2020 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Investigating the extent to which speech rater judgement relates to objective speech measures
| Project/Area Number |
19K00931
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Hiroshima Shudo University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
Philip Head 広島修道大学, 商学部, 講師 (30801998)
|
|---|
| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
山根 典子 広島大学, 総合科学研究科, 准教授 (70319391)
CLENTON JONATHAN 広島大学, 総合科学研究科, 准教授 (80762434)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
|
| Keywords | Speech Comprehensibility / Speech Ratings / Listener backgrounds / Gender / Vocabulary / Phonology |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
I was able to collect data from 77 raters. The raters listened to 44 speech samples of English L2 speakers and evaluated them on a scale of 1-9 according to 1) overall comprehensibility, 2) fluency and coherence, 3) lexical resources, 4) grammatical range and accuracy, 5) segmental pronunciation, 6) rhythm, and 7) intonation. The raters consisted of English, Japanese, and other L1 English teachers in Japan, Japanese L1 students in Japan and Canada, and English L1 and L2 students in Canada. Raters also completed a language background survey and post-evaluation questionnaire. A webpage was created to house the rating materials and instructions in order to allow participants to complete the procedure online.
|
| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic I had to cancel a planned trip to Canada to recruit and supervise raters. I have also had to devote extra time to preparing for online teaching, resulting in less time to spend on the research project. Many potential participants in the study were also unusually busy or unable to attend school in person and so it was difficult to find the number of subjects that I desired for this project.
|
| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Due to the COVID-19 situation I changed the sample evaluation task online. This has expanded the potential locations and times where people can take part in the study, although inevitably the data collection environment will be more varied than in a supervised laboratory setting. I will continue to seek out participants through social media in the hopes of obtaining enough new raters to obtain the desired number of participants in each rater category.
|
| Causes of Carryover |
Last year we used the funds to pay for participants to evaluate speech samples. We also employed assistants to help with transcribing audio samples. Finally, we also bought some equipment necessary for adapting to the COVID-19 situation, requiring adaptation of our original plans.
Next year we plan to use the funds to pay more participants to complete the evaluation procedures.
|
