SPELL - AN AUTOMATED-SYSTEM FOR COMPUTER-AIDED PRONUNCIATION TEACHING

This paper describes a speech technology project called SPELL (Interactive System for Spoken European Language Training), whose main aim is to design an automated system for improving the pronunciation of foreign languages by learners of English, French and Italian. The project has just completed a two-year feasibility study which has created a prototype vehicle incorporating teaching modules in intonation, rhythm and vowel quality. The paper highlights the speech signal processing techniques, similarity metrics and user interfaces which have been integrated to produce an initial demonstration system. A preliminary evaluation by a group of language teaching professionals suggests that the SPELL system is an appropriate tool for exploring the automated teaching of pronunciation.