Grammar instruction with spoken dialogue

• US 20020086268A1
• Filed: 12/18/2001
• Published: 07/04/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Burlington English Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Burlington English Ltd.
• Inventors: Shpiro, Zeev
• Application Number:
  US10/023,518
• Publication Number:
  US 20020086268A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/156
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/04 Speaking with audible presentation of the material to be studied G09B5/04
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/06 Foreign languages with audible presentation of material to be studied G09B5/04
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student

Abstract

A computer assisted learning environment in which an interactive dialogue occurs between a user and an instructional process of an electronic device, wherein the user performs a speaking task and the user'"'"'s performance is analyzed. The user is presented with a prompt at the electronic device and, in response, produces a spoken input, which is received by the electronic device, and provided to the instructional process. The instructional process analyzes the received spoken input using speech recognition techniques and provides feedback concerning the grammar of the user input. The analysis may also include Spoken Language skills evaluation and in this case the feedback will be extended to cover these aspects as well.

Claims

1. A method of providing language instruction, the method comprising:

presenting a prompt to a user at an electronic device of a computer instructional system;

receiving a user spoken input in response to the device prompt at the electronic device, thereby comprising a user-device dialogue; and

analyzing the received user spoken input using speech recognition and providing feedback concerning the grammar of a target language in response to the analyzed user input.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further including analyzing the content of the user spoken input to provide the appropriate feedback concerning conversational grammar of the target language.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, further including analyzing the content of the user spoken input for grammatical correctness in accordance with grammar rules of the target language.

4. A method as defined in claim 3, further including providing a corrective message if the computer instructional system determines that the user spoken input is grammatically incorrect.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein analyzing the received user spoken input concerning grammar comprises determining grammatical correctness by comparing the user spoken input to a database of potential answers that includes grammatically correct and incorrect answers relative to the prompt.

6. A method as defined in claim 5, further including providing a corrective message if the computer instructional system determines that the user spoken input is grammatically incorrect.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein analyzing the received user spoken input comprises utilizing speech recognition that accommodates non-native speakers of the target language.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, further including:

utilizing speech recognition to analyze the received user spoken input; and

identifying user spoken language errors in the target language.

9. A language instruction system comprising:

an electronic dialogue device including a display screen, microphone, and audio playback device;

a grammar lesson subsystem; and

an instruction interface that supports communications between the electronic dialogue device and the grammar lesson subsystem;

wherein the grammar lesson subsystem receives a user spoken input in response to a device prompt at the electronic dialogue device, thereby comprising a user-device dialogue, and wherein the grammar lesson subsystem utilizes speech recognition to analyze the received user spoken input and to provide feedback concerning conversational grammar of a target language.

10. A system as defined in claim 9, wherein the system analyzes the content of the user spoken input to provide the feedback concerning conversational grammar for the target language.

11. A system as defined in claim 9, wherein the system analyzes the content of the user spoken input for grammatical correctness in accordance with grammar rules of the target language.

12. A system as defined in claim 11, wherein the system provides a corrective message if the system determines that the user spoken input is grammatically incorrect.

13. A system as defined in claim 9, wherein the system determines grammatical correctness by comparing the user spoken input to a database of potential answers that includes grammatically correct and incorrect answers relative to the prompt.

14. A system as defined in claim 13, wherein the system provides a corrective message produced according to grammar rules of the target language if the system determines that the user spoken input is grammatically incorrect.

15. A system as defined in claim 9, wherein the system analyzes the received user spoken input by utilizing speech recognition that accommodates non-native speakers of the target language.

16. A system as defined in claim 9, wherein the system utilizes speech recognition to analyze the received user spoken input and identifies user spoken language errors in the target language.