2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Pronunciation education system based on the systematization of non-mothor tongue speech prosody using generation process model and speech synthesis
| Project/Area Number |
24652115
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
Foreign language education
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
HIROSE Keikichi 東京大学, 情報理工学(系)研究科, 教授 (50111472)
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| Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha) |
KAWAI Goh 北海道大学, 外国語教育センター, 准教授 (70312981)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2012-04-01 – 2014-03-31
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| Keywords | 韻律体系化 / 非母語音声 / 生成過程モデル / 音声合成 / 発音教育CALL / 基本周波数パターン / 単語アクセント / 音声変換 |
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| Research Abstract |
Fundamental frequency (F0) contours of speech by natives and learners are analyzed using the generation process model. Several findings, such as phrase components being less affected by language differences, are shown. As for utterances by learners, influence of their mother tongue is observed. Since learners utterances involve F0 movements not observable in natives utterances, accent type identifier trained using native s utterances does not work well. To solve this problem, a series of perceptual experiments is conducted using synthetic speech with systematic control on F0 (points of F0 movements, slope coefficients). Based on the result, a threshold method of high-low decision of F0 is developed. Also, generation process model constraints are applied to HMM-based speech synthesis resulting in speech quality improvement. A pronunciation training system on Japanese accent type is developed and evaluated.
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