Larson Education i Lerum AB

Presented at the ESCA Workshop on

Speech Technology in Language Learning (STiLL-98)

The development of speech analysis methods into fully operational computer programs often requires considerable effort outside the area of primary interest to the speech analyst. A system is described which could serve as an open platform for analyzing tools thus reducing total development cost.

The platform supplies the student training support, an easy-to-use authoring tool specifically designed for language training, a students guiding and tracking system, and network support allowing distribution of exercises and collection of test results locally and globally via the Internet. The system has already some speech analysis tools attached but is open to other tool suppliers.

The system has so far been used mainly in immigrants’ training, secondary schools and universities. Its introduction into telematics has just started.

The system is also an accepted (in Sweden) platform for publishers who use it to provide advanced computer support for their books. The merge of knowledge of traditional suppliers of educational material and speech technology on a multimedia/IT-base platform could prove very fruitful.