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Spoken language engineering is starting to deliver technological products to the commercial market and has an important future role in supporting the multilingual structures of modern Europe. The field will be driven forward by basic science and applied research by experts drawn from a variety of backgrounds; among them: linguistics, psychology, computer science and electrical engineering. The wide range of expertise required in this discipline brings difficulties for our educational systems, but also challenges us to use our knowledge of technology and communication to improve the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning. This paper investigates how resources currently available on the Internet could be exploited in the education of phonetics and speech communication. It discusses the technology, outlines the requirements for computer-aided learning in the field, gives a taxonomy of the available components with examples, and criticises the main weaknesses in the current provision.
A0518.pdf
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After many years of successful cooperation in Europe on education in Phonetics and Speech Communication, in 1996 a new thematic network was created with the aim to reflect on future developments in education in Speech Communication Sciences. The network constitutes of 80 European academic institutions and has the support of major international organisations. The activities of the thematic network will be presented followed by a short overview of the results obtained in the first year. Forthcoming actions are proposed.
A0525.pdf
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Spoken language systems are highly complex and teaching of students in this subject matter and in the underlying technologies could benefit greatly from instructional software. The aim of this work has been to give students hands-on experience via a fully functioning spoken dialogue system as a teaching aid. This dialogue system was built using our toolkit for spoken language technology as a dedicated laboratory environment for students. The system was used in a lab which was part of two courses on spoken language technology given by our department. Students were given some initial guidance on how to modify and extend the system but most of their work was unsupervised. Overall, the laboratory system was a success and we plan to improve and extend it for the coming academic year. Thanks to the rapid prototyping and development character of our toolkit we might even use it and the modules from the system as a software basis for student projects in spoken language technology.
A0954.pdf
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The paper presents the main issues from the working group on on Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) within the SOCRATES/ ERASMUS Thematic Network "Speech Communication Science". SLT is today a profession which has undergone a dramatic evolution in recent decades, as developments in clinical skills have been integrated with an increasingly high level of academic and research expertise. The short term aim of the working group has therefore been to evaluate current practice in education in communication science for speech and language therapists throughout Europe. A questionnaire was designed with the aim of eliciting some factual information about speech commmunication science education for SLT, as well as attitudes about the role of this area within the broader context of SLT education. Responses were received from institutions representing eight countries, but the response rate has so far been very poor. This has reinforced the aim of developing internet connections, both within the profession and as an interface with other related disciplines. A web site, developed and supported at Lund University, provides basic information about all SLT education courses within Europe. The working group has also decided to adopt a new strategy for the second year's work within the Network. Data will be collected and summerized in a multilingual style through the selection of a responsible persons from each European country. There will be a report of these activities in the beginning of January 1998.
A1002.pdf
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We summarise the results of a survey of Spoken Language Engineering Education in Europe. We highlight the multidisciplinary nature of the field and the consequences this has for teaching. The survey indicates a wide variety in the breadth and depth of coverage of SLE.
A1031.pdf
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A survey has been carried out to obtain an overview of phonetics education in Europe. A mainly web-based questionnaire was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative information. Responses were obtained from 78 institutes in 25 European countries. This paper summarises some of the findings of the survey.
A1490.pdf
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