Kirk P. H. Sullivan

The LS Graph: A Methodology for Visualizing Writing Revision

The writing process has long been a subject for investigation. Until recently researchers have been restricted to written protocols for the analysis of writing sessions. These provide vast amounts ...

Revisiting Carl Bildt's Impostor: Would a Speaker Verification System Foil Him?

Impostors pose a potential threat to security systems that rely on human identification and verification based on voice alone and to security systems that make use of computer audio-based person authentication systems. This paper presents a case-study, which explores these issues using recordings of a high quality professional impersonation of a well-known Swedish politician. These recordings were used in the role of impostor in the experiments reported here. The experiments using human listeners showed that an impostor who can closely imitate the speech of the target voice can result in confusion and, therefore, can pose a threat to security systems that rely on human identification and verification. In contrast, an established Gaussian mixture model based speaker identification system was employed to distinguish the recordings. It was shown that the recognition engine was capable of classifying the mimic attacks more appropriately.

Maximising the educational affordances of a technology supported learning environment for introductory undergraduate phonetics

New technologies afford a range of opportunities that can transform teaching techniques and offer enhanced possibilities for learning. This potential is often not grasped by the technologist or the educationalist when introducing new technologies into the learning situation and a situation arises which can be described as “New technology, no new pedagogy” This paper examines why this situation arises, before progressing to suggest a set of target areas the affordances of new technology ought to transform when introduced into the socio–cultural learning environment (Vygotsky, 1978). This set of target areas is illustrated through the presentation of a technology supported learning environment for introductory undergraduate phonetics. Each course module is discussed in relation to these targets and how the affordances of new technology are used to meet them. The student and lecturer reflections on the course indicate that the use of new technology as applied in this introductory undergraduate phonetics course was appropriate, although not always 100% successful.

Development of fluency and revision in L1 and L2 writing in Swedish High School years eight and nine

In this paper we use keystroke logging to examine the development of fluency and revision in high school L1 Swedish and L2 English writing. Each writer wrote one text in English and one in Swedish in each year of the study. Using a combination of statistical and automatic analyses of the keystroke log, we attempted to investigate: i) how the on-line writing process in terms of revising, pausing and fluency in first and second language writing changes over time, ii) whether there are on-line writing process variables which can be identified as contributing to text improvement, and iii) whether there are any aspects of L1 writing which can be identified as contributing to L2 writing and learning processes and which may form part of a teaching programme. Previous studies of L2 writers have attested to changes in fluency, pause and revision behaviour, and amount of text produced, although associations with the quality of the final output are not clearly supported. The within-writer comparison of this study addresses differences in fluency, pause and revision behaviour between L1 and L2 writing. A regression analysis looking at quality and two types of revision (Form, and Conceptual) found that form revision frequency was related to the language of writing and that conceptual revision frequency was dependent on linguistic experience rather than on language. The findings suggest that conceptual revision and writing skills are transferred from the L1 to the L2, and that these skills should be taught accordingly.

Supporting Learner Reflection in the Language Translation Class

In a case study a University class undertook a translation from Swedish to English in a keystroke logging environment and then replayed their translations in pairs while discussing their thought processes when undertaking the translations, and why they made particular choices and changes to their translations. Computer keystroke logging coupled with peer-based intervention assisted the students in discussing how they worked with their translations, and enabled them to see how their ideas relating to the translation developed as they worked with the text. The process showed that Computer Keystroke logging coupled with peer-based intervention has potential to (1) support student reflection and discussion around their translation tasks, and (2) enhance student motivation and enthusiasm for translation.

Teaching presence in computer conferencing learning environments : effects on interaction, cognition and learning uptake

This exploratory study examined how the level and nature of teaching presence impacted two online forum discussions from three dimensions: participation and interaction, cognitive presence, and knowledge development via assimilating peer messages. Effects on participation and interaction were graphically depicted. Effects on cognitive presence and knowledge construction via assimilating messages were suggested via statistical analysis, followed by qualitative interpretations. Twenty-six tertiary online learners with varied demographic backgrounds participated in the study for 6 weeks. The results showed that the nature of teaching presence in the study, specified to teacher initiation, roles of teaching presence and means of making teaching presence, largely shaped the impact of teaching presence on learning. A higher level of teaching presence was observed to be associated with a lower level of student participation, peer interaction, cognitive presence and learning uptake. Based on the results, implications for integrating and researching teaching presence in computer conferences were provided.

Effects on interaction, cognition andlearning uptake : Effects on interaction, cognition andlearning uptake

This exploratory study examined how the level and nature of teaching presence impacted two online forum discussions from three dimensions: participation and interaction, cognitive presence, and knowledge development via assimilating peer messages. Effects on participation and interaction were graphically depicted. Effects on cognitive presence and knowledge construction via assimilating messages were suggested via statistical analysis, followed by qualitative interpretations. Twenty-six tertiary online learners with varied demographic backgrounds participated in the study for 6 weeks. The results showed that the nature of teaching presence in the study, specified to teacher initiation, roles of teaching presence and means of making teaching presence, largely shaped the impact of teaching presence on learning. A higher level of teaching presence was observed to be associated with a lower level of student participation, peer interaction, cognitive presence and learning uptake. Based on the results, implications for integrating and researching teaching presence in computer conferences were provided.

Analogy, the Corpus and Pronunciation

Reading aloud and text-to-speech synthesis share the commonality of taking a printed text and generating the acoustic correlate. This chapter starts from the premise that modelling the human solution for generating the pronunciation of a word previously unseen will result in more effective and accurate pronunciation modules for machine synthesis. The human and the text-to-speech system both have access to a lexicon: the mental lexicon in the first case and the system dictionary in the other. These are the data sources which can be mined to generate an unknown word’s pronunciation. This chapter presents a computational approach to automatic pronunciation developed from a psychological model of oral reading. The approach takes the system dictionary — a frequency-tagged corpus — and uses analogy to generate the pronunciation of words not in the dictionary. A range of implementational choices is discussed and the effectiveness of the model for (British) English, German and Māori demonstrated.

Chapter 12: Digital Tools for the Recording, the Logging and the Analysis of Writing Processes

This subchapter provides an introduction to the possibilities and limitations of digital tools for recording of writing processes, a comprehensive framework in which the digital tools that are explained further in the subchapters are integrated and a critical perspective to the characteristics of the tools, their usage and related automatic analyses is provided. The study of writing using digital tools not only has a role to play in the shaping of a comprehensive theory of writing, but also a role to play in the development of new didactic approaches to the teaching of writing and the encouraging of language awareness. The research presentations in the subchapters are read by considering both the research implications and the didactic implications of the research tools for writing processes. Keywords: digital tool; language; research tool; writing processes

Perceived vowel quantity in Swedish: Effects of postvocalic voicing

Swedish is described as having a distinction between phonologically long and short vowels. This distinction is realized primarily through the duration of the vowels, but in some cases also through resonance characteristics of the vowels. In Swedish, like many languages, vowel duration is also longer preceding a voiced postvocalic consonant than a voiceless one. This study examines the weight of vowel duration and the first and second formant frequencies F1–F2 frequencies when distinguishing phonologically long and short vowel before a voiceless consonant (experiment 1) and before a voiced consonant (experiment 2). For three pairs of Swedish vowels ([i:]‐[ɪ], [o:]‐[ɔ], [ɑ:]‐[a]) 100 /kVt/ (experiment 1) and 100 /kVd/ (experiment 2) words were resynthesized having ten degrees of vowel duration and ten degrees of F1 and F2 adjustment. In both experiments listeners decided whether presented words contained a phonologically long or short vowel. Reaction times were also recorded. Results show that vowel duratio...