Computers have been used for language teaching ever since the 1960's.Learning a second language is a challenging endeavor, and, for decades now, proponents of computer assisted language learning (CALL) have declared that help is on the horison. We investigate the suitability of deploying speech technology in computer based systems that can be used to teach foreign language skills. In this case,...

Automatic speech recognition, translating of spoken words into text, is still a challenging task due to the high viability in speech signals. Deep learning, sometimes referred as representation learning or unsupervised feature learning, is a new area of machine learning. Deep learning is becoming a mainstream technology for speech recognition and has successfully replaced Gaussian mixtures for ...

Learning nonnative speech categories is often considered a challenging task in adulthood. This difficulty is driven by cross-language differences in weighting critical auditory dimensions that differentiate speech categories. For example, previous studies have shown that differentiating Mandarin tonal categories requires attending to dimensions related to pitch height and direction. Relative to...

The study of song learning and the neural song system has provided an important comparative model system for the study of speech and language acquisition. We describe some recent advances in the bird song system, focusing on the role of off-line processing including sleep in processing sensory information and in guiding developmental song learning. These observations motivate a new model of the...

This paper presents speech-driven Web retrieval models which accept spoken search topics (queries) in the NTCIR-3 Web retrieval task. The major focus of this paper is on improving speech recognition accuracy of spoken queries and then improving retrieval accuracy in speechdriven Web retrieval. We experimentally evaluated the techniques of combining outputs of multiple LVCSRmodels in recognition...