NativeAccent - Blogging about Carnegie Speech v.3 Student Manual.… · Web viewNativeAccent analyses pronunciation, word ... English?” is a question that you seriously need to

Carnegie Speech company

NativeAccent

by Carnegie Speech

Student ManualThis is a Student Manual for NativeAccent by Carnegie Speech Company, USA.

First EditionNovember, 2012

© Carnegie Speech Company, Pittsburgh, USA.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

This is a Student manual for NativeAccent from Carnegie Speech Company. This document is for private circulation to help the students to use the software with ease and to maximize their time on task.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

This Student manual is provided subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade, be lent, sold, hired out or otherwise disposed of without the publishers consent.

Editorial Team:

Carnegie Speech Team

Published by:

Carnegie Speech Company925 Liberty Avenue, 7th FloorPittsburgh, PA 15222USA

2 | S t u d e n t M a n u a l N a ti v e A c c e n t

Carnegie Speech

Carnegie Speech Company is the premier developer of software for assessing and teaching spoken language skills. Using state-of-the-art speech recognition and artificial intelligence technologies licensed from Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Speech enables cost-effective, scalable and personalized spoken language instruction that maximizes training effectiveness and minimizes training time. With years of linguistic research, world-class technology and language tutoring expertise, Carnegie Speech provides language training products to a diverse and global clientele.

To Be Understood and to Understand – When it Really MattersAt Carnegie Speech, we believe the true measure of language learning success is the ability to be understood – and to understand – when speaking a language. That is why business, aviation, government, health care and education enterprises count on Carnegie Speech to ensure that their personnel can communicate when their clients, employees and students depend on it.

Carnegie Speech is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.


Forward

Dear Learner,

We welcome you to NativeAccent from Carnegie Speech. First, we would like to thank you for purchasing the software to improve your English Communicative Skills. Second, we would like to congratulate you for making a right decision in choosing us as your trust worthy Communicative English trainer.

NativeAccent English speech training software includes the pronunciation tutoring technologies and learning features that has enabled global enterprises, government agencies and academic institutions to maximize the effectiveness in their speech training. NativeAccent speech training software accommodates each Student's native language, current English pronunciation skills and learning pace to build a spoken English curriculum that is personalized and relevant. Pinpointed speech analysis provides Students with immediate, understandable and actionable feedback, and the Intelligent Tutor personalizes NativeAccent speech training so that Students can learn to speak and understand English in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Key Technologies Used:1. Speech Recognition Technology

a. Speech Recognition technology licensed from Carnegie-Mellon University.

2. Pinpointing Technologya. Patented Pinpointing immediately recognizes correct and incorrect pronunciation,

pitch, duration or grammar. If response is below skill threshold, prescriptive information appears to advise Student how to improve. Student can also compare their recording with a model speaker.

b. Customized curriculum based on Student’s mother-tongue. List of 60 supported languages in the Appendix.

3. Artificial Intelligencea. Artificial Intelligence is used in the Intelligent Tutor to identify each student’s skill

mastery and moves them on to more challenging lessons when they are ready.

We are proud that we are bringing you a great value through world’s best English Training Software. We look forward to see you improve immensely as you practice through the course. We wish you all the best.

- The Carnegie Speech Team.


Note from CEO of Carnegie SpeechWelcome to NativeAccent® by Carnegie Speech. Carnegie Speech is pleased to offer you this state-of-the-art spoken English training program. NativeAccent creates a customized learning plan for you, focusing on those pronunciation, grammar, fluency and word stress skills in greatest need of improvement. NativeAccent helps students and professionals in more than sixty countries become more comprehensible in English, helping them to be successful in their studies and in their careers.

The one constant among the highest achieving NativeAccent users is consistent study. They set aside 30 to 60 minutes a day, 5 days a week to use NativeAccent. We encourage you to do the same.

Best wishes,

Paul Musselman

President and CEO, Carnegie Speech Company

Release Note for NativeAccent V3.0

What’s New in NativeAccent V 3.0

Significantly improved user interface New speech recognition algorithm Cloud server delivery Improved audio set-up Teacher can assign additional work to class roster or to individual students Teacher can enroll students and customize course settings


Table of Contents

Carnegie Speech....................................................................................................................................3

Forward.................................................................................................................................................4

Note from CEO of Carnegie Speech.......................................................................................................5

Release Note for NativeAccent V3.0......................................................................................................5

What’s New in NativeAccent V 3.0....................................................................................................5

Table of Contents..................................................................................................................................6

Course Overview...................................................................................................................................7

Student Registration..........................................................................................................................7

Basic Requirements...............................................................................................................................8

The Course.............................................................................................................................................9

Sound Check........................................................................................................................................13

Assessment..........................................................................................................................................16

Grades.................................................................................................................................................18

Intelligent Tutor – Lesson Plan............................................................................................................20

Intelligent Tutor – Lesson Path........................................................................................................21

Instructions......................................................................................................................................22

Progress bar.....................................................................................................................................22

Answering Activities within an Exercise...........................................................................................23

Correction Instructions....................................................................................................................23

Practice............................................................................................................................................25

How to get the best out of the course.................................................................................................26

Support................................................................................................................................................27

Problems? .......................................................................................................................................27

Call Us..............................................................................................................................................27

Mail Us.............................................................................................................................................27

Report an Issue Online.....................................................................................................................27

Subscribe to Carnegie Speech News Letter......................................................................................27

Appendx 1: SPHINX/IPA CONVERSION CHART.....................................................................................28

Appendix 2: Student Quick Start Chart................................................................................................30

Appendix 3: Supported first languages list ………………………………………………………………………………………32


Course OverviewNativeAccent is web-delivered software from Carnegie Speech Company, Pittsburgh, USA. NativeAccent is enterprise software for testing & improving English speaking skills for non-native speakers.

Speak English intelligibly in less training time.

NativeAccent from Carnegie Speech uses patented pinpointing technology that exactly identifies student’s speech errors and gives specific remediation instructions. Differences between student’s native language and English are used to effectively teach pronunciation, word stress, grammar, and speaking fluency. The intelligent tutor customizes the curriculum based on student first-language, gender and current English proficiency. Objective assessment and reporting motivates student progress and informs instructors and managers.

Your personal English tutor is here!!!

NativeAccent accesses student’s spoken English skills through an assessment. Assessment is a set of 89 exercises. Students record the assessment items using the provided interface. NativeAccent analyses pronunciation, word stress, fluency and grammar of the student and provides an objective assessment of the competency levels in each of the areas.

Intelligent tutor provides a customized lesson plan for each student based on the assessment and the competency levels. Thus, NativeAccent makes learning very personal to individuals learning needs.

Training for 10-20 hours on the software makes an individual master the elements of language that he/she is not good at ensuring a minimum of 100% improvement.

This Student Manual provides a complete insight into how to use the software and get maximum benefit of your investment in the software.

Student RegistrationIf your school or employer has purchased an institutional license, you will be provided with a username and password and a web link to the Student Roadmap which provides summary support materials. This information will be provided by your teacher or trainer.

If you have purchased NativeAccent directly from the Carnegie Speech website, you will receive an email with your login information and a web link to the student roadmap.


Basic Requirements This chapter explains the basic requirements that the students need to ensure before the course beginning.

Please ensure all the following before you launch the program. Please refer to quick launch guide too.

Operating System

NativeAccent is compatible with Apple Macintosh OSX and Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.

Browsers

NativeAccent v.3 requires Microsoft Internet Explorer v9 or higher, Mozilla Firefox v16 or higher, Google Chrome v23 or higher, and/or Apple Safari v6 (OS Mountain Lion) and v5 (MS Windows and all other OSX versions).

Internet Connection

NativeAccent requires a minimum bandwidth of 30kb/ second. Any broadband / data card with a minimum of 125 kbps capacity is good.

Plug-ins

NativeAccent requires Macromedia Flash Player 11 or higher

Headset

A noise-cancelling USB headset is strongly recommended.

Note: Connect the headset before launching the program. Place the microphone about two inches from the mouth – slightly below to avoid distortion from air being projected during speech.

It is recommended that the students watch the video links sent on the provided mail id. The videos provide a complete insight on the course. The videos can be accessed at www.laetuseducation.com/help_video


http://www.laetuseducation.com/help_video

The CourseIf you have completed checking all the required components mentioned in the previous chapter, you are all set to start your course.

Link

Open the browser Type https://nativeaccent3.carnegiespeech.com and click go. You be presented with the NativeAccent web portal page:

Book mark this page so that you can comfortably access repeatedly. Enter your username and password and click ‘Login’ You will be presented with the home screen of the software.


https://nativeaccent3.carnegiespeech.com/

Check if you are enrolled into the appropriate course The Course Summary briefly describes the couse into which you have been enrolled. Click on My profile settings under “Settings” Click on Edit Profile


Fill all the information. For a better personalized profile, add a photo of yours. Click “Update Profile” Click on “Change Password”

Input the password mailed to you Create a new password that is comfortable for you. Re-enter the password again. Click “Save Changes”


After you get the remark “password has been changed” Click “Continue”

Click “Home” button to return to home screen of the software. On returning to the home screen, you can start the course.

Click on the name of the course to start your course.


Sound CheckWhen recording, place microphone about 2 finger widths from and slightly below your mouth. This will ensure that the microphone picks up the soft sounds without distortion caused by your breath. Speak into the microphone as if you are talking to a friend.

First check the computer audio settings

Check your system level audio settings according to the computer manufacturer’s recommended audio settings.

Verify that the USB headset is the default audio device and that the recording volume is set to at least 50 percent of volume on the meter.

Start the Microphone check

Check your USB headset jack is properly inserted to the computer. Follow the automatic system check of the recording levels

Check “Allow” and “Remember”. Click close to move the following screen.


Click on the blue dot button and utter the prescribed sentenceo “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

If the recording levels are good, the software provides the following screen:

If you see “Sounds good!”, your microphone settings are set correctly. Click on “Get Started!” to start your Assessment.


If there is a problem in microphone settings, please follow the following steps:

Reposition your microphone and click “Retry Test”, speaking in a normal tone of voice If this message window appears again, click the “View Settings” button

First make sure that the correct microphone is selected using the triangle next to the drop-

down menu of choices

Select the microphone icon in the Adobe Flash Player Settings window. When speaking in a normal voice, the microphone meter should be in the GREEN zone.

The microphone volume meter should NEVER be in the red zone. Adjust the volume bar for your speech. Check the Reduce Echo button and click “Close” Test the volume again If you see “Sounds good!”, your microphone settings are set correctly. Click on “Get Started!” to start your Assessment.


AssessmentAssessment at the beginning of the course is an important aspect of your course. Once you log in to the course, you are asked to take an assessment.

Assessment is a set of 89 scripted items. The student records themselves speaking the scripts using the “record” button. It should take 40 to 60 minutes to complete the assessment. Students can stop before the completion of the assessment, but SHOULD NOT FORGET TO “Save & Quit” the assessment. The student can log in and complete their assessment at another time.

Start your Assessment: Click on “Get Started!” to start your Assessment.

The marked area is the exercise.

Press to start recording your response. Press button to stop recording.

Press to play back and listen to your recording.

Button moves you to the next assessment item.

Click to change your microphone settings


Complete all the 89 exercises in the assessment and click “Save & Quit” button to submit your assessment.

The following screen will appear. Click on “Go to the Lesson Plan”.

What Happens during the Assessment?

During the assessment, the software analyses your proficiency levels in

Pronunciation Word Stress Grammar Fluency


You can see your grades and performance levels any time by going to “My Grades” window as shown below:

GradesStudents can check their grades anytime during the course, after the initial assessment to know their competency. Once you click on the “My Grades” you see the following screen:


The proficiency in each skill is given in % probability of “How likely is the student to record a correct answer on their next try?”

Over all competencies for each of the component, is given at the right hand top in % of probability.

The same is followed for Grammar, Word Stress and Fluency exercises too.

As the student progresses with the course, the probability rates also change according to the performance levels of the students, indicating the learning curve.

On “My Grades” window, click on “Return to Lesson Plan” to go to your individualized lesson plan.

You can also go to your lessons by clicking on the course name on the home page.


Intelligent Tutor – Lesson PlanIntelligent Tutor

Intelligent tutor enables learning in a meaningful and effective manner by using a variety of computing technologies. In NativeAccent, the intelligent tutor customizes the curriculum for each student focusing their instruction on areas of greatest need.

Once the student completes the assessment, the student starts with the individualized lesson plan for the student.

Start from the first lesson and continue with the lesson order. The lesson that the student is studying currently gets highlighted as shown above. Scroll the mouse point on a lesson to see the details of the lesson


Intelligent Tutor – Lesson PathIntelligent tutor lesson path is customized for each student based on their assessment scores and their mother tongue.

Intelligent tutor generates exercises for 10 hours of study. Each exercise is of 15 minutes duration. Each exercise appears three times during the 10 hours study to ensure enough practice.

Intelligent Tutor path has a look and feel of Angry Birds® game theme*. Only a few exercises are unlocked for the students to start the individualized lesson plan. The locked exercises are unlocked as and when the students complete the initial exercises successfully. This approach guides the student to practice on the exercises that are most need most. (*Angry Birds is a trademark of Rovio.com)

When you click on the lesson, student gets to see the lesson overview


Lesson Overview provides the details of the lesson and students can learn or brush their knowledge about the lesson topic.

In pronunciation exercises, instructions are given to produce the sound correctly and two flash videos show mouth and facial movements needed to produce the sound.

In grammar exercises, the usage rules of each of the lessons are provided with examples. In Fluency and word stress exercises, the importance of getting a fluency element correct is

explained. Press “Start Lesson” to begin the lesson.


InstructionsIt is important to understand the Lesson window clearly. The following explanations highlight the important aspects of a lesson window:

All the exercises have instructions in the marked area of the screen. Please read the instruction to clearly understand how to answer the activities that comprise the exercise set.

Progress barProgress bar explains how the student is progressing in the exercise. Please observe the example and the explanations given below:

The student is currently studying “l – leaf” exercise. There are 24 activities in the current exercise. When you move the mouse pointer on the circles a pop up message displays the status of

the each activity in the exercise. The following are the kinds of status pop up messages:

Circles Mouse pointer description What does that mean?Dark Circles Nice Job! The activity is completed

Half-filled Circles Almost The activity is attempted but is not complete

Blue Circle You Are Here Current activity the student is attempting

Blank Circles Skipped or Not Started Either the activity is skipped or not started by the student

Stars Current Performance: XX% Probability of accuracy on the exercise is shown in percentage


Please follow the instructions provided in the “SOUND CHECK” section of this guide to set your

microphone properly

Answering Activities within an ExerciseThe following instructions show how to answer the activities in the exercises.

Click on to listen to fluent speaker.

Click on to Record your answer and to

stop recording the answer

Click on to listen to your recording

Click to go to next question

Click to change your microphone settings

Correction InstructionsWhile answering a question, if you make a mistake, the software displays a suggestion message that guides you to correct your response.


In Pronunciation Exercises

The mistakes are highlighted by red and yellow colors.o Green is for Good - the answer is above the skill thresholdo Yellow is close to the skill thresholdo Red needs improvement and is below the skill threshold. o Yellow indicates that the student passed the question but needs moderate training.

NativeAccent suggestions appear when any response is classified as “Yellow” or “Red”. These pop-ups provide advices on how the students may improve their skill.

In Grammar Exercises


PracticeThe student needs to do the following to successfully complete the exercises:

Read and understand the instructions for each of the exercise Follow the instruction strictly and complete each activity After you successfully complete an activity, you are moved to the next activity.

o If you find the activity too difficult, click on the “Next” button and move to the next question. You can come back to the unfinished question and complete it at a later time.

o To move to within an exercise, click on the circles above the lesson instructions.

o Make sure you click on all the half-filled and blank circles and complete each activity before you submit your records.

Complete all the activities in an exercise. When exiting a lesson click on the “Save & Quit” button to submit your records and to

ensure that your activities and time-on-task will be accurately recorded.

Important


In the event you have to leave the lesson before completion, the student can click on “Save & Quit” and continue with the lesson later. When the student next selects that lesson, the last activity will be represented.


How to get the best out of the course“How can I achieve the best results and get the best return for my investment in learning communicative English?” is a question that you seriously need to ask yourself. With our experience of training thousands of students, we recommend the following:

1. Be consistent in your study.a. Right

i. As a best practice we advise you to study 30-45 minutes per day and five days a week.

ii. Be self-motivated and do not skip the practice till you complete the course.iii. Do not hesitate to reach Laetus Support team for any help you require.

b. Wrongi. Studying 5 hours a day and skipping the rest of the days of week.

ii. Being irregular in the learning habits.2. Have a scheduled study time

a. It is advised to have scheduled study time and dedicate your time on practicing NativeAccent during that time every day.


SupportThere are different levels of support for NativeAccent customers

For US Education Customers, students should refer to the NativeAccent Troubleshooting Guide and this Student Manual first. Students can reset their passwords using the “Forgot your password” link on the NativeAccent web portal page. If the password reset email is not received within a few minutes, check your spam folder. If the email is not received, your teacher can reset the password for you.

For other issues, if, after using this Troubleshooting guide, you are unable to resolve an issue, FOR BEST RESPONSE, email Customer Care with your name, your username, a description of the issue, a screen shot of any errors or error messages. A screen shot can be obtained by using the Print Screen key on your keyboard, which will place an image of your screen into the computer clipboard. Paste the image into an email addressed to [email protected] and complete with the description of the issue, your email address and phone number and the best time(s) to reach you (indicate your time zone) by phone if you want a call back.

Report an Issue OnlineYou can also report your issue online by filling a simple form available online at

http://www.carnegiespeech.com/contact/contact_form.php

This link is linked to our issue tracker system and will get the attention of the Help Desk immediately.

Subscribe to Carnegie Speech Quarterly News LetterPlease send an email to [email protected] to be added to our quarterly newsletter.

We at Carnegie Speech wish that you improve your Communicative English and be successful in your academic endeavors and business and personal pursuits in life.


mailto:[email protected]

http://www.carnegiespeech.com/contact/contact_form.php


Annexure 1: SPHINX/IPA CONVERSION CHART

SPHINX PHONES IPA EXAMPLES Confused phones

CONSONANTS B b bank V,P

CH cheese SH

D d land T

DH the Z,D,T

F f food P

G g ghost K

HH hat F

JH jerk SH,CH

K k keep missing at end

L l fell R,W

M m mood missing at end

N n new missing at end

NG sing N

P p loop B,F

R r park L

S s south SH

SH mission S

T t beet D

TH teeth T,S

V v leave W,B

Z z zap S

ZH vision Z


SPHINX PHONES IPA EXAMPLES Confused phones

SEMI-VOWELS W w way V

Y j, y yield none

VOWELS AA father AO

AE add EH,AA

AH but AO,EH

away

AO caught OW

AW aw, a out OW

AY aj, aI eye none

EH end AE,EY

EY eI ape EH

IH I hit IY

IY eat none

OW ow, o rode AO

OY j, I moist AO

UH should UW

UW u, uw shoe none


Appendix 2: Student Quick Start ChartThis is a detachable chart that the students can use at their study table for a quick reference.


Self-Support using FAQs at www.carnegiespeech.com/support

Direct Support - email [email protected] with your username, a detailed description of the issue with date and time, and screen shot(s) of error messages or other relevant screens.



Appendix 3 - First languages supported in NativeAccent®

Arabic KoreanArmenian KyrgyzAssamese Malayalam

Bahasa MandarinBambara MarathiBengali Mina

Burmese MongolianCantonese MontenegrinCebuano Other*

Dari PolishFarsi Portuguese

French PunjabiGeorgian RomanianGerman RussianGreek Slovak

Haitian Creole SpanishHausa Swedish

Hebrew TagalogHindi TamilItalian Telegu

Japanese ThaiKannada Turkish

Kazak UrduKhmer VietnameseKirundi Wolof

* “Other” should be used when a student’s first language is not listed.


NativeAccent v.3.0 Troubleshooting Guide

NativeAccent Web Portals:

US Web Portal: https://nativeaccent3.carnegiespeech.com

ASIA Web Portal: https://nativeaccent3asia.carnegiespeech.com

How is NativeAccent delivered?

NativeAccent is delivered in an HTML5 compliant browser using an Adobe Flash™ player plug-in. Therefore it is important for the correct browser and Flash versions to be installed.

System Requirements:

Carnegie Speech strongly recommends using the current versions of Mozilla Firefox (v.24 or higher) to ensure the smoothest user experience in NativeAccent. Also compatible are MS Internet Explorer v.9 (v.10 not recommended), Google Chrome v.30 or greater, or Apple Safari browsers.

Plug-In:

After downloading and installing the latest browser, open the new browser, and download the Adobe Flash player and plugin at http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/ and complete the installation routine.

Other browser requirements:

Cookies and Java Scripting must be enabled in your browser for this program to work correctly. These are normally turned on by default. If you experience any unexpected results, check the help menu in your browser to ensure that session cookies are being accepted and java scripting is turned on.

What if the program still does not load normally?

Your firewall or other security settings could affect cookies and or access to the NativeAccent web portal. Ask you IT administrator for help with these issues.


http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

https://nativeaccent3asia.carnegiespeech.com/

https://nativeaccent3.carnegiespeech.com/

Contacting Support

If, after using this Troubleshooting guide, you are unable to resolve an issue, FOR BEST RESPONSE, email [email protected] with your name, username, a description of the issue, a screen shot of any errors or error messages. A screen shot can be obtained by using the Print Screen key on your keyboard which will place an image of your screen into the computer clipboard. Past the image into the email addressed to customer care.

Other ways of contacting Customer Care are as follows:

User the contact web form on www.carnegiespeech.com

Call: 1-888-786-0606 (North America)

1-215-531-7714 (Outside North America)

Password and Password Recovery

Problem Issue Resolution

I forgot my password Password needs to be changed

Lost your password? Select the password recovery link on the NativeAccent web portal and follow the instructions. If you do not receive the password recovery email from the system, your email provider may be blocking email from the system. If this happens, your teacher can reset your password for you.

Recording and Playback Problems


No playback of recording Microphone not adjusted properly

1. Check the "Allow" and "Remember" flash settings 2. Check Settings in Control Panel/Sounds/Recording and set the recording level to 60%.

No playback of recording Headset speaker volume too low

1. Check Settings in Control Panel/Sounds/Playback and t Increase the speaker volume


http://www.carnegiespeech.com/


No playback of recording (for headsets with USB connections)

Headset mic and speaker plugs are not being recognized by the computer

1. Unplug the headset and plug into the different USB port

Microphone reported as muted by flash application

Headset plugged in after starting flash application

1. Refresh the browser

Intelligent Tutor


I cannot find the Intelligent Tutor path

You did not take or finish the assessment

You must complete the assessment before you are presented with your custom path.

No lesson path provided by the Intelligent Tutor AFTER I FINISHED THE ASSESSMENT

The Intelligent Tutor did not run as expected

Contact Customer Care

Screen Freezing or buttons missing


I am unable to continue forward as the screen has an endless busy icon or is missing buttons, with no way forward

Browser/Flash compatibility issue

Update to the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox and Adobe Flash as instructed in the “How is NativeAccent Delivered” section above.

Connectivity


Cannot load the NativeAccent Web portal at nativeaccent3asia.carnegiespeech.com

Poor bandwidth, Routing problem or network outage,

Contact Customer Care at [email protected] or call 888-786-0606



Error Messages


Error message: Connection to Audio Analyzer timed out

Poor internet connectivity or other network issue

Try the recording again in a few minutes

Connection to Audio Analyzer has timed out consistently

Carnegie Speech support needed

Contact Customer Care at [email protected] or call 888-786-0606

Error message: Your speech did not match the speech of our model speaker

Speech recognizer did not understand what was recorded

1. Try speaking a bit slower 2.Try pausing a moment after clicking "record" and before clicking "stop"

Error message: A connection to our audio server could not be made

Poor internet connectivity

Contact Customer Care at 888-786-0606



Documents

NativeAccent - Blogging about Carnegie Speech v.3 Student Manual.… · Web viewNativeAccent analyses pronunciation, word ... English?” is a question that you seriously need to