Bojan Petek
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering
Snezniška 5, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Bojan.Petek@Uni-Lj.si
1. Introduction
University of Ljubljana offers undergraduate and graduate degree curricula in Communication Disorders at the Faculty of Education, Department of Defectology. Their undergraduate programme also includes a course entitled Speech Analysis and Phonetics (Racunalniška analiza govora s fonetiko) that is given in the second year of study. This paper presents work underway that aims to integrate relevant areas of Human Language Technologies (HLT) in the Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) studies, and teaching methodology with information technology that are envisioned to be used in the future. Specifically, the SLT/HLT integration for this course is discussed from the point of view of recent proposals in the SLT studies that were outlined in the books "The Landscape of Future Education in Speech Communication Sciences" [Bloothooft et. al., 1997, 1998, 1999].
2. Curriculum in Communication Disorders at the University of Ljubljana
Faculty of Education at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, offers several single-major 4-year study programmes leading to a university degree, including curricula to educate specialists for:
Main objective of undergraduate programmes is to train teachers that work with handicapped children and adults experiencing developmental or learning difficulties. Postgraduate curricula are also given.
The course Speech Analysis and Phonetics is taught in second year of the undergraduate programme for the hearing and speech impaired. The primary goal in curriculum development is to structure it to conform to the international guidelines and standards for education of speech and language therapists (the International Association of Logopedics & Phoniatrics, IALP). Another is to introduce the SLT/HLT curricula integration as discussed in the next section.
3 Ways and means for the SLT/HLT curricula integration
Several notable recent events have provided major insights into possibilities for the curriculum development, including:
In the following, each of the events listed above is briefly discussed form the point of view of potential it brings to the curriculum development at the University of Ljubljana, especially with respect to the SLT/HLT curricula integration for the course Speech Analysis and Phonetics.
MATISSE workshop presented the courseware "Speech Production and Perception I" (SPP1) [Berkovitz, 1999] that could be applied as laboratory exercise work at the University of Ljubljana. It represents interactive multimedia CD-ROM courseware that enables students to gain understanding of the correspondence between sound, spectrum and articulation. One of the main strengths of this tool in teaching an introductory course in acoustic phonetics is its excellent interactivity.
The SPP1 includes hundreds of interactive models and simulations that motivate user for self- and teacher-guided instruction through the study units on Spectrograms, Vowel Acoustics, Consonant Acoustics, Speech Perception, and Vowel Perception. Additionally, the SPP1 includes a library of IPA vowel and consonant charts with spectrograms and pronunciations, an interactive glossary defining the basic terminology and reference links to textbook material. The courseware also provides interactive student evaluations as well as separate printed student worksheets. Each worksheet contains questions that require about paragraph length answers. This enables written assessment of study goals on the introductory as well as advanced level of study.
In general, multimedia courseware can be considered as an efficient complement to the traditional ways of teaching. Interactivity of the courseware can balance between the teacher guided and open ended learning environments. It can potentially create and stimulate the learners’ motivation and interest. Therefore, it is important that the interactive multimedia courseware offers an efficient user interface. Its capabilities and efectiveness can be judged in a number of ways and should be evaluated in a consistent way.
The reference [Reeves and Harmon] proposed a scheme that enables the evaluation of quality of the user interface by using up to ten User Interface Dimensions (UID). Figure 1 presents the user interface evaluation results of the SPP1 after this rating proposal.
1. Ease of Use
| <-------- | ---------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | ---------- | ----X---- | -------> |
| 1 | 10 |
2. Navigation
| <-------- | ---------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | ---------- | --------- | ----X---> |
| 1 | 10 |
3. Cognitive Load
| <-------- | ---------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | -----X----- | --------- | -------> |
| 1 | 10 |
4. Mapping
| <-------- | ---------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | ---------- | --------- | ----X---> |
| 1 | 10 |
5. Screen Design
| <-------- | ---------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | ---------- | ----X---- | -------> |
| 1 | 10 |
6. Knowledge Space Compatibility
| <-------- | ---------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | ---------- | --------- | ----X--> |
| 1 | 10 |
7. Information Presentation
| <-------- | ---------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | ---------- | --------- | ----X--> |
| 1 | 10 |
8. Media Integration
| <-------- | ---------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | -----X---- | ---------- | -------> |
| 1 | 10 |
9. Aesthetics
| <-------- | ---------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | ---------- | ----X---- | -------> |
| 1 | 10 |
10. Overall Functionality
| <-------- | ---------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | ---------- | --X------- | -------> |
| 1 | 10 |
Figure 1. User interface rating form of the Sensimetrics’ Speech Production and Perception 1 courseware.
The Information Presentation, Knowledge Space Compatibility, Navigation and Mapping (for definitions, see [Reeves and Harmon]) are the strong dimensions of the SPP1 user interface. The Media Integration dimension could potentially be improved by judicious addition of video clips, e.g., to support the animated vocal tract cross sections with the visual feedback of human articulatory setup during consonant or vowel pronunciations. The Cognitive Load dimension could, e.g., benefit from instructing the user which concepts are prerequisites and should more efficiently be studied from textbooks in advance before entering the courseware unit.
In conclusion, despite some slips and errors noted in [Simpson, 1998], the SPP1 represents an excellent example of successful synergy between teachers, speech scientists, artists and programmers who have developed it.
3.2 Books of the SOCRATES Thematic Network "Speech Communication Sciences"
In 1999 the SOCRATES Thematic Network "Speech Communication Sciences" finished its third year of activities. After each year a book considering the future academic education in Speech Communication Sciences was published.
The first book [Bloothooft et al., 1997] presented an analysis of the European academic education in Speech Communication Sciences. Work in the Thematic Network was organized in working groups considering
Based on wide consultation, proposals for the European education in the first three areas mentioned above were published in [Bloothooft et al., 1998]. Recently, the 3rd year book has presented recommendations for the European education in Phonetics, Spoken Language Engineering, and Speech and Language Therapy [Bloothooft et al., 1999].
These books provide a wealth of expertise and information for curriculum development in the area of Speech Communication Sciences.
3.3 The EuroSpeech’99 Education Arena
A Special Session entitled Education Arena has been recently organized as a part of the EuroSpeech’99 conference. It has demonstrated advanced software and courseware with potential use in education.
Some of these tools, distributed on a CD-ROM by the ELSNET support, provide invaluable ways for curriculum development, including the SLT/HLT integration that is considered in this paper.
4 Conclusions
The future education is facing a major change in view of information age and becomes global. It is important to develop critical thinking in curriculum development and to make informed judgements on the impact of impressive progress in the area of Speech Communication Sciences that will likely to change our society. This paper presented discussion on ways and means for curriculum development that given the rapid change becomes a permanent necessity.
The paper also briefly introduced study programmes in Communication Disorders at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and presented main avenues in curriculum development for the course Speech Analysis and Phonetics. It is expected that active international collaboration should speed-up and be able to provide critical mass of information to think on the new directions for education in Speech Communication Sciences.
5 References
[Berkovitz, 1999] Berkovitz, R. "Design, development and evaluation of computer-assisted learning for Speech Science education". Proc. ESCA/SOCRATES Tutorial and Research Workshop on Method and Tool Innovations for Speech Science Education (MATISSE), pp. 9-16. (also http://www.sens.com/SPP1.htm)
[Bloothooft et al., 1997] Bloothooft, G., van Dommelen, W., Espain, C., Green, P., Hazan, V., Huckvale, M., Wigforss, E. The Landscape of Future Education in Speech Communication Sciences, 1. Analysis. OTS Publications. ISBN 90-5434-065-7.
[Bloothooft et al., 1998] Bloothooft, G., van Dommelen, W., Espain, C., Hazan, V., Huckvale, M., Wigforss, E. The Landscape of Future Education in Speech Communication Sciences, 2. Proposals. Utrecht: UiL OTS Publications. ISBN 90-5434-069-X.
[Bloothooft et al., 1999] Bloothooft, G., van Dommelen, W., Fellbaum, K., Hazan, V., Huckvale, M., Leahy, M., Wigforss, E. The Landscape of Future Education in Speech Communication Sciences, 3. Recommendations. Utrecht: UiL-OTS Publications. ISBN 90-5434-071-1.
[Hazan and Holland, 1999] Hazan, V., and Holland, M. (Eds.) Proc. ESCA/SOCRATES Tutorial and Research Workshop on Method and Tool Innovations for Speech Science Education (MATISSE), University College London. ISBN 0 9535586 0 6.
[Reeves and Harmon] Reeves, T. C., and Harmon, S. W. "User interface rating tool for interactive multimedia". (http://itech18.coe.uga.edu/edit8350/UIRF.html)
[Simpson, 1998] Simpson, A. P. "Speech Production and Perception I". Phonetica, 55(3): 173-175.