Development of a genre-dependent TTS system with cross-speaker speaking-style transplantation

One of the biggest challenges in speech synthesis is the production of contextually-appropriate naturally sounding synthetic voices. This means that a Text-To-Speech system must be able to analyze a text beyond the sentence limits in order to select, or even modulate, the speaking style according to a broader context. Our current architecture is based on a two-step approach: text genre identification and speaking style synthesis according to the detected discourse genre. For the final implementation, a set of four genres and their corresponding speaking styles were considered: broadcast news, live sport commentaries, interviews and political speeches. In the final TTS evaluation, the four speaking styles were transplanted to the neutral voices of other speakers not included in the training database. When the transplanted styles were compared to the neutral voices, transplantation was significantly preferred and the similarity to the target speaker was as high as 78%.

A interação em educação de infância: uma construção colaborativa do conhecimento da língua

O presente trabalho está enquadrado no âmbito do Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar e, mais concretamente, na unidade curricular de Prática e Intervenção Supervisionada, a qual foi realizada numa instituição pública de educação pré-escolar. Durante o desenvolvimento da prática educativa tivemos sempre em consideração as diferentes áreas de conteúdo e a sua articulação. Certamente, que a ação aqui trabalhada incide mais pormenorizadamente no domínio da linguagem oral. Tendo como alicerce a pedagogia infantil, desenvolvemos aprendizagens estimulantes e significativas em que a criança escutando, dialogando e usando a palavra como ferramenta para comunicar aprende a crescer comunicando. Como profissionais, recorremos à investigação-ação para a realização do presente trabalho. Sendo que, desenvolvemos uma pesquisa, experimentação, análise e reflexão, para futuramente pudermos melhorar a nossa prática educativa.

The national preceptor, or, Selections in prose and poetry ... /

"Consisting of narrative, descriptive, argumentative, didactic, pathetic, and humorous pieces ... calculated to improve the scholar in reading and speaking ... designed for the use of schools and academies."

Teaching and organisation, with special reference to secondary schools, a manual of practice,

Contains bibliographies.

Professionalism and functional outcomes

A foundation principle of professionalism is listening carefully to clients' needs. This paper reviews current studies that have sought to listen to the needs of people with aphasia and their families. The preliminary evidence to date suggests that people with aphasia have goals that cover the bio-psycho-social spectrum but place a lot of importance on functional outcomes such as participation in life's activities, relationships, and personal self-esteem. In contrast, descriptions of current aphasia management practices reflect a predominantly medical model approach that emphasizes impairment-level goals. This paper suggests that a proportion of speech-language pathologists are not truly listening and responding to their clients' needs. This leads to a mismatch between the therapists' and clients' goals in therapy. The concept of person-centred goal-setting is described. This may contribute to greater alignments of goals and better outcomes of rehabilitation. Learning outcomes: As a result of reading this work, the participant will be able to: (a) have knowledge of criticisms of aphasia therapy by people with aphasia; (b) understand the concept of person-centred goal-setting; (c) understand the complexity of mismatched goals between therapist and client. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effect of auditory and visual distracters on the useful field of view: Implications for the driving task

PURPOSE. The driving environment is becoming increasingly complex, including both visual and auditory distractions within the in- vehicle and external driving environments. This study was designed to investigate the effect of visual and auditory distractions on a performance measure that has been shown to be related to driving safety, the useful field of view. METHODS. A laboratory study recorded the useful field of view in 28 young visually normal adults (mean 22.6 +/- 2.2 years). The useful field of view was measured in the presence and absence of visual distracters (of the same angular subtense as the target) and with three levels of auditory distraction (none, listening only, listening and responding). RESULTS. Central errors increased significantly (P < 0.05) in the presence of auditory but not visual distracters, while peripheral errors increased in the presence of both visual and auditory distracters. Peripheral errors increased with eccentricity and were greatest in the inferior region in the presence of distracters. CONCLUSIONS. Visual and auditory distracters reduce the extent of the useful field of view, and these effects are exacerbated in inferior and peripheral locations. This result has significant ramifications for road safety in an increasingly complex in-vehicle and driving environment.

Towards an integrative theory of religion and politics

In the social sciences, debate on the relationship between religion and politics is mainly the subject of analysis in the sociology of religion and the theory of international relations. While each of these fields promotes different approaches to study their interdependency. The individual's perception of religion and politics is neglected by current research. The faithful, who participates in religious ceremonies, listening and behaving according to specific religious teachings, actively engaging in the liturgical life of the institutional form of his religion, has a specific way of understanding the relationship between religion and politics. I argue that this aspect is under-researched and misrepresented in the literature of sociology and international relations. However, a more complex analysis is offered by the study of nationalism, and especially by its ethnosymbolic approach, which includes at the micro and macro societal level the presence of myths and symbols as part of the individual's and the nation's life. An integrative theory analysing the connection between religion and politics takes into account the role of myths and symbols from the perspectives of both individuals and ethnic communities.

Problematising L2 listening pedagogy:the potential of process-based listening strategy instruction in the L2 classroom

Listening is typically the first language skill to develop in first language (L1) users and has been recognized as a basic and fundamental tool for communication. Despite the importance of listening, aural abilities are often taken for granted, and many people overlook their dependency on listening and the complexities that combine to enable this multi-faceted skill. When second language (L2) students are learning their new language, listening is crucial, as it provides access to oral input and facilitates social interaction. Yet L2 students find listening challenging, and L2 teachers often lack sufficient pedagogy to help learners develop listening abilities that they can use in and beyond the classroom. In an effort to provide a pedagogic alternative to more traditional and limited L2 listening instruction, this thesis investigated the viability of listening strategy instruction (LSI) over three semesters at a private university in Japan through a qualitative action research (AR) intervention. An LSI program was planned and implemented with six classes over the course of three AR phases. Two teachers used the LSI with 121 learners throughout the project. Following each AR phase, student and teacher perceptions of the methodology were investigated via questionnaires and interviews, which were primary data collection methods. Secondary research methods (class observations, pre/post-semester test scores, and a research journal) supplemented the primary methods. Data were analyzed and triangulated for emerging themes related to participants’ perceptions of LSI and the viability thereof. These data showed consistent positive perceptions of LSI on the parts of both learners and teachers, although some aspects of LSI required additional refinement. This project provided insights on LSI specific to the university context in Japan and also produced principles for LSI program planning and implementation that can inform the broader L2 education community.

Positionality and Comparisons: Critical Views on Qualitative Research across Asia

Ce cahier est basé sur la réflexion autobiographique de deux chercheuses ayant effectué des recherches qualitatives et ethnographiques, de 2008 à 2014, en Asie centrale et du Sud-­‐Est. Les expériences sur le terrain constituent des moyens de comparaisons dans le présent document. En mettant l’accent sur le positionnement sur le terrain, l’étude montre que, d’abord, il est essentiel de détenir une poste intermédiaire et de parler une langue locale afin de garantir un accès et de mener des activités de recherche sur le terrain. Deuxièmement, différentes régions prédéterminent des contextes culturels et politiques ponctuels qui, à leur tour, façonneraient la recherche en sciences sociales. Troisièmement, le fait d’être une femme présente à la fois des avantages et des inconvénients. Enfin, en termes de méthodologie, les stages et les entrevues se sont avérés des méthodes fiables pour la collecte des données empiriques sur les régions ci-­‐dessus mentionnées, sans pour autant permettre de bâtir la confiance.

Positionality and Comparisons: Critical Views on Qualitative Research across Asia

Ce cahier est basé sur la réflexion autobiographique de deux chercheuses ayant effectué des recherches qualitatives et ethnographiques, de 2008 à 2014, en Asie centrale et du Sud-­‐Est. Les expériences sur le terrain constituent des moyens de comparaisons dans le présent document. En mettant l’accent sur le positionnement sur le terrain, l’étude montre que, d’abord, il est essentiel de détenir une poste intermédiaire et de parler une langue locale afin de garantir un accès et de mener des activités de recherche sur le terrain. Deuxièmement, différentes régions prédéterminent des contextes culturels et politiques ponctuels qui, à leur tour, façonneraient la recherche en sciences sociales. Troisièmement, le fait d’être une femme présente à la fois des avantages et des inconvénients. Enfin, en termes de méthodologie, les stages et les entrevues se sont avérés des méthodes fiables pour la collecte des données empiriques sur les régions ci-­‐dessus mentionnées, sans pour autant permettre de bâtir la confiance.

Item and task difficulty in a B2 reading examination: perceptions of test-takers and CEFR alignment experts compared with psychometric measurements

The article presents a study of a CEFR B2-level reading subtest that is part of the Slovenian national secondary school leaving examination in English as a foreign language, and compares the test-taker actual performance (objective difficulty) with the test-taker and expert perceptions of item difficulty (subjective difficulty). The study also analyses the test-takers’ comments on item difficulty obtained from a while-reading questionnaire. The results are discussed in the framework of the existing research in the fields of (the assessment of) reading comprehension, and are addressed with regard to their implications for item-writing, FL teaching and curriculum development.

Every picture tells a story: using selfie-inspired activities to enhance social relations and encourage self-reflexivity.

This chapter explores the results of a study in Thailand that capitalised on the popularity of the selfie, providing second-year English language students with an opportunity to practise their oral presentation and speaking skills. The selfie was used not in the usual sense of online picture-sharing, but as a visual aid in a face-to-face interaction, thus serving as a “currency for social interaction” (van Dijck 2008, p.62) and communication device (Saltz, 2014). Mining the rich insights gained from the Thai study, this chapter presents another selfie-inspired activity adapted for a different context and purpose at a UK university. Initially designed to facilitate recall of students’ names linked with faces, the initiative evolved into an effective conversation starter. It is suggested that both selfie-inspired initiatives have led to serendipitous results, such as encouraging self-reflexivity among the students and promoting the development of “rapid intimacy” in the classroom (Victoria 2011, p.72). Indeed, creating a space for students to share their personal stories and enact different identities can help enrich the learning and teaching experience. This chapter also demonstrates how aspects of visual methodologies can be employed as a resource for theorising visual data, such as the selfie, for classroom application.

Prática de ensino supervisionada de Inglês e de Espanhol no Ensino Básico

Este relatório, apresentado à Escola Superior de Educação de Bragança, realizado no âmbito da Prática de Ensino Supervisionada (PES) do Mestrado em Ensino do inglês e espanhol no ensino básico, tem como finalidade refletir sobre algumas questões teórico-práticas abordadas durante a realização da PES. Considerando o papel dos falsos amigos no processo de ensino/aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira, neste caso o inglês e espanhol, analisámos e refletimos sobre a sua importância para a aprendizagem da Língua Estrangeira (LE). Primeiramente, desenvolveu-se em termos teóricos o tema referido de modo a criar uma relação teórico-prática no que diz respeito às atividades desenvolvidas durante a PES. A exploração teórica centrou-se na revisão da literatura focando-se nos conceitos dos falsos amigos, das macrocapacidades de compreensão e expressão oral e das funções da linguagem tendo por base os métodos de ensino, nomeadamente o método da abordagem comunicativa. Durante a prática de ensino supervisionada foram criadas atividades e estratégias que permitiram um estudo sobre a ocorrência de constrangimentos impeditivos ou não da compreensão de significados por parte do aprendente e em que medida isso constitui um fator facilitador ou um obstáculo na aprendizagem de uma língua estrangeira.

Parsing, Generation and Grammar

Humans use their grammatical knowledge in more than one way. On one hand, they use it to understand what others say. On the other hand, they use it to say what they want to convey to others (or to themselves). In either case, they need to assemble the structure of sentences in a systematic fashion, in accordance with the grammar of their language. Despite the fact that the structures that comprehenders and speakers assemble are systematic in an identical fashion (i.e., obey the same grammatical constraints), the two ‘modes’ of assembling sentence structures might or might not be performed by the same cognitive mechanisms. Currently, the field of psycholinguistics implicitly adopts the position that they are supported by different cognitive mechanisms, as evident from the fact that most psycholinguistic models seek to explain either comprehension or production phenomena. The potential existence of two independent cognitive systems underlying linguistic performance doubles the problem of linking the theory of linguistic knowledge and the theory of linguistic performance, making the integration of linguistics and psycholinguistic harder. This thesis thus aims to unify the structure building system in comprehension, i.e., parser, and the structure building system in production, i.e., generator, into one, so that the linking theory between knowledge and performance can also be unified into one. I will discuss and unify both existing and new data pertaining to how structures are assembled in understanding and speaking, and attempt to show that the unification between parsing and generation is at least a plausible research enterprise. In Chapter 1, I will discuss the previous and current views on how parsing and generation are related to each other. I will outline the challenges for the current view that the parser and the generator are the same cognitive mechanism. This single system view is discussed and evaluated in the rest of the chapters. In Chapter 2, I will present new experimental evidence suggesting that the grain size of the pre-compiled structural units (henceforth simply structural units) is rather small, contrary to some models of sentence production. In particular, I will show that the internal structure of the verb phrase in a ditransitive sentence (e.g., The chef is donating the book to the monk) is not specified at the onset of speech, but is specified before the first internal argument (the book) needs to be uttered. I will also show that this timing of structural processes with respect to the verb phrase structure is earlier than the lexical processes of verb internal arguments. These two results in concert show that the size of structure building units in sentence production is rather small, contrary to some models of sentence production, yet structural processes still precede lexical processes. I argue that this view of generation resembles the widely accepted model of parsing that utilizes both top-down and bottom-up structure building procedures. In Chapter 3, I will present new experimental evidence suggesting that the structural representation strongly constrains the subsequent lexical processes. In particular, I will show that conceptually similar lexical items interfere with each other only when they share the same syntactic category in sentence production. The mechanism that I call syntactic gating, will be proposed, and this mechanism characterizes how the structural and lexical processes interact in generation. I will present two Event Related Potential (ERP) experiments that show that the lexical retrieval in (predictive) comprehension is also constrained by syntactic categories. I will argue that the syntactic gating mechanism is operative both in parsing and generation, and that the interaction between structural and lexical processes in both parsing and generation can be characterized in the same fashion. In Chapter 4, I will present a series of experiments examining the timing at which verbs’ lexical representations are planned in sentence production. It will be shown that verbs are planned before the articulation of their internal arguments, regardless of the target language (Japanese or English) and regardless of the sentence type (active object-initial sentence in Japanese, passive sentences in English, and unaccusative sentences in English). I will discuss how this result sheds light on the notion of incrementality in generation. In Chapter 5, I will synthesize the experimental findings presented in this thesis and in previous research to address the challenges to the single system view I outlined in Chapter 1. I will then conclude by presenting a preliminary single system model that can potentially capture both the key sentence comprehension and sentence production data without assuming distinct mechanisms for each.

Developing reading sub-skills: 15 Lesson Plans Adapted from "The Canterbury Tales”for teenagers

Este trabajo enfatiza el uso de la literatura en Clases EFL. La literatura es usada como una técnica para enseñar las cuatro destrezas básicas: lectura, habilidad de escuchar, escritura y la producción oral. Provee herramientas para mejorar vocabulario, pronunciación y estructuras gramaticales. El leer literatura provee beneficios enlistados en este documento. Además, algunas desventajas también son presentadas. La falta de: capacitación de profesores, interés por parte de los estudiantes y material propio de lectura, hacen de la literatura una tarea difícil de completar. Seleccionar el material correcto para una Clase EFL es el aspecto más importante para generar el interés por la lectura en los estudiantes. En este caso los adolescentes son el objetivo de este estudio. “The Canterbury Tales” por Geoffrey Chaucer, es la obra en la cual este proyecto está basado. La obra literaria de Geoffrey Chaucer “The Canterbury Tales” le da al lector la oportunidad de imaginar una cultura diferente, el comportamiento de las personas, sentimientos, diversión y moralejas con las que las personas se identifican. Quince planificaciones de clase adaptadas de “The Canterbury Tales” es la mejor herramienta para cultivar el interés por la lectura. Las más importantes sub-destrezas son mostradas en estas planificaciones. Cada una de estas sub-destrezas demuestra actividades sugeridas que pueden ser practicadas dentro del aula. La incorporación de la lectura en una Clase EFL facilita el trabajo del profesor con estudiantes quienes encontraran en la lectura facilidad y diversión.