ERIC Number: EJ1322458
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0969-594X
EISSN: N/A
PRAAT Scripts to Measure Speed Fluency and Breakdown Fluency in Speech Automatically
de Jong, Nivja H.; Pacilly, Jos; Heeren, Willemijn
Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, v28 n4 p456-476 2021
Fluency in terms of speed of speech and (lack of) hesitations such as silent and filled pauses ('uhm's) is part of oral proficiency. Language assessment rubrics therefore include aspects of fluency. Measuring fluency, however, is highly time-consuming because of the manual labour involved. The current paper aims to automatically measure aspects of L2 fluency, including filled pauses, in both Dutch and English. A revised existing script and a new script for filled pauses are tested on accuracy. We also gauged whether the outcomes of the new script could be used for language assessment purposes by relating the outcomes to human judgements. Without further investigations, the current script should not (yet) be used for the purpose of assessing fluency automatically in (high-stakes) oral proficiency assessment. However, the performance of the scripts for measuring aspects of fluency globally and quickly are promising, especially given their stability in accuracy on new corpora.
Descriptors: Language Fluency, Speech Skills, Second Languages, Indo European Languages, English (Second Language), Speech Tests, Language Tests, Automation, Computer Assisted Testing, Accuracy
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A