DON’T Use Speech Recognition in Language Learning Apps
After researching ~100 language learning apps in South East Asia and the American app market, I found that only 27% allow users to practice speaking, and most of them use speech recognition as speaking feedback. Using speech recognition is ineffective in language learning for two reasons. 1. Good pronunciations are all alike; every mispronunciation is faulty in its own way. One of the barriers to language learning is the mother tongue, especially for learners 12 years old and above. Deeply influenced by the sound system of their mother tongues, language learners may confuse sounds in their mother tongue with those in a new language. There are over 7000 languages globally, so a single language corresponds to a broad spectrum of mispronunciations from language learners. It is happy if a recognition system can recognize speech, but what matters the most is how to deal with mispronunciations, which fail the recognition system. It can not shed light on where and how to improve, ...