Proceedings chapter
OA Policy
English

Assessing the quality of TTS audio in the LARA learning-by-reading platform

PublisherResearch-publishing.net
Publication date2021-12-13
First online date2021-12-13
Abstract

A popular idea in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is to use multimodal annotated texts, with annotations typically including embedded audio and translations, to support L2 learning through reading. An important question is how to create the audio, which can be done either through human recording or by a Text-To-Speech (TTS) synthesis engine. We may reasonably expect TTS to be quicker and easier, but humans to be of higher quality. Here, we report a study using the open-source LARA platform and ten languages. Samples of LARA audio totaling about three and a half minutes were provided for each language in both human and TTS form; subjects used a web form to compare different versions of the same item and rate the voices as a whole. Although human voice was more often preferred, TTS achieved higher ratings in some languages and was close in others.

Keywords
  • Reading
  • Multimodality
  • TTS
  • Evaluation
Research groups
Citation (ISO format)
AKHLAGHI, Elham et al. Assessing the quality of TTS audio in the LARA learning-by-reading platform. In: CALL and professionalisation: short papers from EUROCALL 2021. [s.l.] : Research-publishing.net, 2021. p. 1–5. doi: 10.14705/RPNET.2021.54.1299
Main files (1)
Proceedings chapter (Published version)
accessLevelPublic
Identifiers
ISBN9782490057979
395views
339downloads

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Creation15/12/2021 23:45:00
First validation15/12/2021 23:45:00
Update16/03/2023 02:19:52
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