Archive
How to change the display language and speech recognition language on LRC Windows 7 computers (and which languages are available)
- UPDATE: Since this page seems to be getting a lot of hits, I want to clarify: The step-by-step guide below only applies after you installed (free) language (or language interface) packs (see list here) on Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate SKU (others SKUs cannot add multiple language interfaces). UPDATE2: Things got much easier with Windows 8.
- In order to
- view the GUI of Windows and Internet Explorer in a foreign language,
- use the speech recognition in (a subset of the below) foreign languages,
- and also switch the default language of MS-Office
- Double-click the desktop shortcut “Region and language – Keyboards and languages”.
- Select the desired language from the dropdown box, click “OK”.
- Click: “Log off now”:
- “Log back in” (without restarting).
- And if you want the available display languages in English,
- here are the fully supported (MS Language packs):
Language Native name Arabic العربية Chinese (Simplified) 中文(简体) Chinese (Traditional) 中文 (繁體) English English French français German Deutsch Greek Ελληνικά Hebrew עברית Italian italiano Japanese 日本語 Korean 한국어 Polish polski Portuguese (Brazil) Português Portuguese (Portugal) português Russian Русский Spanish español - and here the partially supported (MS-Language Interface packs):
Hindi हिंदी KiSwahili Kiswahili Persian (Farsi) فارسی Yoruba ede Yorùbá - And here are the languages that support speech recognition:
How you can reuse your speech profile even on deepfrozen Language resource center computers
- “A [Windows Speech] profile is basically the collection of all settings and information about how to recognize your voice when using Windows Speech Recognition. Before changing the language used or letting other persons use Windows Speech Recognition it is best to create a new profile so that your current one will remain unaltered”.
- To be able reuse your effort training the computer to recognize your voice speaking in your study language – even though the LRC Windows 7 computers get reset when restarted -, you can backup, and later reload, your Speech Profile, preferably to your H:-drive.
- The Microsoft tool that allows you to do that has been put on WSRProfile.exe desktop of the LRC Windows 7 PCs. I can copy these instructions directly from the Microsoft blog page:
- Double-click WSRProfile.exe to start the WSR Profile tool wizard.
- To back up a speech profile using the WSR Profile tool, select Backup my speech profile.
- In the Select your Speech Profile dialog box, choose the speech profile you wish to back up and then click Next.
- The wizard will prompt you for a filename and location to save the file. When you have entered this information, click Next. The WSR Profile tool wizard will start the backup process of the selected speech profile.
- After the backup operation successfully finishes, click Close .
- In the Select your Speech Profile dialog box, choose the speech profile you wish to back up and then click Next.
- To restore a speech profile using the WSR Profile tool, select Restore my Speech Profile.
- On the File to Restore wizard page, click Browse and locate the backed up speech profile, and then click Next.
- Choose the speech profile you want to restore to.
- Select Use the current speech profile if you want to overwrite the current default speech profile.
- Select Create a new speech profile if you want to restore to a new speech profile. If you choose to restore to a new speech profile you will be prompted to provide a name for the new profile.
- After the restore operation successfully finishes, click Close.
Example 7: Exercise dictating in German to an LRC Windows 7 computer
How can we get language students more speaking practice with qualified, but affordable feedback ? Native speaker contact remains difficult to organize even in the days of online conferencing. The LRC hosts language tutoring, but numbers are limited. Enter speech recognition, the holy grail of iCALL, much easier for learners to relate to than the voice graph that digital audio can be broken down to, and thus for a long time a standout feature of costly second-language-acquisition packages like Auralog Tell-me-More (speech recognition in English tested here) – but now the LRC has Windows 7 Enterprise (and its free add-on language packs), and another crucial prerequisite: headphones with excellent microphones.
We are setting up the new Windows 7 computers in the LRC to allow for speech recognition in Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. Here is an example of me using this facility for a practicing my German during a dictation exercise:
Granted, German is my native tongue; but the example text is from the online component for the final chapter of the “Treffpunkt Deutsch” 1st-year textbook in use here, which sends the readers to the website of the Swiss (-German) employment agency.
Apart from infrequent words ("Archiven") and Lehnwörtern ("Bachelor" etc.), Windows 7 speech recognition accuracy seems quite impressive. The above example was actually my first dictation, except that immediately beforehand, I invested a few minutes into the standard Windows 7 speech recognition training (aimed at training the user, although may behind the scenes teach the computer a few things about the speaker already also) and a few more minutes of voice training (this one is meant exclusively for the computer, but the user can also see it fail and why). The – rather simple trick to boost speech recognition results – certainly accessible to our students – seems to be to speak not only clearly, but also slowly, with short pauses between most words.
Speech recognition in these languages is a feature of the Windows 7 (Enterprise/Ultimate version) “language packs” that we installed and switched to – that is why the entire computer interface appears in German. Practicing the L2 with (computer—operating) “voice commands” (instead of with a mouse) is also possible, simpler than replacing the keyboard (mostly) by voice, but not as easy to devise homework exercises for.
Tips for designing exercises using speech recognition: As the example shows ("Archiven") , doing all corrections by voice can quickly become tedious. But there is no pedagogical need to have your students’ bang their heads against this wall. Instead, just ask your students to correct their automatically recognized words manually at the end of their video, after their dictation. This way both you and your students get a clear summary of what they achieved – even clearer if they dictate in MS-Word with the spell and grammar check for the language (automatic with the switch to the language pack for the language) and (using key combination CTRL+SHIFT+E) track changes. We will show you later TBA:how we now enable students to easily record their screen and TBA:upload their screencast into Moodle Kaltura.
Google-Translate for phonetization?
- Google-Translate also offers some phonetic transliterations. You may have noticed this when attempting (remember, though, that it is for a reason that they link to “professional translation” services, and also invite anybody to amend the machine translation offered) to translate from English into other languages,
- However, if you type or paste non-Romanized text into the source textbox, you also get the option button “read phonetically” (meaning transliterate to phonetic symbols or phonetize).
- Limited use in the LRC: Few languages are supported.
- Only languages written in non-roman letters are offered. E.g. French or German are not deemed difficult enough (I know a few that would beg to differ
).
- Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew are also not supported (root cause: right-to-left? Strangely these right-to-left-languages work in the TBA:Google transliterate IME which attempts to do roughly the opposite of phonetization):
- Leaves: Chinese, Greek, Hindi, Japanese, Russian. However, note finally that not a standard phonetic alphabet is being used either for these transcriptions.
Making audio cues for model imitation/question-response oral exams with Sanako Study 1200
We can easily record and post-process audio files in the LRC for use with the Sanako Study 1200 oral exam activities.
This can work not only for outcome exams (course- or chapter-wise), but also or formative assessment:
Think converting your textbook-based “drills” into Sanako, like repetitively recapitulating the newly acquired vocabulary item “donut” with different cues:
Example: “What can you do with [student can enter her favorite new vocabulary item for the current class] on [teacher can ask for one social web service after the other that her students likely are familiar with]?”. In response, student has to practice vocabularry item by forming sentences that fit the vocabulary item that fit like in the whiteboard example.
We can add to these recordings the features explained in the slide below.
I’d be happy to play you examples from this slide – and more – in the LRC (not to be published here so that the exam files can be reused).
Spring 2012 Faculty Workshop II: Oral Proficiency testing with Audacity/Sanako
- View screens (best viewed side by side, but note that left and right screen are not synchronized):
- for full slide show (note the included short links for convenient further reading), left screen
- for Sanako interface and full audio track, right screen
.
- for full slide show (note the included short links for convenient further reading), left screen
- Table of contents:
- Overview of a Sanako Oral Exam
- Examples of Exam teachers’ exam question recordings
- Example of a Sanako Exam
- Loop induction
- creating an exam question recording
- by taking a Sanako exam as a student
- Step-by-Step of administering a Sanako oral exam
- Grading Sanako oral exam student files
- Sanako voice insert for
- facilitating recording oral assignments for student without hard-coded pauses
- commenting on student responses during grading
- Sanako voice insert for
- Sanako authoring tool for providing visual on top of aural cues to students
How to use visual instead of aural cues during a Sanako oral proficiency exam
- This exam file has been authored with the Sanako Study 1200 TBA:authoring tool. It is displayed from the Sanako tutor application:
- images on a projection screen connected to the teacher computer,
- aural portion through the tutor-controlled Sanako student player and headsets.
- To protect the integrity and allow for reuse of the exam, only the initial instruction, example and collection of the results of an exam with visual cues are shown in this screencast
.
Questions? Read the About. Or just ask me a quick Our Databases: Resources with calendars -- Language learning material Moodle Sites, multimedia files -- films
FAQs for LRC student staff or for students or for teachers. To search our FAQs, in the browser addressbar, add after "https://plagwitz.wordpress.com/feed/?tag=faqs+/" "+TAG1" (from tag cloud below) OR "https://plagwitz.wordpress.com/feed/tag=faqs
&category_name=" "CAT1" (from category hierarchy below). OR search both categories and tags, and multiple TAGs/CATs (connect with "," for OR-search, with "+" for AND-search), like so: https://plagwitz.wordpress.com/feed/?tag=TAG1+TAG2+...TAGn&category_name=CAT1
+CAT2+...CATn"
Other ways to find help
If you cannot find it here, look there: 5,500 Language-Learning Links and Programs for learning or teaching 150 languages
Shortcuts:Our Lists, Our Maps, LRC Staff Moodle Site,LRC Project Moodle Site, 49erexpress, UNCC Moodle, Student Recordings: s:claslcslrcsanakostudent
Learning usage samples: Sanako oral exam, Kaltura webcam presentation, Dictation with speech recognition, Sanako written exam, Chinese and Japanese interactive stroke-order practice
Test the Sanako Installer, Webbrowser Popup Konfigurator for XP, or Windows7, faster LRC TeacherPC Log-in Let MS facilitate diacritics writing by installing for you US-International keyboard layout
This is my personal blog (Google+). The views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not those of my employer. The information in this weblog is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Thomas' Work Space 