JP2003323104A - Language learning system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a language learning system in which the parts to be repeated are automatically specified, and voice teaching materials for use in role-play and repeating can be easily created. <P>SOLUTION: In the language learning system, a teacher's terminal device and learner's terminal devices are connected via a network. The teacher's terminal device inserts an index indicating the break of a sentence into the voice of the text in use for the teaching material, creates an index information file including the information of the index, and distributes the index information file to the learner's terminals. The index information file includes the information of the pause time and presence/absence of recording of each sentence for repeated practices and also includes the information of presence/absence of reproduction, pause time, and presence/absence of recording for role-play. The learner's terminal device carries out voice reproduction for repeated practice/ role-play based on the index information file. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a language learning system in which a learner goes to a terminal device and learns by using teaching materials sent from a teacher's terminal, and more particularly, to a language learning system effective for listening and speaking. It makes it possible.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional language learning system of this type, for example, there is one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-330463. This is a language learning system in which a teaching material storage / delivery device, a teacher terminal device, and a learner terminal device are connected by a network. The teaching material data recorded in the teaching material accumulating / delivering device is recorded in the teaching material data accumulating means, and at the same time, the information of the recorded teaching material is recorded in the teaching material data managing means. Further, when an editing request for dividing, linking, deleting, copying the teaching material is received from the instructor terminal device via the network, the teaching material information in which the sentence start / end position information stored in the teaching material data managing means is edited. Can be rewritten as When transmitting the recorded teaching material to the learner, the teaching material to be transmitted is searched from the teaching material information recorded in the teaching material data managing means, read from the teaching material data accumulating means, and distributed to the learner terminal device. According to this prior art, it is possible to easily edit the recorded teaching material such as dividing, linking, deleting and copying.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The above-mentioned prior art is to rapidly distribute an arbitrary portion of the teaching material data, divide the teaching material,
Editing, such as deleting, moving, and copying, and setting of pause time are realized by simple processing, while changing the answer time and the correct answer to be presented in the automatic progress of the hearing test.
The purpose is to easily set and change various test conditions.

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, the index of the teaching material data had to be manually inserted. Further, although the above-mentioned prior art was effective for hearing in language learning, it was not possible to effectively carry out listening and speaking training. For example, it was not possible to provide audio teaching materials for role play (role practice) or repeating (repeated practice).

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a language learning system capable of automatically designating repetitive points and easily creating audio teaching materials for role play (role practice) and repeating (repeated practice). To do.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a language learning system in which a teacher terminal device and a learner terminal device are connected by a network, wherein the teacher terminal device includes a text voice for teaching material as a sentence An index indicating a break is set, an index information file including information about the index is created, the index information file is distributed to the learner's terminal device, and the index information file is a pose for each sentence for repeated practice. In addition to including information on time and necessity of recording, information for necessity of reproduction for each sentence, pause time, and necessity of recording for role practice are included.

[0007] Preferably, the pause time for the repeated practice is set to the same time as the sentence immediately before being reproduced.

[0008] Preferably, the role practice pause time is set to the same time as the sentence not reproduced.

[0009] The terminal device for learner, when reproducing the text voice for teaching material, pauses the reproduction after the reproduction of the sentence based on the information for repeated practice contained in the index information file, and Record voice.

The terminal device for learner determines whether to reproduce the sentence based on the information for role practice contained in the index information file when reproducing the text voice for teaching material, and does not reproduce the sentence. When the playback is paused, the learner's voice is recorded during this period.

For example, the learner terminal device combines the recorded learner voices, combines the recorded learner voices, and sends them to the teacher terminal device.

[0012] Preferably, on the screen of the teacher terminal device, a list of the time of the text voice for teaching material, the index name, the pause time / recording flag in repeated practice, and the reproduction flag / pause time / recording flag in role practice It is displayed in a format, and in the list format, it is possible to set / reset the parameters of the repeating exercise and the role exercise.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the entire system. A teacher personal computer 1, at least one learner personal computer 2, a console personal computer 3, and a server 4 are connected to the LAN 5.

The teacher's personal computer 1 edits / creates the teaching material by the built-in teaching material assembler 1a and distributes it to the learning personal computer 2, and receives the recorded data of the learner's pronunciation from the learning personal computer 2 and reproduces it. The teacher's personal computer 1 can deliver a common teaching material to all the learner's personal computers 2, or can deliver a unique teaching material to each learner individually.

The teaching material assembler 1a is an application for creating teaching materials used in a language-laboratory (LL) class. The teaching material consists of one or more texts. The text includes a voice file (text voice) prepared by the teacher, index information indicating sentence boundaries of the text voice, an English sentence corresponding to the text voice and its Japanese translation, question data for drill learning (broadcast text,
This includes question sentences, options, explanations, and images). FIG. 7 shows the details of the index information file.

The teaching material assembler 1a causes the teacher personal computer 1 to display a teaching material creation screen for easily creating an original teaching material from digital voice (see FIG. 5).
On this screen, automatic index creation processing that automatically detects silent parts of text voice and creates an index, role play material role part pause time
Creating role-play teaching materials that specify the recording when the learner pronounces
Creation of repeating teaching materials that specify repeat points of the teaching materials, pause time, and recording when the learner pronounces, as well as content sentences, translated sentences, broadcast sentences linked to text voice,
You can create drill study materials to create question sentences, options, and commentary.

The learning personal computer 2 is 1 for each learner.
Units are assigned. Built-in software recorder 2a
The role study (role practice) and the repeating (repeated practice) are performed, and the drill study 2b performs the drill learning using the teaching material created by the teaching material assembler 1a. The learner's personal computer 2 is an individual learning tool that also supports soft recorder screens (see FIG. 6) for playing model voices, playing learner voices, and digital recordings, and / or problems with images. The drill study screen is displayed. A headset or a speaker and a microphone (not shown) are connected to the learning personal computer 2.

The soft recorder 2a is an application for practicing listening and pronunciation using the teaching material created by the teaching material assembler. The following functions are available on the soft recorder screen of FIG. -Playback: Play the model and the voice recorded by the learner.・ Special playback: Simultaneously or sequentially play the model and the learner's voice.・ Recording: Record the learner's voice.・ Special recording: Record learner's voice while playing the model. -Playback speed control: The playback speed of the model and the learner's voice is changed in real time. -Repeat playback: Repeat playback between indexes and repeat playback within a specified range.・ Role play: A mode in which one part of the role model (conversational teaching material) is practiced. The learner's part has a specified time pause and the learner pronounces during that time.・ Repeating: A mode to practice pronunciation repeatedly. After playing one index of the model, the learner pronounces during the designated time pause.・ Power pitch display: Waveform of each model and learner
Display the pitch in another area.・ Text content display: Displays the text content corresponding to each index when playing the model.・ Text translation display: Display the translation corresponding to each index when playing the model. -Voice submission: Submit the voice recorded by the learner to the teacher's submission holder.・ Storing materials: Output the model voice to external media.

The console personal computer 3 is for controlling the entire system. A console screen (not shown) is displayed on the console personal computer 3. This screen displays and selects the status of the learner's personal computer, and displays / selects basic buttons such as patrol start, sharing, marking, analyzer, group call, teaching material delivery, and voice collection, which are mainly used in LL classes. Or display / select extended menu buttons such as monitor, screen transfer, lock, distribution collection, message transmission, application start, group practice, etc., which are mainly used in information related lessons, and display other management related buttons etc. /select.

The server 4 is for storing and managing teaching material data and learner data. The teaching material data is stored in the external storage device 4a. When editing with the teaching material assembler 1a, the data is read from the external storage device 4a and the edited data is written therein. The same applies to learner data. Instead of distributing the data directly by the personal computers 1 and 2, the data storage location of the server may be designated and the other personal computer to be received may be instructed to receive it. It should be noted that the server 4 may be omitted when the teaching material data and the learner data are directly handled by the teacher personal computer 1 and the learner personal computer 2.

This system realizes a new language-laboratory (LL) class using a computer. For example, a liquid crystal touch panel is provided on the operation screen, and one of the buttons displayed on the touch panel can be easily operated by simply pressing it with a finger. In this system,
Analog media can be digitized and stored in a computer for use. The digitized voice data can be used as audio teaching materials for role play (role practice) and repeating (repeated practice) by specifying the repeat points using the automatic index creation function.

The features of this system are that index creation,
Settings for repeating (repeating practice) and its processing, settings for role-playing (role practice) and their processing, and indexes, foreign language / Japanese settings corresponding to the playback contents of each index, repeating settings, role-play settings, The point is that the broadcast text / problem / choice / image / comment corresponding to one voice can be grasped on one screen. These will be described below.

(1) Creation of Text-to-Voice Index The teaching material assembler 1a can create an index indicating a sentence break of a text-to-speech. This index creation operation is called index creation (posing). In the soft recorder 2a, pronunciation practice can be repeated based on the index information, and repeating and role play described later can be performed.

There are two methods of indexing, automatic indexing and manual indexing.

To create a manual index, the text / voice reproduction is temporarily stopped at the position where the index is desired to be created, and the manual index is clicked. (See Figure 10). Since the index can be created at any position, the position of the index does not always match the sentence delimiter. According to the manual index creation, the teacher can pause (play) the audio material at an arbitrary timing and create (insert) the index there. You can also delete the specified index. In authentic teaching materials, automatic indexing by silence detection is difficult, so manual indexing is used, and it is also used when a teacher creates an index at an arbitrary position.

(2) Setting for Repeating (Repeat Practice) and Its Processing Repeating is one of the operation modes of the soft recorder 2a, and is for the learner to practice pronunciation for each sentence of text voice. When the text voice is reproduced for one sentence, the character is put into a pause state for a while, and the learner practices pronunciation during that time. It is also possible to record the voice of the learner who practiced pronunciation during the pause.

The time to pause immediately after the reproduction of the sentence of the text voice and the presence / absence of recording are set by the teaching material assembler 1a and written in the index information file.

At the index creation timing, the time with the immediately preceding index is automatically calculated and set to a predetermined "pause" time. The "pause" time can be changed by the teacher at any time. Corresponding to the "pause" time,
It is possible to set the presence or absence of "recording". Changed "pose"
The time can be returned to the initial value with the lower button of FIG.

The repeating operation of the soft recorder 2a will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 3 and the explanatory view of FIG. When the learner plays the teaching material in the repeating mode (S12), thereafter, the playing is paused for the set "pause" time (S13).
During this “pause” time, the learner can practice repeated speaking. When the learner's voice recording is designated in the index information file (YES in S14), the learner's pronunciation is recorded (S1).
5) These are combined (S16) and sent to the teacher's personal computer 2 or server 4.

By default, the "pause" time is set simultaneously with the teaching material, which simplifies the setting of the teacher. The teacher can change the "pause" time, which enables repeated practice of speaking according to the learner's level.
Since it is possible to specify that the learner automatically repeats the voices pronounced during the "pause" time, the results of the speaking can be collected and evaluated by the teacher or by the teacher.

(3) Setting for Role Play (Role Practice) Role play is one of the operation modes of the soft recorder 2a. Assuming that the text voice consists of two conversations A and B, the learner takes charge of one of A and B to practice pronunciation. It is assumed that the learner is in charge of B. When the soft recorder plays part A, part B becomes paused. The learner practices the pronunciation of part B during the pose. You can also record your voice during pronunciation practice.

The text utterance sentence reproduced by the soft recorder, the pause time for the learner to practice pronunciation, and the presence / absence of recording are set by the teaching material assembler 1a.

At the index creation timing, the time with the immediately preceding index is automatically calculated and set as the "pause" time. Only the part you want to play can be set by "Play". The "pause" time can be changed by the teacher at any time. Whether to record or not can be set according to the pause time. The changed pause time can be returned to the initial value with the lower button of FIG.

The role play operation in the soft recorder 2a will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4 and the explanatory view of FIG.

When the learner presses the play button of the teaching material in the role play mode, first, the text voice for one sentence is scanned (S22). If the reproduction flag of the sentence (flag of the index information file) is ON (YES in S23), the text voice of the one sentence is reproduced (S24). Then, the process returns to the beginning.

On the other hand, if the reproduction flag of the sentence (flag of the index information file) is OFF (S
(NO at 23), the reproduction is stopped for a predetermined time (S25). When the recording of the learner's voice is designated in the index information file (YES in S26)
S), the learner's pronunciation is recorded (S27), these are combined (S28), and sent to the teacher's personal computer 2 or the server 4.

When the learner plays back the teaching material in the role play mode, only the part set to "play" in the index information file is played, and the part not set to "play" is played for the set pause time. Since it is paused, it becomes possible to practice the role of speaking. By default, a pause time is set for the teaching material and at the same time, which simplifies teacher settings. Since the teacher can change the pause time, it becomes possible to practice speaking roles according to the learner's level. Speaking results can be collected and evaluated by yourself or by a teacher.

(4) On the screen of the teaching material assembler of FIG. 5 and the screen of the soft recorder of FIG. 6, indexes, foreign language / Japanese settings corresponding to the contents of reproduction for each index, repeating settings, role play settings, 1
Broadcast sentences / problems / choices / images / explanations corresponding to audio are displayed at the same time, so you can grasp the necessary information on one screen. In particular, in FIG. 5, the time of the teaching material text, the index name, the pause time / recording flag in repeated practice, and the play flag / pause time / recording flag in role practice are displayed in a list format, so that the index setting status can be seen at a glance. Recognize. Above all, it is possible to easily understand which part the learner is in charge of in role practice, and it is extremely easy to set and reset.

The screen of the teaching material assembler of FIG. 5 and the screen of the soft recorder of FIG. 6 will be briefly described.

On the screen of the teaching material assembler of FIG. 5,
Index operation part (time on the left side of the screen, index name, pause time / recording flag in repetitive practice, playback flag / pause time / recording flag in role practice): An index is created for text voice. If yes, it is valid.

Index No. : A serial number assigned to the index. The first index indicates the beginning of the text voice. The following functions are assigned to the grid control, and one horizontal line corresponds to the same index.

Index position (time): The index position (start time of sentence) is displayed. Indicates the relative time seen from the beginning of the text voice. (Minutes: seconds.100 milliseconds, that is, mm: ss.n notation)

Index name: The name of the index is displayed.

Pause for repetitive practice: In the repeating performed by the soft recorder, immediately after reproducing the sentence starting from this index, the learner inputs a time in seconds for how long the learner should pose to practice pronunciation. By default, the difference from the next index position is calculated and displayed (default pause time).

Recording of repeated practice: In the repeated practice performed by the soft recorder, it is set whether or not to record the pronunciation practice performed by the learner during the pause immediately after the sentence reproduction. If the check box is on, record and turn off
If so, don't record.

Reproduction of role practice: In the role play performed by the soft recorder, the sentence reproduced by the soft recorder is set. If the check box is on, it plays. If it is off, it does not play. Specify the part of the conversation partner for the learner.

Pose for role practice: In a role play performed by a soft recorder, the learner inputs a time in seconds for how long the learner poses to practice pronunciation for a sentence that the soft recorder does not play. By default, the difference from the next index position is calculated and displayed (default pause time).

Recording of role practice: In the role play performed by the soft recorder, it is set whether or not to record the sentence in which the learner practices pronunciation (sentence in which reproduction is off). If the check box is on, record and o
If ff, do not record.

Index selection: When the index operation section is clicked, one line corresponding to the clicked position is selected and highlighted.

Delete selected index button: Activated when an index has been created for text voice. Select an index and click this button to display a confirmation message asking if you really want to delete it.

Automatic index creation button: Enabled when text voice is present. Click this button when the index is already displayed to display a confirmation message. "Do you want to create an index automatically?", The choices are "Yes" and "No". If "Yes" is selected, all existing indexes are discarded, silent areas are detected while scanning the text voice from the beginning, and indexes are automatically created. If you select "No", automatic indexing will not be executed.

(Manual) Index creation button: Enabled when text voice is present. Click the play button to start playing the text and voice, then click the pause button and click the manual indexing button to add that point as an index.

On the screen of the soft recorder shown in FIG.
Index display section (time / index name list on the right side of the screen): This is enabled when an index is created for text audio.

Index No. : A serial number assigned to the index. The first index indicates the beginning of the text voice. The following functions are assigned to the grid control, and one horizontal line corresponds to the same index.

Time: The index position (start time of sentence) is displayed. Indicates the relative time seen from the beginning of the text voice. (Minutes: seconds.100 milliseconds, or mm:
ss. notation)

Index name: The name of the index is displayed.

Index selection: When the index display section is clicked in the standard mode, one line corresponding to the clicked position is selected and highlighted, and the reproduction start position of the text voice is moved. During playback of text voice, the sentence currently being played is highlighted. As playback progresses, the highlighted display of the sentence also moves. When an index is selected, playback is paused, the playback position is moved, and playback is restarted.

As described above, according to the present system, the index is automatically generated by the automatic posing function, and the repeating function and the role play function are realized by providing the index with the flag, and thus the following effects are obtained. . (1) Replay pattern and replay timing can be selected for each learner (2) Replay pattern can be selected and started by the learner on his / her own will (3) Recording is possible (4) Pause time Time with the index immediately before Is automatically set as

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the invention described in the claims, and these are also included in the scope of the present invention. It goes without saying that this is what is done.

Further, in the present specification, the means / unit does not necessarily mean a physical means, but also includes the case where the function of each means / unit is realized by software. Further, the function of one means may be realized by two or more physical means, or the functions of two or more means may be realized by one physical means.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall view of a language learning system according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a repeating (repeating practice) process according to the embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a role play (role practice) process according to the embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is an example of a screen of a teacher personal computer (teaching material assembler) according to the embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is an example of a screen of a learner's personal computer (soft recorder) according to the embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an index information file according to the embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of manual index insertion according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a repeating (repeating practice) process according to the embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a role play (role practice) process according to the embodiment of the invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Teacher's PC 2 PC for learners 3 console personal computer 4 servers 5 LAN

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A language learning system in which a teacher terminal device and a learner terminal device are connected to each other by a network, wherein the teacher terminal device sets an index indicating a sentence delimiter in a text voice for teaching material, An index information file including information about the index is created, and the index information file is distributed to the learner's terminal device. The index information file is a pause time for each sentence for repeated practice, and information on whether recording is necessary or not. In addition to the above, the language learning system is characterized by including information on the necessity of reproduction for each sentence, the pause time, and the necessity of recording for role practice. 2. The language learning system according to claim 1, wherein the pause time for repetitive practice is set to the same time as the sentence immediately before being reproduced. 3. The language learning system according to claim 1, wherein the pause time for role practice is set to the same time as a sentence that is not reproduced. 4. The terminal device for learners, when playing back the text voice for teaching material, pauses the playing after the sentence is played back based on the information for repeated practice contained in the index information file, and learns during this period. The language learning system according to claim 1, wherein the voice of the person is recorded. 5. The terminal device for a learner, when reproducing a text voice for a teaching material, determines whether or not to reproduce a sentence based on information for role practice included in the index information file, and reproduces the sentence. 2. The language learning system according to claim 1, wherein the reproduction is paused when not being performed, and the learner's voice during this period is recorded. 6. The learner terminal device combines recorded learner voices, combines recorded learner voices,
The language learning system according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the language learning system sends the teacher learning terminal device to the teacher terminal device. 7. On the screen of the teacher terminal device, the list of time, index name, pause time / recording flag in repeated practice, and play flag / pause time / recording flag in role practice are displayed on the screen of the teacher terminal device. 2. The language learning system according to claim 1, wherein the list format is used to set / reset the parameters of the repetitive practice and the role practice.