: 

Published: 2017-04-28   Modified: 2021-02-19  

Information User Guide FAQ News Terms of Use Attribution of KAKENHI

Powered by NII kakenhi