Patent Application
20230048738
The present disclosure relates generally to linguistic learning. More particularly, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the systems and methods for assisting in the learning of a second or ‘target’ language. More specifically, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to embodiments of language learning systems and methods that improve listening fluency in the target language through presentation of content in the target language, including an annotated or redacted visual presentation of content in association with the auditory presentation of the same content.
When a learner sets out to acquire a new language (referred to herein generally as a “target language”) different from their mother tongue or other language in which they are already fluent, they will typically start with simple grammatical constructions and basic vocabulary (e.g. “I ate the egg”) and gradually evolve, over a period of time, to tackle more complex constructions (e.g. “I would've eaten the poached egg, out of sheer politeness, were it not for my severe dairy intolerance”). With perseverance and a well-designed path, the beginner learner can eventually attain a high-functioning level of, or even native-level, fluency in reading, writing, and speaking.
However, the acquisition of “listening fluency” requires a different approach. Many language learners, otherwise highly competent in the target language, struggle to understand native speakers speaking naturally in real-world situations, whether in conversation (especially on phone calls) or watching movies. Their ears cannot process the sound into meaning fast enough to keep up, and sometimes cannot understand anything at all if the speaker's accent is strong or they are speaking quickly and colloquially.
Many language teaching methods and tools fail in this respect because they expose learners to only artificially formal “made-for-study” speech, where the enunciation is slow, and the range of linguistic usage is limited. Both the sound and the content has been simplified to make it digestible to the learner.
However, the neural circuitry humans have for decoding speech needs to learn using authentic speech, which has a very different sound from (even if it is symbolically similar to) the made-for-study form.
A different problem arises in most of the language acquisition tools that do expose the learner to sounds of authentic spoken language. This content is, by nature of the situation, too difficult for the learner to understand without some assistance, since repeated listening alone generally does not help.
Typically, these tools provide the learner with full transcripts and sometimes full translations so the learner can follow along. Unfortunately, a full transcript or translation offers too much help, and the work of understanding is borne by the learner's eyes rather than their ears. It is no longer listening practice, but rather reading practice with a soundtrack.
The learner then needs a middle ground, where they get enough assistance while listening to authentic spoken language so they are “in the vicinity” of comprehension, while leaving important work for the ears, to achieve actual comprehension. It is only by forcing the ears to listen actively that the appropriate neural circuitry can be trained.
In conjunction with ear training, the learner needs to grapple with real-world idiomatic usage that is typically hard to author in made-for-study materials. Even for learning products that feature authentic spoken audio, the interface provided to learners is one of “select a word and look it up in a dictionary”, rather than working with bigger chunks (i.e. groups of words) and translating within the context of passage.
What is desired then, are improved language learning systems and methods.
To those ends, among others, embodiments of a computer implemented language learning system and method for implementing or assisting in self-study for improving listening fluency in another language (e.g., a second, third, etc. language, generally referred to as a “target” language) are disclosed herein. Such embodiments may simultaneously present the same piece of content in an auditory presentation and a corresponding visual presentation of a transcript of the auditory presentation, where the two presentations are adapted to work in tandem (e.g., are synchronized) to increase the effectiveness of language learning for users.
Embodiments of such a language learning system allow a language learner to practice listening to dialog spoken in a variety of natural accents, styles and speeds, to achieve native-level listening skills to handle many situations in the real world, whether conversational, transactional, or consuming media. In addition to ear training, embodiments help the learner build a robust and practical passive vocabulary.
Certain embodiments may be adapted to focus a user's attention on an aspect of the presentation that may be most conducive to learning the target language and the presentation of the content may be adapted to allow a user to focus primarily on a single aspect of the presentation. For example, embodiments may utilize a visual display where the visual transcript of the auditory content being simultaneously presented may be partially or fully redacted.
In particular, embodiments may include a set of features that work, separately or in combination, to help a second (or other) language learner study with audio content in the target language. While embodiments are effective for learning with any kind of recorded language (including, but not limited to, audiobooks, radio plays, lectures, and music) embodiments may be especially useful with the most challenging material in mind: natural, unscripted speech that is highly idiomatic and distinctive to the age, locale, and cultural background of the speaker.
Thus, embodiments may include a number of features, that may be used alone or in conjunction with other features that are designed to help a learner improve their listening fluency in a target language working with such target language audio recordings. Some of these features pertain to the display of a written transcript of the words spoken, in the target language, from the audio recording, the visual redaction of certain words in that transcript, augmentations to the transcript with summarizing information that may help the learner, user interactions with certain elements in the transcript, animations within the transcript related to the playback of the audio recording, and selective focus of parts of the transcript. This group of features may be referred to as “transcript related features”.
Other features, in some embodiments, pertain to the display of a written translation script of the transcript, typically in the learner's native language, augmentations to the translation script with summarizing information that may help the learner, animations within the transcript related to the playback of the audio recording, and selective focus of parts of the transcript. This group of features may be referred to as “translation script related features”.
Other features, in certain embodiments, pertain to manipulations of the audio recording that give the listener more time to digest the sounds from the recording itself, or time to read other information provided to the learner to orient themselves better in the narrative. These features may be referred to as the “audio manipulation features”.
In particular embodiments, other features pertain to ways for the learner to practice listening to challenging vocabulary from the audio recording they have selected to review during their study of the material. This group of features may be referred to as “audio vocab review features”.
Additionally, in some embodiments, there are features that pertain to how the learner can navigate through the chapters (e.g., a discrete section which may, in one embodiment, each last 1-4 minutes) of a longer audio recording, in multiple modes of listening or study, in a way that efficiently reinforces what they have studied, accustoming their ears to the natural native-spoken sounds while working in harmony with typical attention spans. This group of features may be referred to as “study flow features”.
To illustrate in more detail, in certain embodiments transcript related features and translation script features comprise the following. It will be understood that the features discussed herein are discussed together, however, embodiments may contain fewer, none or all of these features without loss of generality. “Word-level redaction” is an approach to substituting each word of the transcript with a bar or lozenge or opaque symbol (e.g., used interchangeably), so that some information of the underlying word is preserved visually. For example, in a Latin script language such as English or Spanish, the length of each redaction lozenge suggests the length of the word.
Alternatively, for a language like Japanese which uses multiple distinct scripts (Chinese characters known as “kanji”, two native syllabaries known as “hiragana” and “katakana”, and Latin script known as “romaji”) the script type under redaction may be indicated by the type of fill for the redaction symbol. The number of spoken syllables needed for each Chinese character may be indicated by other visual elements.
“Word group presentation and interaction” involves the editorial selection of different classes of groups of words, which can be called “word groups” even when they comprise a single word. The different classes of word groups may include vocabulary that the learner can add to their “vocabulary list” for later review, “tricky bits” which can be common words but spoken in a way that are difficult for a non-native listener to understand (e.g. spoken in a heavy accent, or spoken fast with elision), “SIC” which are incorrect or non-standard usages (often said unintentionally by the speaker), and “notes” for uncommon proper nouns or less well-known cultural references. Each class of word group may be identified by, for example, a specific color of underline, and each may permit different affordances for user interaction.
“Selective redaction” describes a situation where only some of the words in the transcript are visually redacted, as described above. Having a variety of states with different levels of redaction allow the learner to choose just the level of help they need, suited to their individual command of the target language, so they can follow the story without too much friction, but still keep the ears working to fill in the gaps and discern the detailed meaning. The learner may choose to redact all words except certain types of word group (for example vocabulary and SIC). Alternatively, they may choose to redact all the words, and select words groups one by one as needed (for example by tapping the redacted word group on the display). Or they might use a combination of these two methods.
“Audio synchronized highlighting” describes how the current spoken word, word group, sentence, paragraph, speaker, and passage can be highlighted in the display of the transcript, whether fully redacted, partially redacted, or fully unredacted. By hearing the sound of a word at substantially the same time as that word is highlighted in the display in its redacted form gives the ear some hint of what to expect without revealing the full text. Similar highlighting can also apply to the translation script at the sentence, paragraph, speaker, and passage. As well as highlighting the current entities, for example in a specific color, the display can visually distinguish between what has been listened to in the transcript and translation script, and what has not yet been visited. This is useful in particular when the learner rewinds in the transcript to see where they rewound from.
“Passage hints” are an augmentation of the transcript by language editors (who may also select and annotate the word groups described above). As an audio story or conversation progresses the topic being spoken about can migrate from one subject to another. Non-native listeners can often “miss a turning” and find themselves lost in the wrong overall context. The language editor can add a short note, the “passage hint” similar to a sub-chapter title, to signify the change in subject. The learner may choose to automatically show the hint at the start of the passage in the audio, or may prefer to uncover them one by one as needed if they get lost.
“Speaker information” describes the visual display in the transcript or translation script of the name or role of the person in the audio recording who is speaking. This feature allows the learner to open a description of the speaker giving some extra context. When a learner listens to audio conversations or audiobooks featuring multiple characters it can be hard to distinguish them by voice, and also hard to remember how each of them relate to each other and the story.
“Context-sensitive assistance” describes how the visual presentation of the transcript and translation script may change, and how extra assistance features can be made available, when the learner becomes stuck on a particularly difficult sentence. The display may remove all the other content from display leaving room to show both the transcript and translation script for that sentence. The extra assistance might be in the form of a super slow “snail mode” playback speed, and the ability to loop the audio for the sentence for repeated focused listening. The learner may proceed sentence by sentence in this special mode. In another embodiment the extra assistance may be activated when the learner chooses a rewind action on the audio player.
In one embodiment, audio manipulation features may comprise the following. “Audio kerning”, by analogy to text kerning in typesetting, describes a process by which spoken audio can be “time-stretched” in a natural sounding way which is particularly useful for ear training purposes in the target language.
Typically, audio time-stretching (and the inverse, time-shrinking) is done using a digital signal processing algorithm which doesn't alter the perceived pitch of the audio. It can however introduce distortions or “artifacts” in the sound, as well as creating an unnatural sounding speech. Embodiments may thus detect the natural pauses both between and within sentences or words in normal speech and elongate those without stretching the actual spoken words. In this way the learner is always hearing naturally spoken words, but has more “think time” while they listen so they are more likely to stay on track.
“Serialized attention” describes how the audio playback can be programmatically paused and unpaused as the learner consumes the chapter to help them concentrate more effectively. For example, when a passage hint is automatically displayed to the learner at the start of a passage, the player may be paused for a few seconds to allow the learner time to read and digest the hint, without the learner having to simultaneously listen to the next part of the audio in the target language. The audio player may be paused also when the learner interacts with a word group or views the speaker description as described above, again so that they can focus on just one thing at a time.
The novel “study flow” features center around respecting the typical natural attention span of learners, while also allowing different ways of listening to the same “chapter” of content in series to maximize the effectiveness of the ear training.
Working with chapters that are not too long, ideally four minutes or less of spoken audio, is important to help the learner master listening in digestible chunks, without suffering from mental exhaustion. After studying a chapter, taking advantage of the various assistance and augmentation described above, it is important for the learner to experience a “clean listen” through the same chapter, at the natural speed, without any assistance. At this point the learner should be familiar with the vocabulary, and the themes, and the sounds of the audio. Therefore, this final pass, listening as would a native listener, requires less concentration which also lets the native-spoken sounds sink into the brain.
The “audio vocab review features” describe a novel approach to reviewing and practicing vocabulary that the learner has encountered from the content they have studied. Whereas many language methods may provide a flashcard experience around vocabulary review, often implemented as a spaced repetition system (SRS), embodiments may take a different approach, focusing first on audio recognition of the words, and then understanding the meaning in the context of the audio story or conversation in which they appeared. Embodiments are thus useful when working with a form of the language where the usage is highly idiomatic and context sensitive.
Accordingly, in one embodiment a system for language learning may include a server and a client device executing a client application (e.g., the Jiveworld application). The server can receive an audio file having content in a target language and obtain a transcript of the words of the content of the audio file in the target language. Based on the audio file and the transcript of the words of the content the server can generate a timestamp file including a word level timestamp for each word of the transcript, the word level timestamp corresponding to a time in the audio file associated with where that word occurs in the content. The server may also generate a transcript and timing file (“T&T” file) corresponding to the audio file based on the transcript and the timestamp file. The transcript and timing file may comprise each word of the transcript of the content of the audio file and the associated word level timestamp for each word of the transcript of the content of the audio file.
In this embodiment the client application at the client device can obtain the audio file and the corresponding transcript and timing file and auditorily present the content of the audio file using an audio player at the client device. Simultaneously with the auditory presentation of the content of the audio file the client application may dynamically generate an interface using the transcript and timing file where the interface includes a visual display of a visual transcript of the content in the target language.
This visual display of the visual transcript of the content is synchronized with the auditory presentation of the content by the audio player and includes a visual transcript of a set of words of the content where the visual transcript of the set of words of the content includes a set of redacted words and a set of unredacted words. Each of these redacted words in the visual display are redacted by presenting the redacted word as a corresponding lozenge in the visual display, the lozenge sized according to the corresponding redacted word while each of the set of unredacted words are presented in the visual display in text of the target language. In particular, in certain cases the lozenge may be shaped based on a font used by the interface for the target language and the size of the corresponding word, and may indicate other properties of the word in written, spoken, or grammatical form.
Additionally, the visual display of the visual transcript of the content is synchronized with the auditory presentation of the content by determining that a word is being presented in the auditory presentation of the content based on the word level timestamp associated with that word in the transcript and timing file and a state of the audio player, and the presentation of that word in the visual display is highlighted substantially simultaneously with the auditory presentation of that word in the auditory presentation, where if the word is in the set of redacted words the lozenge corresponding to that word is highlighted, and if the word is in the set of unredacted words the textual presentation of the word is highlighted. This highlighting may include, for example, changing a color of the visually presented word when it is presented auditorily.
In certain embodiments, the set of unredacted words include one or more word group types, the word group types including vocabulary, incorrect usage, tricky bits or annotated words. The one or more word group types may, for example, be selected by a user using the interface of the client application.
In some embodiments, the one or more words is determined during dynamic generation of the interface based on user interactions with one or more words in the interface.
In some embodiments, a ratio of the set of redacted words to unredacted words may be altered based on a desired amount of assistance.
In certain embodiments, the pauses that occur naturally in speech, in between or within sentences, in the audio file can be lengthened programmatically, while still keeping the synchronization of words in the auditory presentation and the words in the visual transcript, thereby allowing the learner more “think time” while listening, but without changing the nature or character of the spoken sounds.
These, and other, aspects of the disclosure will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the following description, while indicating various embodiments of the disclosure and numerous specific details thereof, is given by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many substitutions, modifications, additions and/or rearrangements may be made within the scope of the disclosure without departing from the spirit thereof, and the disclosure includes all such substitutions, modifications, additions and/or rearrangements.
The drawings accompanying and forming part of this specification are included to depict certain aspects of the invention. A clearer impression of the invention, and of the components and operation of systems provided with the invention, will become more readily apparent by referring to the exemplary, and therefore nonlimiting, embodiments illustrated in the drawings, wherein identical reference numerals designate the same components. Note that the features illustrated in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.
The invention and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description.
Descriptions of well-known starting materials, processing techniques, components and equipment are omitted so as not to unnecessarily obscure the invention in detail. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and the specific examples, while indicating some embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only and not by way of limitation. Various substitutions, modifications, additions and/or rearrangements within the spirit and/or scope of the underlying inventive concept will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.
Before delving into more detail regarding the specific embodiments disclosed herein, some context may be helpful. Natural speech is innately hard to understand for most non-native speakers, and direct exposure is important so that they can acquire the skills necessary to have real-world conversations. Reaching a level at which the learner can have real conversations with almost any native speaker of the target language (which is far beyond what is commonly referred to as “conversational ability”) is an important milestone in language acquisition. It marks the point where the learner can quickly improve their mastery of the target language by using it, rather than studying it, thereby accelerating to actual robust fluency in the target language.
Simplifying the spoken material itself as a means of training the learner in listening comprehension, so that it is closer to what the learner can understand unaided, is a poor approach. Speaking slowly is not the same as slowing down normal speech. And the process of manicuring conversations for didactic purposes removes the natural warp and weft of the language. It may have the veneer of the real language, rather like vinyl can have the veneer of real wood, but it is far from the same and it cannot be fashioned in the same way.
The challenge then is how to define a method that, over a reasonable time, say months, carries the learner to a level where they can listen and understand natural speech unaided, while using the very material they cannot understand. The learning curve has to be shallow enough to be manageable, but steep enough so there is material upward progress.
Prior solutions are problematic, first, they may offer the learner a full transcript and full translation of the recorded material so they can follow along. As a regular aide these solutions offers too much of the wrong kind of help. Written words are hard not to read, and reading can short-circuit the ears: the learner hears the words after the words are already decoded, without exercising the part of their brain for decoding the native sounds. Prior solutions may also give the learner an interface to select a word in the written transcript and show the dictionary definition for that word. This feature is less useful than it might first seem. Natural spoken language (and the type of rich prose found in audiobooks and other audio presentations) is rich in subtle usages and expressions that are context dependent, not context-free as with a dictionary definition.
Generally then, one problem with these previous types of study applications is that most study applications and methods expose student only to ‘designed-for-classroom’ speech, where the pronunciation is clear and formal, and which uses limited constructions and vocab. It is a designed speech—designed around a language curriculum. The problem is when the student can understand, say, Spanish when spoken in the designed-for-classroom form, but cannot understand it in its natural forms (e.g., the forms in which it as actually spoken by native speakers in common usage).
Another problem with these language applications is that the presentation of the full visual text or transcript in association with the auditory presentation naturally shifts the emphasis to the visual presentation as opposed to focusing on comprehension of the auditory presentation. For example, the problem with watching foreign language TV as a method of ear training, for most learners, is that without the subtitles it is too hard to follow, and with the subtitles (transcription or translation) in the visual presentation it then becomes a reading exercise, not a listening exercise. Since a goal of language learning is to improve listening fluency it is desired to make sure that the ears are doing enough work so that they are getting trained, while still getting enough help so that the student can get through the challenging audio material.
Active study always benefits from focused attention. This is more so the case for studying listening, since the activity happens in real-time. A person has no control over the sound waves hitting their ears so the listener has to ride those waves and stay on top of the meaning. If a learner finds herself stuck thinking about something said a few seconds ago, they will likely miss what is coming at them right now: they have fallen off their semantic surfboard so to speak, and it can be hard to climb back on. This situation further impedes the ability of a langue learner to study the language to improve listening fluency in the target language.
Embodiments of a computer implemented language learning system and method for implementing or assisting in self-study for improving listening fluency in another language (e.g., a second, third, etc. language, generally referred to as a “target” language) are thus disclosed herein. Such embodiments may simultaneously present the same piece of content in an auditory presentation and a corresponding visual presentation of a transcript of the auditory presentation, where the two presentations are adapted to work in tandem to increase the effectiveness of language learning for users.
Embodiments of such a language learning system allow a language learner to practice listening to dialog spoken in a variety of natural accents, styles and speeds, to achieve native-level listening skills to handle many situations in the real world, whether conversational, transactional, or consuming media (such as TV shows, movies, radio shows and podcasts). In addition to ear training, the embodiments help the learner build a robust and practical passive vocabulary (e.g., words that are recognized, even if not employed in speech by the learner).
The listening brain is a pattern recognition learning machine. Accordingly, embodiments are based on the thesis that the brain should be fed the real spoken content for it to internalize those patterns. Embodiment may thus include various aspects, including transcript based redaction, speed control or presentation of content, highlighting ‘tricky bits’ (sections of spoken audio that might be especially hard to understand for non-native ears), notes on unconventional or incorrect usages (malapropisms, grammatical deviations), and general contextual notes on pronunciation.
For this reason, embodiments as disclosed herein (which may also be referred to without loss of generality as the Jiveworld system or application, Jiveworld technology or just Jiveworld) may be especially useful when applied to recordings of language spoken by native speakers for native speakers in a broad range of natural environments, though embodiments may be usefully utilized in other contexts as well. Specifically, while embodiments may be usefully applied with natural spoken audio recordings—for example, radio interviews with native speakers or audio books or magazines—it could also be applied to almost any other content desired like music with lyrics in the target language, or video content.
Certain embodiments may be adapted to focus a user's attention on an aspect of the presentation that may be most conducive to learning the second language and the presentation of the content may be adapted to allow a user to focus primarily on a single aspect of the presentation. In particular, embodiments of the interface have been adapted to give the user (i.e., learner or listener) just one thing at a time to focus on, as one goal of the Jiveworld application is to keep the listener on the “edge of understanding” providing them enough context so they know roughly where they are in the visual transcript, but not too much help that there is no work for their ears and brain to do in following the auditory presentation.
For example, in the Jiveworld system that uses a visual display where the visual transcript of the auditory content being simultaneously presented may be partially or fully redacted. The redaction may take the form of a “lozenge” (e.g., a visual obfuscation of a particular word or set of words) that obscures each redacted word of the transcript (e.g., while any unredacted words may appear as text of the target language). Such a lozenge may be approximately the size (e.g., length or height) of the word being redacted, allowing a user to take in a word boundary without showing the actual word. The length of this boundary may give some hint of the written and spoken length of the word (especially for an alphabetic language), and thus help nudge the learner towards hearing more accurately.
Moreover, either the presented text or the redacting lozenge may be presented in a specific (e.g., contrasting) color. The specific color may be used in the visual presentation to provide a visual indication of something related to the word, or location of the word, which could, for example, be the word currently being spoken (e.g., in a corresponding auditory presentation), or a contextual note or hint used to turn the listeners attention to a change in the subject under discussion in the auditory content being presented.
Thus, the visual presentation may be dynamic, with, for example, the color of the text or lozenge may change based on (and in association with) the auditory presentation of the content. Related to this, in certain embodiments, pauses may (e.g., automatically) be injected into the auditory presentation of the content when such a note or hint is presented in the corresponding visual presentation of the content (e.g., since it is desired to keep the listener from trying to read one thing while listening to something different).
The presentation of the content according to embodiments of a language learning system may also be configured for how humans adapt and learn, and be adapted to manage attention of users accordingly. Rather like training a particular muscle in the gym, there is a natural work and recovery cycle for concentration in studying. If the period of concentration is too long then the concentration is not sustainable, while too short a period impacts learning momentum and listening resilience. Accordingly, embodiments may present content according to such a work and recovery cycle to get sustained progress in ear training.
In particular, embodiments of the Jiveworld language learning system content presentation for listening may be based on ‘sprints’ of listening effort that cover audio segments that are a certain length (which we refer to as “chapters”). This length may be for example, around 100-250 seconds, though other lengths may be utilized according to need or desire. If, for example, an audio piece is a certain length (e.g., 20 minutes long), the audio segment (and corresponding visual presentation of text) might be divided up into 100-250 second chapters (e.g., around ten chapters when the content is 20 minutes long). In certain embodiments, the Jiveworld application guides the learner to listen to each of these chapters at least twice in succession (colloquially referred to as ‘at least two coats of paint’). A first pass may be done with assistance—this will require more deliberate attention (e.g., akin to cycling uphill) as the material is brand new with new challenges and vocabulary. This presentation will typically take 2 to 4 times the audio length, so a two-minute chapter might take 4-8 minutes of study. A second pass can then be presented without (or with more limited) assistance. This second presentation may be important to reinforce the new material listening at natural speed without needing to pause to look things up. This requires much less concentration effort (like cycling downhill). This more limited assistance may include, for example, more redactions or fewer visual indicators, etc.
In other embodiments, a user can choose more or fewer iterations. However, embodiments of the interface may encourage this two pass learning. After listening to each chapter (e.g., segment of audio content and corresponding visual transcript) twice, and working through the vocabulary study flow for any words they have selected on the way, the user may be able to listen to the full length of audio in one go with relative ease.
Embodiments of the design and implementation of the Jiveworld application will now be discussed in more detail. Referring first to
As can be seen, embodiments may present a visual transcript that is a representation of the simultaneously presented spoken transcript that allows individual words of the transcript to be either shown or obscured (‘redacted’). Moreover, as will be discussed, embodiments may also have a pointer 110 (e.g., in a particular color such as teal) in the left margin indicating the current sentence (e.g., being presented in the corresponding auditory presentation).
Having these redacted words in the visual presentation may serve many purposes. Among others, the use of redacted words allows embodiments of the Jiveworld application to fine-tune the amount of assistance given to the user as they listen, keeping them on the “edge of understanding”. Thus, the ratio or percentage of redacted words to unredacted words in the visual transcript may be varied based on a desired amount of assistance to be provided to a user. Depending on the settings or other criteria, embodiments of the Jiveworld application may show in the visual presentation, for example, only certain vocabulary words as unredacted (e.g., with the other words of the visual transcript highlighted).
The use of redacted words may also allow the user to visually follow and navigate the visually presented script in a consistent way, in particular by rendering the redaction lozenge at substantially the same width as the word, in place where the word would be. This treatment prevents the need to recalculate the layout of the transcript, and thereby allows the eye to stay focused in the same place on the screen (e.g., the word or lozenge highlighted (e.g., in teal or another color)), as in
Some of the above, or other unredacted portions, of the transcript might require accompanying notes or explanations. Certain embodiments of an interface presented by the Jiveworld application may thus provide explanatory notes synchronized with the auditory and visual presentations.
The embodiment of the interface in
Embodiments of the language learning system can automatically unredact any, or all, of these word groups according to a set of rules.
As discussed, at least two desires of embodiments of the Jiveworld system are first to tailor the assistance given to users to keep them on the “edge of understanding” and second, to provide a user interface that is easy to use. In certain cases, these two desires may be difficult to reconcile. One solution is to provide a simple on/off assistant switch in the interface, illustrated in some FIGURES (e.g., assistant switch 112
However, other embodiments may provide a way for users to more specifically tailor the types of assistance they get when they switch the assistance on.
Interfaces according to embodiments may also be simplified by using a single slider letting the user select from a series of preset assistance levels. Users may prefer the less fine-grained control in return for a simpler interface. Embodiments may also allow the assessment of different gradations of vocabulary or “tricky bits” and may expose settings to show more or less of gradations of tricky bits depending on the learner's level in the target language. Note that even when assistance is off, interfaces can still make the passage hints, vocab, notes etc. accessible (e.g., by tap on a touchscreen device) on an instance-by-instance basis as illustrated.
The “Assist” button 312 in
Other than explicit controls for auto-unredacting word groups (e.g., types of word groups), the system may have other ways of assessing the appropriate level of assistance. For example if the user starts with everything redacted but tends to tap on “tricky bit” word groups frequently, this could be a signal for to the application to unredact these “tricky bits” by default for the user. Thus, the system may have some threshold or time period whereby if the user interacts with a particular type of word group over the threshold amount during a given time period those types of word groups may be unredacted for that user. These thresholds and time periods may be, for example, different based on the type of word group, the user, the content being presented or other criteria.
Contextual based menus may also be used by the Jiveworld application in certain embodiments. For example, another way of allowing a user to unredact words is by offering them extra options when they rewind the audio presentation of the content. When dealing with challenging listening material the language learner will often need to rewind a short section to listen again before moving on. Jiveworld makes this action both easy and useful. When the user rewinds the content presentation both the audio content being presented and the corresponding visual presentation of the content reflect the rewind state.
Specifically, the visual presentation may be returned to a point such that the highlighted word group in the visual presentation corresponds to the place in the audio content where the audio content was rewound (e.g., to the word or word group being presented in the audio content).
However, rewinding does more than just move the listening position back (e.g., move the audio content and visual presentation back by some amount). When the user rewinds, it is a strong signal that they might need some extra help to engage with the section of content being presented. It might be a specific word that they need to understand, or it could be a whole construction they missed; it might be because they're unfamiliar with the words used, or the style of speaking confused their ears, or for some other reason. Thus, embodiments of interfaces as used by the Jiveworld application may be context sensitive; utilizing the user interaction for a rewind request to present additional information and affordances in the visual presentation of the content (e.g., regarding one or more types of word groups).
This menu 410 and the options are useful because, in most cases that when a user rewinds the audio transcript it is quite probable that they didn't understand the audio, and want to relisten to the preceding phrases. This is an appropriate context to offer them extra help if they want (e.g., to assist in what is presumed to be a lack of understanding).
One of these options buttons 420 (e.g., the left-most of the three in the black arc— can trigger the unredaction of all the text.
Other options offered while in a rewound state are the forward option button 422 which allows reversing one of the rewind taps in case the user went back too far and the slow listen option indicated by the snail icon 424. This slow listen option may add additional time stretching on top of what may already be activated in assist mode (e.g., as set in the assistance menu as discussed above).
Again,
In certain embodiments, the Jiveworld application saves the location in the content that was being presented before the rewind button 402 was pressed. This location may be tracked by the Jiveworld application in a “furthest played” marker (or variable). The user may be made aware they are in the rewind state by the display of the extra actions offered to them in the arc menu 410 above the rewind button 402 in the visual presentation of the content, and in the visual treatment of the script ahead of the cursor (e.g., as represented by the highlighted word or lozenge in teal color in the visual presentation). When the cursor has joined back up with the furthest played point (e.g., when the highlighted word or lozenge corresponds with the point in the content that was being presented before the rewind button 402 was pressed as maintained by the “furthest played” variable) the visual interface would revert back to how it was originally in
An additional way of jumping back (or forward) in the presentation of the content (e.g., both the visual presentation of the content and the auditory presentation) is shown in
Embodiments of the Jiveworld application and associated interfaces may also improve understanding by allowing greater passive vocabulary acquisition. Focusing specifically on the passive vocab acquisition, embodiment may utilize a vocabulary review process that is based on audio recognition first and foremost, making it complementary to the processes and techniques employed for the listening practice described above.
After having marked the vocabulary as successfully recognized (“Got it”) or not (“Didn't get it”) as illustrated in
Other embodiments of interfaces may also be used to assist in gaining listening fluency in embodiments of the Jiveworld application. One of these embodiments may be referred to as a visual focus indicator. As listening is done in real time, so the concept of “now” is important. The principle of serialized attention dictates that the user should never be reading one thing while listening to something else, so there is only one thing at a time that they are focused on. In other words, the visual presentation of the content and the auditory presentation of the content should be substantially synchronized, and kept synchronized.
In the visual display of content, the visual focus indicator may be represented with a contrasting effect. As discussed, a user may see the word currently being presented auditorily (or its redacted counterpart lozenge) highlighted (e.g., in a particular color such as teal blue) as depicted in the previous figures. In other words, the word (or lozenge) being highlighted in the visually presented transcript of the content is synchronized to the word simultaneously being presented auditorily in the auditory presentation. Extending the hierarchy of “now”, embodiments may also have a pointer 110 (e.g., in a particular color such as teal) in the left margin indicating the current sentence, and the hint that applies to the current passage is at the top with a certain color background (e.g., teal or another color), as depicted in
Even still, it is easy for a non-native listener to lose their way as the topic in conversation changes or evolves. Using an analogy from before, they fall off their semantic surfboard. Embodiments of interfaces presented by the Jiveworld system therefore give the user signposts (e.g., called “hints” or “passage hints”) that can guide them through the auditory content, so they know roughly what to listen for. This is a type of listening assistance.
In the second frame 804 of
In certain embodiments, as the visually presented transcript scrolls up, the interface may continuously present the hint 814 (e.g., “stick it” or “pin it”) at the top of the screen (as in the first frame 802 of
Other types of incremental help may be given to the user in other embodiments. For example,
In embodiments of these types of interface, some words or groups of words in the visually presented transcript may have a solid underline indicating that they can be touched or clicked to reveal some useful information. For example, the interface of
The interface of
The interface of
Information on this vocabulary may appear in the vocabulary panel 1014 at the bottom of the interface based on an interaction with this differentiated word group 1012. Since one objective of the Jiveworld system is to help increase the user's passive vocabulary, the interface (e.g., in panel 1014) may provide a way for users to add vocabulary to a study list, such as button 1016. Moreover, such help may be provided even in the case where a vocabulary word (or other type of word group) is redacted.
Additionally, consistent with the approach to “serialized attention” interfaces of the Jiveworld system may pause the audio when displaying this extra information (e.g., as displayed in panels 1004, 1008, 1014, etc.) so the user can read them without worrying about missing the main spoken content.
Embodiments of the Jiveworld system may provide particular assistance in review and training in the target language. As discussed, a key element of training is repetition. The brain learns by recognizing patterns and so it needs to be stimulated with the same or similar signals without too much time elapsing. A lot of flashcard programs are now based on spaced repetition systems (SRSs) where the purpose is to try and make the brain recall something just at the point where it is about to forget it.
SRS works well for isolated data—e.g. vocab lists—but for a more complex piece, like a 100-250 second portion of audio listening, a different more effective technique may be employed by embodiments: listen once to study carefully, followed by a second review pass as reinforcement, while the content is relatively fresh in the user's mind.
It is expected by design, that the user will struggle somewhat in the first pass listening to a language they've not mastered, but the second pass of the same content will feel more like listening to a native language. Not only is this a pleasurable experience, like freewheeling down a hill that has just been cycled up, but the brain is listening in a different mode—a fluent mode where the meaning is coalescing naturally in real time.
The “breadcrumb” at the top of the card—(e.g., the portion 1110 of the interface) that presents the “Listen-> Relisten-> Complete” menu guides the user through each pass. By default the first “listen” pass will have assistance on (e.g., the Assist button will be activated as shown in
When the second “relisten” pass is complete, as shown in
It may now be useful to delve into more detail about embodiments of implementations of the Jiveworld system. Referring then to
The Jiveworld server 1206 can access or otherwise obtain audio content 1212 from one or more content sources 1208 over network 1210 (which may be the Internet, an internet, an intranet, a WAN, a LAN, a wireless or cellular network, or another type of communication network). Such audio content 1212 may also be manually accessed at the Jiveworld server 1206 off of a non-transitory computer readable medium including such audio content 1212. This audio content 1212 (e.g., an mp3 or the like) may be stored in a data store 1254 at the Jiveworld server 1206 and a corresponding structured data file 1214 for the audio content 1212 created at the Jiveworld server 1206. This structured data file 1214 may include the text, timing, and word groups, as well as the timestamp or duration for each word spoken in the corresponding audio content 1212, where each word (associated with a timestamp or duration) is indexed (e.g., by the timestamp) into an associated spot in the corresponding audio file 1212 where the word is spoken. This structured data file 1214 can be, for example, an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) or JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)) file, and may be referred to as the transcript and timing (or T&T) file.
This timestamp data 1298 may be an export option of many audio editing tools (such as Audacity or Hindenburg Pro) which allow named labels associated with time sequences or segments to be created in an audio source file. Timestamping can also be done automatically by speech recognition processing services like Google Cloud Speech-to-Text service (e.g., or another algorithm or service). The output of such an editing tool or service may be a plain text file (typically comma or tab separated) which lists the label name with the start and end point in milliseconds in the audio track.
The timestamp data 1298 (including the data on the segments) may be used to implement another type of assistance for the learner (e.g., by augmenting or altering the timestamp data). This is referred to in the Jiveworld system as audio kerning. “Kerning” is a term used in typesetting, referring to the horizontal space between one letter and the next in a word. ‘Tight’ kerning means that the letters are more squashed together; ‘Loose’ kerning stretches them further apart.
Embodiments of the Jiveworld system may thus implement audio kerning by artificially increasing the natural pauses between sentences or sentence segments— (e.g., by programmatically stopping and start the audio player) to help give the listener more thinking time to parse the sentences. This audio kerning may be independent of any “audio time stretching” (which will slow everything down without changing pitch). The Jiveworld system can, for example, add a 500 ms pause after each segment (e.g., in the timestamp data), or adjust the gap so that it is never less than 1000 ms. This audio kerning may be particularly helpful when listening to long sentences with more complex structures, where it is easy to for a user to lose their place as a non-native listener. Since audio kerning does not change the speed of individual words on the track, the user may still be listening to the natural sound of the language.
Once the timestamp data 1298 is created, the timestamp data 1298 can then be combined with transcript data 1296 (e.g., and translation data, and other data) for the corresponding audio file 1212 to produce a separate file (e.g., which may also be a text file). This file can be created by compiling the transcript of the audio content into a structured text file which organizes the transcript of the audio content into a hierarchy of, for example, passages, paragraphs, sentences, and words.
Identifiers of each type of word groups (vocab, tricky bits etc. mentioned above) associated with a particular word or set of words may also be identified in the transcript data 1296.
As one example, this structured data may be encoded as XML in the following way:
In this example the two words “intento” and “desperado” (in Spanish) are selected as vocab with the translation “desperate attempt” in English. Parsing these two files and combining the timing data with the semantic data can be achieved with a script or other set of instructions 1294 (e.g., referred to as the “content parser script”) written in a language like Ruby or Python or another programming language. The resulting T&T file 1214 can then be written into the data store 1254 of the Jiveworld server 1206 in association with the corresponding audio content 1212.
It may be useful now to describe one particular embodiment of the creation of a T&T file 1214 in more detail. With reference to
The obtained transcript may be edited into a “verbatim” or annotated transcript where pauses, half word, hesitations, stutters or other spoken language artifacts or utterance are annotated within the transcript. The transcript may also be annotated with a note of the speaker of each portion (e.g., sentence, paragraph or other syntactically or semantically meaningful portion) of the transcript. For example, the audio content 1212 may be an interview or a radio play or the like. In such instances, the speaker or character, etc. speaking each portion of the transcript in the corresponding audio content 1212 may be noted in the transcript. These annotations may be done, for example, using a specialized markup language intended for such annotations.
This verbatim transcript can then be broken up into segments in “segmentation” process (STEP 1205). Segmentation means breaking up the verbatim transcript into portions such as those defined by free flowing runs of words (e.g., that may be spoken at an even pace). Each segment may be a run of words without a pause of a quarter of second or more in the audio content 1212 and may be based on annotations in verbatim transcript. As discussed, these segments may be a short portion of the audio content of the audio file 1212— typically 2-4 seconds of audio—that is spoken in the audio content 1212 in a fairly consistent speed. A segment is sometimes a full sentence, but may be just part of a sentence, and occasionally a single word. Each segment is thus identified with an identifier while each word of the segment may also be assigned an identifier. In one embodiment, each type of word group of interest may also be identified. Each of the word groups identified may be assigned an identifier associated with the specific type of word group (e.g., identifiers for “vocab”, “incorrect usage”, “tricky bits” or “annotations”).
Additionally, the Jiveworld server can structure the content into chapters (e.g., and chapters into passages) and associate names with the chapters. The term chapter as used herein will refer to portions of the content being presented (e.g., and not chapters as are traditionally used when referring to printed or audio materials such as books or the like). This content (e.g., both the audio and the corresponding transcript or translation) may be portioned into digestible chapters (e.g., around 2-4 minutes of audio content or change in subject). While certain embodiments may not portion the content into chapters, in some embodiments it is desirable to portion the content into chapters to discretize the content so that a user can have a digestible amount of content. It has been found that the use of naturally spoken content, (e.g., interviews, radio programs, plays or other dramas with characters reading parts, etc.) is desirable for learning a spoken language (e.g., as opposed to audio books or the like) as listening to such naturally spoken language may aid a learner in actually learning to understand that language as spoken. Much of this naturally spoken content may thus not have natural divisions. Accordingly, in some embodiments, this content is portion into chapters to allow a user to focus on each chapter in a discrete manner.
Each of the segments in the verbatim transcript may be then be associated with a “start of segment timestamp” that denotes the start time of that segment (e.g., relative to the beginning of the audio content 1212) and an “end of segment timestamp” that denotes an end time of that segment in the corresponding audio content 1212 (e.g., relative to the beginning of the audio content 1212) (STEP 1207). These segment timestamps may be stored in a timestamp data file and indexed according to the identifiers of their corresponding segment in the verbatim transcript.
Based on the timestamps assigned to the start and end of each segment, the timestamps for each word within each segment can then be determined (STEP 1209) and stored in the timestamp data file along with identifiers in the transcripts for each of those words. Word level timestamps for each word of each segment can then be determined based on the start of segment timestamp and the end of segment timestamp for a segment. These word level timestamps may include the start time and the end time of each word within the segment (e.g., and thus within the transcript). These word level timestamps include for example, a timestamp denoting the start of each word (e.g., relative to the audio file 1212) and, in some embodiments a timestamp denoting the end of the word.
In one embodiment, the determination of the start time and the end time of each word within the segment may be extrapolated using linear interpolation based on the start of segment timestamp and the end of segment timestamp for the segment and the length of each word within the segment (e.g., each word within the segment is given a relative weight based on the length of the word, and, in some embodiments, the number or total length of words within the segment or other criteria). This relative weight can be used to apportion the time between the start of segment timestamp and the end of segment timestamp for the segment to each word. These word level timestamps may be stored in a timestamp data file and indexed according to the identifiers of their corresponding words of the segment in the verbatim transcript. This word level granularity of timestamps serves to facilitate the synchronization of the presentation of the audio content and the corresponding visual presentation of content.
Once the segments and word level timestamps and the identification of word groups within each segment and other metadata have been determined, this transcript data and timestamp data may be merged along with the translation of the content into the T&T file 1214 (STEP 1211).
It may be useful at this point to depict an example of the generation of the T&T file for an audio file. Looking then at
An example annotated transcript for this audio content may be as follows:
#Un mal comienzo
> A Bad Start
##Returning to 1989: excitement leading up to the qualifiers @Daniel Alarcón
[99] Volvamos a las eliminatorias.
> Let's get back to the qualifying rounds.
[100] La<expectativa=expectation> era gigante.
> The expectation was enormous.
@Jorge Hevia
[101] Yo<˜creo> que+
[101.1]<˜hubo> una <especie=kind, type> co-- de . . . de . . . de <locura colectiva=shared madness>
[101.2] que se centró <˜fundamentalmente> en . . . en el equipo, en esa selección chilena,
[101.3] de que se le podia vencer a Brasil.
> I think there was a kind li-- of . . . of . . . of shared madness that fundamentally centered on . . . on the team, the Chilean National Team that could defeat Brazil.
[102] Y eso era historia.
> And that would be historic.
While the corresponding timestamp data for this annotated transcript may be as follows, where the three columns are the: segmentStartTimestamp: milliseconds, the segmentEndTimestamp: milliseconds and the segmentLabel: String, where the segmentLabel corresponds to the label in the square brackets in the annotated transcript:
The T&T file for the associated audio file that results for the merging of these files is depicted in the Appendix A below.
Referring to
At the client side application 1204, parsing the structured transcript and timing data and generating the text layout in the interface of the application 1204 may be done using a standard depth-first tree iterator. The styling of visual components may be altered during playback or otherwise through dynamic properties, so for example changing the color of a word element in the layout when the audio player is at a point that corresponds to its start time and duration in the timing data is straightforward.
The technique for modifying the properties of a user interface element by changing the property of a variable is known as “data-binding” is supported by most modern UI frameworks including React JS, React Native, Angular JS or the like. The rendering of the redacted text versus the unredacted text may be accomplished by rendering each word in its own layout component that calculates the minimal boundaries around that word—the bounding box in
Accordingly, for an alphabetic font as illustrated in
Similar techniques may be applied to other types of font or fonts for other types of languages.
Of note, a single kanji might be pronounced with one, two, or more syllables, whereas each kana corresponds to, at most, one syllable (sometimes two kana together will be pronounced as one syllable, with the second kana rendered at a smaller size).
Given that this method uses the visual style of redaction to communicate partial information about the underlying structure or expression of the redacted text,
The kanji are redacted with a dark background (e.g. black) and the kana are redacted with a light background (e.g. white), with the length of the redaction bars indicating the length of the word in written characters. In addition, the number of dots embedded inside the redaction bar (rendered with a color that contrasts with the redaction bar) indicate the number of spoken syllables required for each redacted character.
In much the same way that the word or corresponding redaction bar currently spoken in the audio, under the cursor, may be highlighted in a distinctive color (e.g., teal), the dots within the redaction bar may be highlighted in synchronization with the audio representing each spoken syllable.
Whether a particular type or instance of a word group is shown as text or redacted can be controlled dynamically by client state in the client application representing the settings chosen by the user (see, e.g.,
The “rewind state” behavior described above (e.g., as illustrated with respect to
In one embodiment, both of these cursor variables store a reference to a word in the transcript (for example the identifier for the word element such as an “address”). These two cursors will be the same, except when the user has rewound. When the current listening position has caught up again to where the user was before rewinding then the two cursors will continue to be the same until the next time the user rewinds or jumps back. Therefore embodiments of the Jiveworld client application 1204 can compare these two cursors to figure out whether the user is in a rewind state or not, and to modify the user interface exposed accordingly.
With reference back to
When the application 1204 receives an audio file 1212 and a corresponding T&T file 1214, the application 1204 reads the T&T file 1214 and instantiates an object for each element (a.k.a. an entity) (e.g., passage, paragraph, sentence, word group, word, etc.) defined in the T&T file 1214. Each object for each element is thus an instantiated object that is scoped with the metadata defined for that element as defined for that element in the T&T file (e.g., the object for the element is instantiated with all metadata for variables for the element as described in the T&T file 1214). Each object of each element type includes methods that define how that element type is to be rendered based on the local data of the object and the global state maintained by the application 1204. An element (e.g., a visually rendered component of the interface) may thus be rendered by the corresponding object that reacts to a global state maintained by the application 1204.
In particular, each element may be assigned an “address” that captures both the linear order of those elements and the hierarchical structure of containing elements outside. A “word” element, for example, may be contained in a “word group” element, which in turn may be contained in a “sentence” element, which in turn may be contained in a “paragraph” element, which itself may be contained in a “passage” element. The address may include a component for each element in the hierarchy of elements. An embodiment of this is illustrated in
The application 1204 can maintain a global state of a cursor synchronized, or otherwise set, based on the playback of the audio content in the audio player 1282. This cursor may hold the value of an address of the transcript element corresponding to the section of audio currently being played back in the audio player 1282. Specifically, the client application 1204 may monitor the time of the current play position in the audio file by the audio player 1282, and based on that play position (expressed in time units) can determine the visual transcript element at that particular time (e.g., based on the timestamps for each word or segment of the transcript), and determine the address of that element, and set the current cursor address to the address of that element, and broadcast the updated cursor address for consumption by each object for each element. The client application 1204 may also monitor user interaction with the presented visual depiction such that the cursor and audio player play position can be set based on the user's interaction with the visual transcript (e.g., as depicted in
The corresponding object for each element has methods that are adapted to render that object based on the state of the cursor, as well as other state in the application (e.g., assistance settings). The objects for elements that are rendered are thus registered with client application 1204 to listen to whether cursor has changed and then make a determination if it should change its state based on the cursor.
Thus, the object for each element of each element type (e.g., passage, paragraph, sentence, word group, word, etc.) may get a notification or the like when the cursor changes and can render itself (e.g., show, hide, redact, change color, underline, display associated hint, etc.) based on the state of the cursor (e.g., the address associated the cursor) and any data specific to that object for the element or any other local or global state. For example, for a particular object for an element, if the address held by the cursor corresponds to the address of that element the element may render itself in a particular manner (e.g., highlighted or unredacted) while if the address does not correspond to the element the element may render itself in a second way (e.g., greyed out or redacted). For example, the object for the element can determine if the cursor (e.g., address) is before the element of the object or after the element of the object and render itself differently according to that definition.
As an example of another global state variable that may be maintained by client application 1204 and which may influence the rendering of an element by objects for those elements, is a “furthest played element” which may hold the address of the furthest element that a user has visited during a current listen-through of the audio presentation of the content. In other words, the cursor and the furthest played element may differ when the user had rewound or jumped back in the content being presented. Thus, each object for each element may utilize these states to determine whether the associate element is currently the same address as the address held by the cursor (e.g., is it “under” cursor) or if that element has been previously visited. Rendering of the element by the object in the visual presentation can thus depend on those determinations. There are other states maintained by client application 1204 that may be used to render an element by an object without loss of generality.
Embodiments of the implementation of the client application 1204 will now be discussed in more detail. In one embodiment, the fundamental playable unit of content is the Chapter—a discrete section (e.g., several minutes) of an audio track, interspersed with notes and hints that may not be part of the audio. If an piece of content is longer than a few minutes it may be broken up into chapters, as discussed.
The flow control within an episode may be relatively simple. A user may be encouraged to review each Chapter in sequential order (and repeat Chapters) until the user is comfortable with the Chapter, and then proceed to the next Chapter (e.g., which can be access randomly via a chapter menu). As it is desired that the user be focused on only one thing at a time, the interface of the client application 1204 is adapted such that, as much as possible the user should not be listening to something in the presentation of the audio content that is different than what is being read or seen in the visual presentation of the content.
This means that when the application presents certain content that is not in the audio file (e.g., chapter notes, passage hints, etc.) to the user (e.g., for the first time) the audio playback may be paused in the audio player 1282. The audio playback may also be paused if a user interacts with the visual presentation in a particular manner (e.g., tapping on an underlined word to view a definition or note). Thus, while a user may be interacting with a chapter (e.g., as represented by an isChapterPlaying variable in the global state of the client application 1204) this may not be the same thing as whether the audio content for that chapter is being played by the audio player 1282 (e.g., as represented by a isAudioPlaying variable in the global state of the client application 1204).
Looking at
Each of these elements may be given an address in a format that captures both ordinality and compositional structure as depicted in the
Such addresses may be understood with reference to the examples given below in relative sequence order:
There are thus at least two key values or variables in the global state of the client application 1204 that point to an address: 1) a (current) cursor—the address of the element that the user is currently focused on (e.g., in the audio presentation of the content through the audio player 1282) and 2) a furthestPlayedElement cursor—the address of the furthest element that the user has visited in their current listen-through the current chapter. In some embodiments, the cursor and the furthestPlayedElement point to different addresses only when the user has rewound or jumped back in the chapter. When the user re-listens to a chapter, both the cursor and the furthestPlayedElement are reset.
Thus, an important invariant of the fact that the cursor and furthestPlayedElement point to different addresses in cases where a user has rewound or otherwise moved the cursor manually is that according to embodiment, in the client application the cursor≤furthestPlayedElement. Thus each element (e.g., object instantiated for an element) can calculate two Boolean states that may be used in the determination of how that element is rendered visually in the visual presentation: isUnderCursor=f (address of the element, address of the cursor) and isVisited=f (address of that element, furthestPlayedElement). The use of these variable to determine whether an element has been visited by a user is depicted in
An example JavaScript for the underlying logic for element addresses and the calculation of these Boolean values by each element is:
A cursor manager of the client application 1204 may thus be responsible for maintaining the current cursor, the furthest played element and other global state variables for use by the objects for each element such that the visual interface may be effectively rendered. Moving now to
Accordingly, in certain embodiments, script elements (e.g., words, sentences, paragraphs, passage hints, notes, etc.) may derive their visual behavior from two (e.g., Boolean) values that may be determined by their respective objects from values determined by the cursor manager 1802: 1) isUnderCursor— calculated by comparing the address of the element to the address of the cursor and 2) isVisited— calculated by comparing the address of the element to the address of the address in furthestPlayedElement.
The cursor manager 1802 may thus set the global state for cursor and furthestPlayedElement and manage an internal timer 1804 (deadReckoner) to move the cursor at the right time by intermittently polling the audio player 1282 to adjust the dead reckoner timer 1804 so that presentation of words in the visual depiction of the content are correctly synchronized with the presentation of the audio in the audio player 1282. The cursor manager 1802 may also pause/play the audio player 1282 according to what type of script element is currently under the cursor and manage the rewind logic (e.g., by adjusting the cursor and furthestPlayedElement variables).
Specifically, according to certain embodiments, the cursor manager 1802 may determine when to increment cursor and furthestPlayedElement while isChapterPlaying is true based on the dead reckoner timer 1804; handle the rewind/jump logic so set the correct values of cursor and furthestPlayedElement are adjusted when a user interacts with the visual presentation; and control the current audio player 1802 (e.g., calling play( ) pause( ) seekTo( ) setTimeStretch( ) of the audio player 1802).
The cursor manager 1802 uses a dead reckoner timer 1804 to decide when to increment the cursor. In one embodiment, the logic for setting the timer may be as follows:
Objects for script elements (e.g., words, sentences, paragraphs, passage hints, notes, etc.) may also share or maintain properties related to time, including:
It may now be useful to describe how selective redaction of words of the transcript is accomplished in particular embodiments. The following JavaScript-like pseudocode thus illustrates how the logic for selective redaction of words in the transcript may operate according to one embodiment. In this case a word object (e.g., element) decides whether to render itself as redacted (e.g., a lozenge should be rendered) or unredacted (the text or the word should be rendered) by observing various states in the client application.
Take, for example, a word that is part of a vocabulary word group G. As an example, assume that this word has been visited by the cursor (played in the audio) and is therefore eligible to be unredacted. Then, according to the example code, the word would display unredacted if (e.g., in some cases and only if) at least one of these conditions holds true: the learner (or system) has chosen to unredact the specific word group G (for example, by tapping on any of its words in the display); or the learner (or system) has chosen for all word groups of the type “VOCAB” to automatically unredact when visited; or the learner (or system) has chosen for all the text in the transcript to unredact when visited.
Embodiments as disclosed will be more clearly understood with reference to the enclosed Appendices which depict an example data for a T&T file and example data models for elements. It should be noted that the embodiments and examples depicted in the Appendices are given by way of example only, and that any restrictive language used in conjunction with such embodiments such as “must”, “requires”, “needed” or the like should be taken as applying only to those specific embodiments and not to embodiments as disclosed generally.
The invention and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the nonlimiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description.
Descriptions of well-known starting materials, processing techniques, components and equipment are omitted so as not to unnecessarily obscure the invention in detail. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and the specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only and not by way of limitation. Various substitutions, modifications, additions and/or rearrangements within the spirit and/or scope of the underlying inventive concept will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure. Embodiments discussed herein can be implemented in suitable computer-executable instructions that may reside on a computer readable medium (e.g., a hard drive (HD)), hardware circuitry or the like, or any combination.
Embodiments of a hardware architecture for implementing certain embodiments is described herein. One embodiment can include one or more computers communicatively coupled to a network.
At least portions of the functionalities or processes described herein can be implemented in suitable computer-executable instructions. The computer-executable instructions may be stored as software code components or modules on one or more computer readable media (such as non-volatile memories, volatile memories, direct access storage drive (DASD) arrays, magnetic tapes, floppy diskettes, hard drives, optical storage devices, etc. or any other appropriate computer-readable medium or storage device). In one embodiment, the computer-executable instructions may include lines of compiled C++, Java, hypertext markup language (HTML), or any other programming or scripting code.
Additionally, the functions of the disclosed embodiments may be shared/distributed among two or more computers in or across a network. Communications between computers implementing embodiments can be accomplished using any electronic, optical, radio frequency signals, or other suitable methods and tools of communication in compliance with known network protocols.
As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, product, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, product, article, or apparatus. Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary, “or” refers to an inclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example, a condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true (or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or not present) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (or present).
Additionally, any examples or illustrations given herein are not to be regarded in any way as restrictions on, limits to, or express definitions of, any term or terms with which they are utilized. Instead, these examples or illustrations are to be regarded as being described with respect to one particular embodiment and as illustrative only. Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that any term or terms with which these examples or illustrations are utilized will encompass other embodiments which may or may not be given therewith or elsewhere in the specification and all such embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of that term or terms. Language designating such nonlimiting examples and illustrations includes, but is not limited to: “for example,” “for instance,” “e.g.,” “in one embodiment.”
Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have been described above with regard to specific embodiments. However, the benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any component(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential feature or component.
Data Models:
Example static models used for episodes and chapters:
Example models for script elements:
This application is a continuation of, and claims a benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. 120 of, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/132,988, filed Dec. 23, 2020, entitled “System and method for DUAL MODE PRESENTATION OF CONTENT IN A TARGET LANGUAGE to IMPROVE LISTENING FLUENCY IN THE TARGET LANGUAGE”, which is a is a continuation of, and claims a benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. 120 of, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/844,252 filed Apr. 9, 2020, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 10,984,667, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FORMATTING OR PRESENTATION OF CONTENT IN A TARGET LANGUAGE TO IMPROVE LISTENING FLUENCY IN THE TARGET LANGUAGE,” which claims a benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/831,380 filed Apr. 9, 2019, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FORMATTING OR PRESENTATION OF CONTENT IN A TARGET LANGUAGE TO IMPROVE LISTENING FLUENCY IN THE TARGET LANGUAGE”, which are hereby fully incorporated by reference in their entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62831380 | Apr 2019 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 17132988 | Dec 2020 | US |
| Child | 17962062 | US | |
| Parent | 16844252 | Apr 2020 | US |
| Child | 17132988 | US |
