JP2008032788A - Program for creating data for language teaching material - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To create language material data dealing with today's news and topics information etc. currently in conversation, with simple operation. <P>SOLUTION: Text data are divided by the unit of a sentence, and sentence voice data 903 are generated by performing voice synthesizing processing for each divided sentence. Sentence voice material data 901 are generated by adding the sentence and sentence information to a header section 902 of sentence voice data 903, and a material creation terminal implements creation processing of language material data by connecting each of the generated sentence voice material data 901. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a language teaching material data creation program, and more particularly to a language teaching material data creation program for causing a teaching material creation terminal to execute processing for creating language teaching material data based on text data.

  As a language learning system used in universities, school education, etc., the LL (Language Laboratory) system has been conventionally used. However, in recent years, a CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) system called a network-connected personal computer ( Hereinafter, a language learning system using PC will be used.

  The CALL system (hereinafter referred to as a language learning system) is configured such that a teacher-side PC can control a plurality of learner-side PCs in accordance with, for example, a teacher's operation. Then, the teacher's PC can transmit teaching material data of multimedia data such as teaching / learning videos, still images, and voices to the PCs of all the learners or the selected learners' PCs. In this way, the learner can learn using the teaching material data received by his / her PC.

  In a language learning system, it is common for a teacher and a learner to connect a headset having a headphone unit and a microphone unit to the PCs of the teacher and the learner, and the teacher and the learner wear this headset to teach / learn. is there. That is, the language learning system picks up the voice uttered by the wearer of the headset by the microphone unit, converts it into digital voice data by each PC, and transmits it to the communication partner PC. The digital voice data output from each PC can be received by each PC and converted into voice, and conversation can be practiced by listening to this voice through the headphone unit (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  In the conventional language learning system as shown above, not only the voice uttered by the teacher is immediately transmitted to the headset worn by the learner for listening, but also the voice teaching material data that the learner wants to learn is selected. Some of them can be practiced individually by playing repeatedly or recording your own voice.

  Moreover, in the conventional learning system, the individual learning plan teaching material preparation program for performing the process which produces a learning material using the learning content stored in the learning content database is also used (for example, patent document 2). See).

Furthermore, in a conventional teaching material creation device, a teacher inputs a teaching material English sentence and its model translation from a microphone, records it, reproduces the recorded teaching material English text, detects the voice level, detects a pause, and generates a pause signal. There is known a teaching material creation apparatus that executes a process of insertion (see, for example, Patent Document 3).
JP 2002-132128 A JP 2002-29792 A JP 2004-302171 A

  As shown above, the teaching material data used in the conventional language learning system is created based on the learning content accumulated in advance, created by recording the voice by the teacher, or sold as a product. We are preparing to purchase.

  By the way, in language learning, if you use topical articles and texts such as today's news and topics that have become a hot topic as language teaching materials, students' interest will increase, so they will be very effective classes Can be expected. However, in the conventional language learning system as described above, it is difficult to easily obtain or create teaching material data based on new information such as the latest news and topics. That is, it is impractical to store the latest information, topical information, etc. in the learning content database described in Patent Document 2 in terms of system maintenance and cost, Like the teaching material creation device described in Document 3, it takes a lot of labor and effort to prepare teaching material data by preparing and recording English teaching materials and model translations one by one. is there.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and the purpose of the present invention is to create today's news, recently-discovered topic information, etc. when creating language teaching material data used in a language learning system. The purpose is to provide a language teaching material data creation program that can create language teaching material data as a subject by a simple operation.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention
[1] A language teaching material data creation program for causing a computer to execute processing for generating text teaching material data by performing speech synthesis processing of text data,
A first step of dividing the text data into sentences;
A second step of generating a sentence voice data by performing a voice synthesis process for each of the divided sentences;
A third step of generating sentence audio teaching material data by adding the sentence and sentence delimiter information to a header portion of the generated sentence audio data for each sentence;
A fourth step of generating the language teaching material data by combining the generated sentence speech teaching material data;
Providing a language teaching material data creation program for causing the computer to execute the process of
[2] In the second step, for each sentence divided in the first step, speech synthesis processing is performed to generate sentence speech data and translation processing is performed by a translation algorithm to generate sentence translation data.
In the third step, for each sentence, a sentence voice teaching material data is generated by adding the sentence, the generated sentence translation data, and sentence delimiter information to a header portion of the generated sentence voice data. The language teaching material data creating program according to [2], which is executed by the computer, is provided.

  According to the present invention, as long as text data on new information such as today's news and recent topics is prepared, it is possible to create language teaching material data by synthesized speech with a simple operation. In the language teaching material data to be created, the original text and the sentence delimiter information are associated with each sentence. Therefore, in the learner's terminal using the language teaching material data, while listening to the audio data and viewing the original text, Can provide an environment for language learning.

  In addition, according to the present invention, it is possible to create language teaching material data including not only speech data but also translation data of text data. Therefore, while listening to speech data at a learner's terminal that uses this language teaching material data. It is possible to provide an environment in which language learning is performed for each sentence while comparing the original text and the translated text.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. First, FIG. 1 shows a basic system configuration of a language learning system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. In the figure, the language learning system 1 stores a teacher terminal 101, learner terminals 102-1 to 102-n, and a large number of teaching material data (language teaching material data). A learning material server 103 that can read out desired learning material data by read control from the terminals 102-1 to 102 -n and a learning material creation terminal 105 that is used to create learning material data are connected via a network 104. Are connected to each other. A teacher b is assigned to the teacher terminal 101 and the teaching material creation terminal 105, and learners a1 to an are assigned to the learner terminals 102-1 to 102-n as users. In the figure, a state where the teacher b uses the teaching material creation terminal 105 and the learners a1 to a3 use the learner terminals 102-1 to 102-3, respectively. The learner is not shown.

  In the learning material server 103, a learning material folder 103a for storing learning material data, a public folder 103b for storing learning material data to be disclosed to each learner, and learning material data distributed and used in class are stored. Distribution folder 103c is provided.

  In the present embodiment, the teacher terminal 101, the learner terminals 102-1 to 102-n, and the teaching material creation terminal 105 may be collectively referred to as terminals.

  Next, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic internal configuration of the terminal. As shown in the figure, the teacher terminal 101, the learner terminals 102-1 to 102-n, and the teaching material creation terminal 105 have basically the same configuration except for application software described later. As shown in the figure, the terminal includes a control unit 201 having a CPU (Central Processing Unit) (not shown) for executing application software for language learning (hereinafter referred to as software) in the language learning system 1. A memory unit 202 for storing software and various data, a recording unit 203 for recording software, voice data by a learner's utterance, teaching material data, etc., using a hard disk, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), etc. A network interface (I / F) unit 204 for connecting the terminal to the network 104, a monitor I / F unit 205 for connecting a monitor 210 to be described later, and audio data processing for executing digital audio signal processing Part 20 If, and an external I / F unit 207 for connecting a camera or scanner or the like optional devices. The blocks 201 to 207 are connected to the bus 208 as shown in FIG.

  The terminal configured as described above includes a touch panel 211 operated by the teacher b and learners a1 to an, and a monitor 210 that performs display based on software control is connected to the monitor I / F unit 205 and headphones. A headset 209 including a microphone unit and a microphone unit (both not shown) is connected to the audio data processing unit 206. However, the headset 209 may not be connected to the teaching material creation terminal 105.

  As the above-described software, the teacher terminal control software for the teacher terminal 101, the learner terminal control software for the learner terminals 102-1 to 102-n, and the teaching material creation for the teaching material creation terminal 105 are provided. Each terminal control software is installed.

  In the terminal having the above configuration, when the language learning system 1 is started, the teaching material terminal control software, the teacher terminal control software, and the learner terminal control software recorded in advance in the recording unit 203 are read into the memory unit 202. After executing the initialization process, the control unit 201 controls each block connected to the bus 208 in accordance with the operation of the touch panel 211 of the teacher b or the learners a1 to an. In the following description of the operation, details are given of processing by the control unit 201 executing software.

  Note that the terminal can be configured using a PC that is generally popular. In this case, the sound data processing unit 206 is applicable to a sound card, and the external I / F unit 207 is applicable to a high-speed communication interface such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus) or an IEEE1394 serial bus.

  Next, the operation of the language learning system 1 to which the embodiment of the present invention is applied will be described.

<Creation of teaching material data by teaching material creation terminal>
First, a process in which the learning material creation terminal 105 in the language learning system 1 creates learning material data will be described. In this embodiment, the teaching material creation terminal 105 executes the teaching material creation terminal control software, so that the teacher b prepares the material that the teacher b wants to use as the learning material as text data, and performs speech synthesis processing for each sentence to synthesize speech. The data is converted into data and translated by a translation algorithm, and the synthesized speech data, text data, and translation data are combined in sentence units to create teaching material data.

  When the learning material creation terminal 105 activates the learning material creation terminal control software, a GUI (Graphical User Interface) screen 301 as shown in FIG. 3 is displayed on the monitor 210 connected to the learning material creation terminal 105. The already created educational material data is stored in the educational material folder 103 a of the educational material server 103, and the stored data file is displayed in the educational material data list 302. When editing the created teaching material data, the data file displayed in the teaching material data list 302 is selected from the touch panel 211. Here, processing for creating new teaching material data instead of editing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  When creating teaching material data on the teaching material creation terminal 105, the teacher b first selects the text reading button 303 and presses it from the touch panel 211. Then, the control unit 201 displays the text reading screen 401 shown in FIG. 4 at a predetermined position on the GUI screen 301. Therefore, the teacher b inputs text into the text input unit 402 from a keyboard (not shown) or opens a text data file stored in the recording unit 203 in advance using a mouse (not shown) as a separate window. Text is input by pasting text data from the window to the text input unit 402. In addition, when it is desired to use text posted on a homepage on the Internet, the text can be dragged and pasted on the text input unit 402 on the browser, or the external I / F unit 207 of the teaching material creation terminal 105 can be pasted. It is also possible to scan an image in which text is written from a connected scanner, convert the image into text using known text recognition conversion software, and paste the text into the text input unit 402.

  After the text is input to the text input unit 402 (step S801), the teacher b selects a speaker using the speaker selection unit 403 on the touch panel 211. The speech synthesis engine installed in the teaching material creation terminal control software can assign multiple speakers to one language of Japanese and foreign languages, and select one speaker from them. Can do. In this embodiment, it is assumed that one of male and female speakers is selected. Therefore, for example, a male speaker is selected and the OK button 404 is pressed.

  Then, the control unit 201 transfers the text data input to the text input unit 402 to the memory unit 202, and executes a process of dividing the sentence unit by sentence (step S802). Here, each sentence is divided using a period or a break as a break. Note that there may be a case where a sentence having a length that is not suitable for learning is generated simply by dividing a period or a phrase as a break. Therefore, not only a period or a punctuation mark but also a comma or a punctuation mark may be used as a sentence break. In this case, the control unit 201 performs control so that words or characters are counted and divided by the nearest period, comma, or punctuation mark when the predetermined number of words or characters is reached.

  After dividing in units of sentences as described above, the control unit 201 executes the speech synthesis engine to perform speech synthesis processing of each divided sentence and generate sentence speech data for each sentence (step S803). ). Here, the speech synthesis engine can apply a known technique called TTS (Text To Speech). According to this TTS, text data can be converted into synthesized voice data such as Windows (registered trademark) standard WAV format, MP3 format, and MIDI format.

  Note that the speech speed and tone of the generated sentence voice data may be changed according to the setting of the teaching material creation terminal control software. If the speech speed of sentence voice data is set fast, the voice is output quickly, so it is suitable for creating teaching material data for relatively advanced users, and conversely, if the sentence speed of sentence voice data is set slow Since the voice is output at the spoken speed, it is suitable for creating teaching material data for relatively beginners. By changing the tone and executing the speech synthesis process, even the same speaker can change the atmosphere and obtain a realistic synthesized speech output.

  Each sentence divided from the text data in step S802 is translated into Japanese by the translation unit installed in the teaching material creation terminal control software being executed by the control unit 201, and the translated text is output (step S804).

  After completing the speech synthesis process and the translation process, for each sentence, add the sentence text data synthesized by the speech synthesis engine, using the sentence text data as the original text data and the translated text as the translation data. It memorize | stores in the memory part 202 (step S805). FIG. 9 shows a data configuration diagram in which sentence audio teaching material data 901 is configured by adding original text data, translated text data, and sentence information (sentence delimiter information) to the header portion 902 of sentence audio data 903 as one sentence. . This sentence information is information indicating a sentence delimiter for pausing at a sentence delimiter when the sentence audio data 903 is reproduced.

  After the merge processing of the sentence speech data 903 and the header portion 902 is completed for all the divided sentences, the control unit 201 combines all the sentence speech teaching material data 901 to create one teaching material data (step S806). .

  When one teaching material data is completed, the control unit 201 reads the teaching material data into the memory unit 202, executes waveform analysis processing, and displays the speech waveform of the sentence speech data 903 portion on the waveform display unit 304 of the GUI screen 301. . Then, the original text data is displayed on the original text display section 305 and the translated text data is displayed on the translated text display section 306 from the top header section 902.

  The read teaching material data is played back corresponding to each button by operating the operation unit 307 such as a play / pause button, a stop button, a fast forward button, and a rewind button from the touch panel 211. Furthermore, the teaching material data can be edited by operating the editing unit 308 such as a sentence division button, a sentence combination button, a sentence deletion button, and a silence insertion button.

  Furthermore, the original text display unit 305 and the translated text display unit 306 are editable windows, and the original text data and the translated text data displayed thereon can be corrected by using a keyboard, a mouse, or the like. As a result, when an erroneous description of the original text or an incorrect translation of the translated text is found, the teacher b can easily correct it by a simple operation. When the translation engine is not installed in the teaching material creation terminal control software or when the translation process is not executed, for example, the teacher b inputs the translation into the translation display unit 306 using the keyboard.

  After the creation of the teaching material data is completed as described above, the teacher b selects the registration button 309 and presses it from the touch panel 211. Then, the learning material creation terminal 105 communicates with the learning material server 103, transfers the created learning material data to the learning material server 103, and the learning material server 103 stores the received learning material data in the learning material folder 103a.

<Language learning using learning material data from a learner's terminal>
In the language learning system 1 in which the learning material data created by the learning material creation terminal 105 is stored in the learning material folder 103a of the learning material server 103, the operation of the learning terminals 102-1 to 102-n using the learning material data will be described. . First, the operation of distributing teaching material data in individual practice, which is one of the language learning functions in the language learning system 1, will be described. The individual practice is that the learners a1 to an acquire the learning material data they want to learn from the learning material data stored in the learning material server 103 through the network 104, and each learner's terminals 102-1 to 102-n. This is a learning mode in which the learner individually practice conversation by listening to the voice of the teaching material data and recording his / her own voice using the headset 209 provided.

  First, the operation of the teacher terminal 101 for distributing the teaching material data stored in the teaching material server 103 to the learner terminals 102-1 to 102-n will be described. A GUI screen 501 as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed on the monitor 210 of the teacher terminal 101. A GUI screen 601 in FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of the operation portion 502 necessary for the operation of distributing the teaching material data in the GUI screen 501. As described above, the learning material data is stored in the learning material folder 103a of the learning material server 103, and the file names of data files (learning material data) in the learning material folder 103a are listed in the audio learning material list 602.

  Then, the teacher b touches the public button 603 after selecting the file name corresponding to the data file to be distributed from the file names displayed in the audio teaching material list 602 by touching on the touch panel 211. Then, the teacher terminal 101 issues a request command for publishing the selected data file from the network I / F unit 204 to the learning material server 103, and the learning material server 103 that has received this request command is selected. The copied data file is copied from the teaching material folder 103a to the public folder 103b. Next, when the teacher b touches the distribution button 605 on the GUI screen 601, the teacher terminal 101 communicates with the teaching material server 103 and copies the data file stored in the public folder 103b to the distribution folder 103c.

<Playback of teaching material data and recording of learner voice on the learner terminal>
Next, the operation of the learning material data reproduction and learning voice recording in the learner terminals 102-1 to 102-n will be described. A GUI screen 701 as shown in FIG. 7 is displayed on each monitor 210 of the learner terminals 102-1 to 102-n. Then, the data file stored in the distribution folder 103c of the learning material server 103 is displayed on the pull-down menu 702 (in the figure, a state where the pull-down is not performed is displayed).

  The learners a1 to an touch the pull-down menu 702 from the touch panel 211 while looking at the GUI screen 701 displayed on their monitors 210, pull down the menu, and set the data file name of the teaching material data to be practiced. Touch to select. Then, the control unit 201 of the learner terminals 102-1 to 102-n controls the network I / F unit 204 to issue a designation command for designating the selected data file to the learning material server 103, The sentence voice data 903 part is analyzed with reference to the designated data file stored in the distribution folder 103c, and the voice waveform of the sentence voice data 903 part of the data file is displayed on the waveform display unit 703. Then, the sentence information is read from the voice header portion 902 and a sentence delimiter line 704 is displayed on the waveform display portion 703.

  The control unit 201 of the learner terminals 102-1 to 102-n monitors whether or not the play button 705 on the GUI screen 701 has been pressed from the touch panel 211. When the learners a1 to an touch the play button 705 from the touch panel 211, the control unit 201 controls the voice data processing unit 206 to play the teaching material data and outputs the playback sound from the headset 209. To do. At the same time, the original text data and translation data of the sentence currently being reproduced is read from the voice header section 902, the original text data is displayed on the original text display section 706, and the translated text data is displayed on the translation text display section 707. The GUI screen 701 displayed on the monitor 210 of the learner terminals 102-1 to 102-n by unchecking the parallel translation display permission unit 503 on the GUI screen 501 displayed on the monitor 210 of the teacher terminal 101. The display of original text data and translated text data can also be prohibited.

  On the other hand, when it is determined that the learners a1 to an have not pressed the playback button 705 on the GUI screen 701, the control unit 201 monitors whether or not the recording button 708 has been pressed. When the learners a1 to an speak by pressing the recording button 708 on the touch panel 211, the voice is picked up by the microphone unit of the headset 209, digitally processed by the voice data processing unit 206, and recorded as voice data. Recorded in the unit 203. At this time, the audio data processing unit 206 may execute a process of compressing the audio data.

  In this way, each of the learners a1 to an selects the teaching material data desired by the learner, and can advance the language learning while repeatedly reproducing and recording according to the learning progress of each learner.

  As described above in detail, in the language learning system to which the embodiment of the present invention is applied, the teaching material data can be easily and easily created as long as the text data is prepared. It is easy to create teaching material data using news and topics from

  In the present embodiment, an example in which the teaching material creation terminal 105 is connected to the network 104 of the language learning system 1 has been described. However, the teaching material creation terminal 105 may be standalone and not connected to the network 104. In this case, the created learning material data may be recorded on a portable recording medium such as a USB memory, and connected to the learning material server 103 and copied to the learning material folder 103b.

  In this embodiment, an example in which foreign language text data is translated into Japanese translation data by a translation engine as original text data has been described. However, Japanese may be included in either the original text data or the translation data. , Both may be different types of foreign languages.

  Further, the teacher terminal 101 can be provided with the function of the teaching material creation terminal 105. In this case, teacher terminal control software and teaching material creation terminal control software are installed in the teacher terminal 101.

  Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the teaching material server 103 is described in the configuration of the language learning system 1. However, as another embodiment, the teaching material server 103 can be configured to include the function of the teaching material server 103. .

  Furthermore, in the present embodiment, an example in which the teacher b and the learners a1 to an perform an input operation using the monitor 210 provided with the touch panel 211 has been described, but the input means is not limited to this, for example, illustrated However, a pointing device such as a mouse, a keyboard, an operation panel, or the like may be used.

1 is a basic system configuration diagram of a language learning system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. It is a block diagram which shows the schematic internal structure of the terminal for teachers, the terminal for learners, and the teaching material preparation terminal. It is an example of a GUI screen displayed on the monitor of the learning material creation terminal. It is an example of the text reading screen displayed on the monitor of a learning material creation terminal. It is an example of a GUI screen displayed on the monitor of the teacher terminal. It is an example of the GUI screen which expanded the display operation part required for distribution of teaching material data among the GUI screens displayed on the monitor of a teacher terminal. It is an example of the GUI screen displayed on the monitor of the terminal for learners. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the process sequence of preparation of teaching material data in a teaching material creation terminal. It is a figure for demonstrating the data structure of synthetic | combination audio | voice data.

Explanation of symbols

1 language learning system 101 teacher terminal 102-1 to 102-n learner terminal 103 teaching material server 104 network 105 teaching material creation terminal 201 control unit 202 memory unit 203 recording unit 204 network I / F unit 205 monitor I / F unit 206 Audio data processing unit 207 External I / F unit 208 Bus 209 Headset 210 Monitor 211 Touch panel a1, a2, a3 Learner b Teacher

Claims (2)

A language teaching material data creation program for causing a computer to execute processing for generating text teaching material data by performing speech synthesis processing of text data,
A first step of dividing the text data into sentences;
A second step of generating a sentence voice data by performing a voice synthesis process for each of the divided sentences;
A third step of generating sentence audio teaching material data by adding the sentence and sentence delimiter information to a header portion of the generated sentence audio data for each sentence;
A fourth step of generating the language teaching material data by combining the generated sentence speech teaching material data;
A program for creating language teaching material data for causing the computer to execute the process. In the second step, for each sentence divided in the first step, speech synthesis processing is performed to generate sentence speech data and translation processing is performed by a translation algorithm to generate sentence translation data,
In the third step, for each sentence, a sentence voice teaching material data is generated by adding the sentence, the generated sentence translation data, and sentence delimiter information to a header portion of the generated sentence voice data. The language teaching material data creation program according to claim 1, which is executed by the computer.

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