CN1930595A - Language teaching method - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for teaching a foreign language includes operating an application server (10) to retrieve language training dialogue exercises from a database (17). The server transmits the dialogue exercises across data network (8), such as the Internet, and telecommunications network (6) to a language student (7) equipped with a third generation cellular phone (2). The dialogue exercises typically include audio visual clips depicting actors saying dialogue that is graded at a level corresponding to the student's proficiency. Responses from student (7) are conveyed back to the application server. The application server executes a software product (19) that includes instructions to analyse and grade the responses with speech recognition software. The student's performance, and any other desired feedback, is then transmitted to the student. In one embodiment of the invention the server is programmed to group remote students according to their proficiency levels. Common dialogue exercises are then transmitted to each student of the group via the telephone network. Responses from the students are then analysed and messages are transmitted back to them advising them of their relative positions in the group.

Description

language teaching methods

technical field

The present invention relates to methods for teaching languages.

Background technique

Now the number of foreign language learners is increasing all over the world, especially in Asia. It is currently estimated that more than 100 million Chinese are learning English, while Japan has more than 13 million English language students.

Learning a foreign language requires regular practice and attendance at taught classes if steady progress toward proficiency is to be made. However, the lives of many people today are more hectic than ever before, making it difficult to find time for regular face-to-face language classes or to find time for home study. As a result, progress in learning a foreign language is often less than desired.

Another problem associated with face-to-face language instruction is that it can be quite expensive for many students to provide small class sizes.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for delivering language lessons which can be accessed at a time and place convenient to the student and which can provide a reasonable cost.

Contents of the invention

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for teaching a foreign language, comprising the steps of:

providing language training content to a user of the wireless device over the telecommunications network, the content including prompts for the user to answer;

use speech recognition software to process user responses; and

The telecommunication network is utilized to provide feedback to the user based on the answers.

Preferably, the wireless device is capable of providing concurrent services. For example, a wireless device may include a third generation or higher mobile phone.

In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of:

providing language training content to users of a number of wireless devices;

process responses from each user; and

The telecommunications network is utilized to provide feedback to users indicating their performance relative to each other.

In another embodiment, the method may include:

Assign users with a common level of proficiency to a common group;

rank users in a common group based on their responses to the language training content; and

Users providing feedback to a common group indicate relative rank within that group.

In yet another embodiment, the method comprises the steps of:

providing a multi-player game to users of several wireless devices; and

Participants progress through the game based on user responses to language teaching exercises.

Preferably, the language training content comprises audiovisual content, such as video clips.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a networked application server programmed to implement the above method.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a software product carried by a computer readable medium for execution by one or more electronic processors, the software product comprising:

Instructions to operate a remote wireless device to display language teaching content to the user;

processing instructions from the user's responses according to a speech recognition algorithm; and

Based on the answers, an instruction to be fed back to the user is generated.

Preferably, the software product also includes:

instructions for providing the content to users of wireless devices;

instructions for processing responses from each user; and

Instructions for communicating feedback to users indicating their relative performance.

The software product may also include:

Instructions for assigning users with a common proficiency level to a common group;

Instructions to rank users in a common group based on their responses to language training content; and

Instructions to provide feedback to users in a common group to indicate their relative rank within the group.

In another embodiment, the software product includes:

instructions for providing a multi-player game to users of a number of wireless devices; and

Instructions to progress the participant through the game based on the user's responses to the language teaching exercises.

Preferably, the software product includes instructions to deliver the language training content as audiovisual content, eg video clips.

Additional preferred features of the invention will be described in the following detailed description with reference to some of the accompanying drawings as follows.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for implementing a method according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a method according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention in use wherein remote users are grouped according to their language proficiency and ranked within the group to which they are received.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart of a method according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

Referring now to Figure 1, a block diagram of a system 1 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is depicted. The system of Figure 1 is set up to deliver language training content to a remote user, ie a language student 7, having a mobile phone 2 with a third generation operating device or higher. The system is also set up to process student responses to the content. Equipped with mobile phone 2 and communication system 1 to support "concurrent service". That is, it supports simultaneous provision of high-bandwidth data transmission and voice communication.

The mobile phone 2 communicates with a mobile operator network 6 via a cellular antenna 4 . The mobile operator network is connected to a network 8 , such as the Internet, and in particular provides access to an application server 10 . The application server executes a software product 19, typically comprising a magnetically or optically readable disc, or a solid state device, loaded with instructions for implementing the language teaching method according to an embodiment of the invention. The language teaching method will now be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 1 and 2 .

At block 12 of the flowchart, communication between the server 10 and the phone 2 is established. This step typically involves the remote user 7 of the phone 2 entering a username and password by downloading a client application to the phone 2 and then accessing a pre-assigned personal study space on the server 10 . At box 13 the server 10 retrieves from the database 17 the user profile corresponding to the username entered by the user 7 . The profile will include information such as the user's native language, age, gender, time of last login to the system, and preferences for the type of conversations to be received. For example, if User 7 is a Korean planning a trip to Florida, the subsequently retrieved profile will reflect that information. Other information such as the payment type for the language training system that the user has ordered is also included in the profile. This information may restrict users or grant them access to specific language training content.

At box 14, the server 10 looks up the proficiency level and the record of the last session the student 7 logged on. The record of proficiency and last session is typically stored in the database 17 supported by the application server 10, although it could also be stored in a remote database accessed by the application server if desired. To achieve proficiency, the server 10 is programmed to store each user's current skill level for a series of graded sessions.

At block 16, the application server retrieves language training content from database 17 in the form of one or more pre-stored dialog exercises. Dialogue exercises are typically selected based on proficiency level, user profile, and if desired a log of the last session. The conversation exercises are then delivered to the phone 2, which presents the exercises with language training content to the student 7 on the phone 2 display, in the form of a menu of content options and downloadable video clips. A video segment may contain several different language training dialogue scenarios performed by several actors. Typically these scenarios depict the actor speaking certain phrases in a foreign language, and the user is prompted to answer by speaking one of the phrases into the phone. Interaction-based dialogue may include displays featuring a friendly and lively "assistant," which may be especially appealing to younger students.

The user's verbal answer is converted into a suitable data file format (such as WAV or MP3 file) in the mobile phone 2, and sent back to the application server 10 through the mobile operator network 6 and the network 8. The application server enters a waiting loop of block 18 until the student's answer is received. At box 20, the server utilizes a speech recognition and analysis software engine to analyze the phrase spoken by the user and rely on the results of this analysis to score the student's responses. A preferred speech recognition and analysis software engine is the open source ISIP system, available from the College of Signal and Information Processing, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi (39759), USA.

The analysis includes analyzing and otherwise processing the student's responses to determine how close they are to the target response. On the phoneme level, the processing includes analyzing articulated speech. At box 22, the server updates the record of the student's skill level based on the grade assigned at box 20. At box 24, the server transmits the score to the phone 2 in order to provide feedback to the student 7. Feedback will typically be in the form of scoring, which can be sent back after each answer as described, or in batches after some exercises' answers have been processed.

In various approaches, the user may choose to repeat the exercise and improve the score or continue to the next exercise. Decision boxes 25, 26 and 28 are provided to terminate the procedure if the student indicates that they do not wish to continue, or to loop back to box 14 for the next lesson.

The application server 10 can also be programmed to allow the user of the phone 2 to interact with other students logged into the system. This can be accomplished by taking advantage of third generation (or "3G") teleconferencing technology. In this setup, the server 10 delivers the same exercise to several students of approximately the same level of proficiency. The server 10 analyzes each student's responses and sends back a score as feedback to each student to indicate how they are doing in the group relative to other students. This setup causes friendly competition among users of the system 1 . With this in mind, the application server 10 can be programmed to support multi-player games in which players progress through the game based on their responses to language exercises presented to them throughout the game.

An example of a competitive multi-player embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4 . Referring now to FIG. 3 , the application server 10 maintains communication with a number of students 30 . At block 34 of Figure 4, the server groups the students according to their proficiency levels. To illustrate, three students are grouped as indicated by circle 32 in FIG. 3 . At box 36, the server distributes the dialogue practice to each of the group members. Conversation exercises are selected to suit the proficiency level of the corresponding group. At block 38, the student's responses are scored using the speech analysis engine in the manner previously discussed in relation to the embodiment described with reference to FIG.

Once all responses are received and analyzed, they are then ranked at box 42 . At block 44, a message is sent to each member of the group advising of their relative rank.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the application server 10 is programmed so that participants compete by stepping into the roles of actors in the video conversation delivered by the phone 2 . That is, participants compete by performing communications in the target language in real time, and their performance is analyzed and scored by the server 10 . If desired, the video dialogue delivered by the phone 2 can be accompanied by on-screen prompts in the target language to assist the user in successfully performing the entire exercise.

It will be realized that the system now described for language teaching takes advantage of the high level of interactivity provided by 3G advanced telecommunication systems such as WCDMA and CDMA2000 1xEV-DV and similar systems, all allowing simultaneous transmission on the same channel data and voice.

It should be further understood that the present invention provides a delivery system for foreign language instruction that can be easily accessed by students from any place at any time, wherein the system can communicate with 3G. Thus, a student using the system according to the invention can take advantage of, for example, time spent commuting or queuing which would otherwise be wasted. Also, since a large number of users can subscribe to the type of foreign language teaching service, the service can be provided so that the cost per student is not very expensive.

It will, of course, be realized that the foregoing is given merely as an exemplary example of the invention and that all such modifications and variations as will be apparent to those skilled in the art will necessarily fall within the broad scope and confines of the invention herein described .

Claims (18)

1. A method for teaching a foreign language, comprising the steps of: providing language training content to a user of the wireless device via the telecommunications network, the content including prompts for the user to answer; Utilize speech recognition software to process user responses; and The telecommunications network is utilized to provide feedback to the user based on the answers. 2. The method according to claim 1, comprising the step of: according to records of user proficiency; the user's profile; One or more records representing the accuracy of the user's previous responses to the language training content are used to select the language training content to be provided to the user. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the wireless device can provide concurrent services. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the wireless device comprises a third generation or higher mobile phone. 5. The method of claim 1, comprising the steps of: providing language training content to users of a number of wireless devices; process responses from each user; and The telecommunications network is utilized to provide feedback to users indicating their performance relative to each other. 6. The method of claim 1, comprising: Assign users with a common level of proficiency to a common group; Rank users in a common group based on their responses to language training content; and Feedback is provided to users in a common group to indicate relative ranking within the group. 7. The method of claim 5 comprising providing a multi-player game to users of several wireless devices; and Participants progress through the game based on user responses to language teaching exercises. 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the language training content comprises audiovisual content. 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the audiovisual content comprises video clips. 10. A software product carried by a computer readable medium for execution by one or more electronic processors, said software product comprising: Instructions to operate a remote wireless device to display language teaching content to the user; instructions for processing responses from the user according to speech recognition algorithms; and Based on the answers, generate instructions that are fed back to the user. 11. The software product of claim 10, further comprising instructions to: records of user proficiency; the user's profile; One or more selections of records representing the accuracy of the user's previous responses to the language training content are to be provided to the user. 12. The software product of claim 10, further comprising: instructions for providing the content to users of wireless devices; instructions for processing responses from each user; and Instructions for communicating feedback to users indicating their relative performance. 13. The software product of claim 10, further comprising: Instructions for assigning users with a common proficiency level to a common group; Instructions for ranking users in a common group based on their responses to language training content; and Instructions to provide feedback to users in a common group to indicate their relative rank within the group. 14. The software product of claim 10, comprising: providing instructions for a multi-player game to users of a number of wireless devices; and Instructions to progress the participant through the game based on the user's responses to the language teaching exercises. 15. The software product of claim 10, including instructions to deliver the language training content as audiovisual content. 16. A software product according to claim 15, comprising instructions to deliver the video segment as part of the audiovisual content. 17. A networked application server programmed to implement the method of claim 1. 17. A networked application server programmed to implement the method of claim 5.

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