MEASURING NATIVENESS FOR THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER: EMERGENT TECHNOLOGY FOR THE CLASSROOM

Speech recognition technology is all around us today. We see it in our phones, our cars, and our living rooms. Why isn't it helping English language learners in the classroom? This paper will explore the reasons for this and how early stage products are gaining ground in China and may soon be helping learners worldwide. We will begin by understanding the difference between speech recognition and speech scoring and why speech scoring is what is needed for English language learners. SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute International) of Menlo Park, California is considered the pioneer of speech scoring technology. LanguaMetrics, Incorporated (Inc.) of Tampa, Florida licenses speech scoring technology from SRI International and has created a learning platform for publishers and institutions to create products to help English language learners improve their ability to communicate. The platform empowers its products to actually measure the nativeness of the speaker's oral production. This nativeness measure encompasses the pronunciation, rhythm, stress and all factors that impact the speaker's ability to be understood by a native speaker. Visual feedback is provided to the learner so that for the first time learners can actually see how their speaking can be improved. Implications for the classroom will be discussed with input from Dr. Susan Homan professor emerita University of South Florida.