Project Proposal
Team Members
Charlotte Wright
Kalila Shapiro
Matthew Hoke
Ravi Jain
Elmer Rodriguez
Website: https://sites.google.com/u.rochester.edu/crowdspeak
CrowdSpeak
Crowdsourced†Feedback†on†Accuracy†of†ESL†Students’†Speeches
CSC 212/412 SP17 Course Project Proposal
Problem†Statement
English is widely regarded as one of the more difficult languages to learn as a
second language, yet is also the most widely-known second language in the world.
Today, people who learn English have access to a variety of resources to have their
written language analyzed and corrected; however, little exists in regards to having
people’s speaking and pronunciation corrected. It is entirely possible for someone to
become “fluent” in regards to reading and writing English but still struggle to speak it.
Though there are many reasons why people have issues becoming proficient in
English speech, the main issue arises because of a lack of viable, on-demand tools to
practice and receive feedback in a singular context. It is difficult to find friends or
colleagues to consistently help you improve your speaking skills. Additionally, there are
not many cost-effective methods to solicit help and feedback outside of a class setting.
Anyone who is seeking to learn English speaking independently will run into these
issues whereas writing is something that is more formulaic and well-documented.
We seek to mitigate this problem through the creation of a crowdsourced-based
online auto-transcription tool. The primary goal of this mission is to provide individuals a
service for feedback that will generate a record of what they spoke and feedback
focused on tone, volume, cadence, etc. The final “smart” transcript from each video then
can processed in more depth using processes like Speakoo .
Goal∫†Make auto transcriptions algorithms better using crowdsourced user input.
1
Our product will produce a human sounding transcript with (time added, value, pause,
pace).
NeedFinding
Interviews
Link: Course Project Proposal