Development of a Program for Self Assessment of Japanese Pronunciation by English Learners

Abstract

A program for self assessment of Japanese pronunciation by Englishspeaking learners was developed using a language model built with input from a language teacher in collaboration with speech engineers. This collaboration enhanced the program's capacity for accurate assessment and provides practical support to users by linking evaluation with feedback, and an editorial function of error patterns. The program drew positive responses from participants in a trial run. This paper discusses the development of our language model, the function and evaluation of this self assessment program.