Computer Based Evaluation of Speech Voicing for Training English Pronunciation

This paper presents new developed tool for automatic analysis of voiced and unvoiced parts of speech. In the test speech, voiced frames, unvoiced frames as well as silent frames are detected and compared with reference speech. Statistical evaluation in the form of histograms and percentage similarity then serves to assess the correct pronunciation. The user can observe a gradual trend in improving pronunciation either in one learning session or throughout the course. This tool was implemented in a MATLAB-based Graphical User Interface and can be used to check the pronunciation of both individual words and long utterances.