Foreign Language Trainer

This essay does not describe an existing computer program, just one that should exist. This essay is about a suggested student project in Java programming. This essay gives a rough overview of how it might work. I have no source, object, specifications, file layouts or anything else useful to implementing this project. Everything I have to say to help you with this project is written below. I am not prepared to help you implement it; I have too many other projects of my own.

I do contract work for a living, which could include writing a program such as this. However, I don’t do people’s homework for them. That just robs them of an education.

You have my full permission to implement this project in any way you please and to keep all the profits from your endeavor.

The purpose of this Applet/application is to teach someone to pronounce words in a foreign language correctly. I will assume that language is Esperanto, though it would also apply to other languages. You can start simply and work up.

Point at a word. The computer pronounces it in Esperanto. All you need here is a web page with downloadable AU files.
Use the JMF classes to record the student’s voice. Play his voice back to him. Play the instructor’s voice back pronouncing the word or phrase correctly.
As above, but play the two voices simultaneously, one in each ear.
Analyse the voiceprints in various ways, and display the student and instructor visually side by side.
Animate motions of the tongue.
Allow the student to input arbitrary Esperanto sentences. The computer pronounces them as best it can by stitching together recordings of individual words.
Use generic text to speech algorithms. This allows the student to hear arbitrary texts written in Esperanto with roughly the fluency of Stephen Hawking. It would also be useful for the blind to access materials in Esperanto.
Other language skill drills not directly linked to pronunciation, such as computer asks a question in English and the student must answer in Esperanto or vice versa, or Esperanto-Esperanto. See the Learn To Count Applet for classes to give Esperanto number drill.
Internet tie in to live human instructor who monitors perhaps 40 students simultaneously. His interactions are not necessarily in real time the way they are in a conventional language lab. Students can submit verbal and written questions.
IBM’s Alphaworks have a speech recognition package that works with Java. Perhaps it could be hooked up to recognize how well a student pronounces a given word. If not, perhaps its authors might consider exposing a bit more of the package’s innards to allow it to be used this way.
Think about how you might use this technology that you have developed to help people with sensory or motor disabilities, including employment opportunities.

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