Software scores English language students - Isis Project No 2900

New language-learning software highlights the significance of stress patterns in the English language and scores student performance regardless of accent.

The Oxford Invention

Recent research conducted at the University of Oxford Phonetics Laboratory analysed speech samples covering seven dialects of the English language and three different styles of speech to determine which sound properties were most important to recognise and classify syllable stress.

Loudness and duration of syllables are the most important properties, and provide a basis on which to score a student by analysing the repetition of a given phrase. Accent and style play only a minor role in the use of stress to convey meaning and thus the effectiveness of the analysis is not significantly affected by either ethnic origin or the natural style of the speaker’s mother tongue.

Marketing Opportunity

The worldwide population of English speakers is approximately 2 billion and growing. Industrial globalization and worker migration has increased the demand for English language courses and software. Current software packages extend traditional teaching practices to the home or office through the use of computers. This innovation can provide the following benefits to language learning software:

• Uses live audio recording to analyze speech
• Gives students immediate feedback on their use of syllable stress
• Helps foreign nationals to focus on intelligibility and to reduce accent
• Complements traditional classroom-based training courses

Software Status

Isis would like to talk to companies interested in developing this software to extend current learning packages. Please contact the Isis Project manager to discuss this further.

Request Further Information: Project Number 2900 Software Scores English Language Students