With the internationalization of cooperative activities, opportunities for conversations between native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) are increasing, but conversations between NSs and NNSs are not always easy. This paper proposes a Speech Speed Awareness System to support conversations between NSs and NNSs by displaying a screen when the speech rate of the NS becomes too fast for the NNS. We analyzed the speech behaviors of NSs and NNSs from a conversation experiment of word-association games conducted to examine the effectiveness of the proposed system. Although no significant differences in the frequency of NNSs asking back to NSs in the game or in the percentage of correct responses were found, we found that NSs’ speech rate was reduced after notification by the proposed system and that NSs’ speech rate changes were moderated throughout the conversation.
References
- Jing Ye, Tomoo Inoue, A speech speed awareness system for non-native speakers, Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing Companion (CSCW’16 Companion), pp.49-52, 2016.2.
- Jiongda Xu, Wei Liao, Tomoo Inoue, Speech speed awareness system for a non-native speaker, Proceedings of the 2016 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems, pp. 43-50, doi>10.1109/CTS.2016.25, 2016.10.
- Kosuke Sasaki, Tomoo Inoue, Effects of the Notification of Native Speaker’s Speech Rate on Asymmetric Second Language Conversation, IPSJ Journal, Vol.62, No.1, pp.115-124, 2021.1. (in Japanese)