Error Patterns for Automatic Error Detection in Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training Systems

This paper presents error patterns built on the basis of our comparative analysis of American English and Mexican Spanish phonemes and allophones which can be applied in designing the error detection module of a Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT) System for teaching American English pronunciation to Mexican Spanish speakers. Error identification is important for an adequate choice of correcting techniques which improves English pronunciation acquisition and helps learners to develop less accented speech. Since automatic individual error detection remains a highly complex computational task, error patterns can enhance the system performance and improve its precision. To the best of our knowledge, error patterns in American English speech generated by Mexican Spanish speakers has not been defined in previous work which was done mainly for Castilianoriginated standard Spanish.