User-centred design for Chinese-oriented spoken english learning system

Abstract

Oral production is an important part in English learning. Lack of a language environment with efficient instruction and feedback is a big issue for non-native speakers’ English spoken skill improvement. A computer-assisted language learning system can provide many potential benefits to language learners. It allows adequate instructions and instant feedback to the student, thus it facilitates self-study and encourages interactive use of the language. In this paper, we analyse Chinese college students' speaking requirements first, and then based on these requirements and usability criteria, a detailed description of an oral skills development system is provided. In this system, supported by Automatic Speech Recognition technology, special interactive activities and feedback forms were designed and a prototype was set up and tested to verify the effectiveness of this proposal.

Keywords:

• user-centred design
• spoken English
• learning system
• speech recognition

Acknowledgements

This work was the outcome of an Joint Project between ECNU and IBM. The authors would like to express their gratitude to all the team members of this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ping Yu

Ping Yu is a research assistant at Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Digital Educational Equipment of East China Normal University. She received her PhD from the Department of Computer & Information Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Her research interests include multimedia content management, user-centred design and semantic information retrieval.

Yingxin Pan

Yingxin Pan is a researcher in Microsoft. She had worked in IBM China Research Lab for several years. Her research area is focused on collaborative user experience.

Chen Li

Chen Li is an English teacher in School of Foreign Languages at ECNU. She has been teaching courses in intensive reading, extensive reading, speaking and translation for 20 years. Her professional interests focus in the areas of translation studies and English learning skills for adults' further education.

Zengxiu Zhang

Zengxiu Zhang, graduated from psychology department, is a senior engineer in information technology service office of the East China Normal University. His professional interests have been in the areas of psychological measurement, statistics and programming on psychological test.

Qin Shi

Qin Shi works in IBM China Research Lab for 18 years and her research area is focused on speech recognition and text to speech. She is also interested in leveraging the acoustic model of speech recognition to give people reasonable pronunciation score. The work could help people aware of their own pronunciation problem.

Wenpei Chu

Wenpei Chu, master of computer art, works in School of Open Learning and Education at ECNU. She has been teaching courses on information-based instructional design for several years and she has a wealth of experience in web designing and online course designing.

Mingzhuo Liu

Mingzhuo Liu, PhD degree, is an associate professor of School of Open and Learning Education at East China Normal University (ECNU). She has been teaching in ECNU for more than 16 years. Her professional interests have been in the areas of online instructional design, pedagogical usability, as well as the strategies and performance of ICTs in fundamental education.

Zhiting Zhu

Zhiting Zhu is a professor of educational technology at East China Normal University. His professional interests are in the areas of e-Learning system architecture and technology standards, online education, teacher professional development, technology enabling educational changes and innovations and technology cultures.