Automated Speaking Assessment

Automated Speaking Assessment: Using Language Technologies to Score Spontaneous Speech provides a thorough overview of state-of-the-art automated speech scoring technology as it is currently used at Educational Testing Service (ETS). Its main focus is related to the automated scoring of spontaneous speech elicited by TOEFL iBT Speaking section items, but other applications of speech scoring, such as for more predictable spoken responses or responses provided in a dialogic setting, are also discussed. The book begins with an in-depth overview of the nascent field of automated speech scoring-its history, applications, and challenges-followed by a discussion of psychometric considerations for automated speech scoring. The second and third parts discuss the integral main components of an automated speech scoring system as well as the different types of automatically generated measures extracted by the system features related to evaluate the speaking construct of communicative competence as measured defined by the TOEFL iBT Speaking assessment. Finally, the last part of the book touches on more recent developments, such as providing more detailed feedback on test takers' spoken responses using speech features and scoring of dialogic speech. It concludes with a discussion, summary, and outlook on future developments in this area. Written with minimal technical details for the benefit of non-experts, this book is an ideal resource for graduate students in courses on Language Testing and Assessment as well as teachers and researchers in applied linguistics.

Klaus Zechner is a Senior Research Scientist at the Educational Testing Service and leads a team of speech scientists within the NLP & Speech group in the R&D division. Keelan Evanini (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) is a Research Director at the Educational Testing Service. 　 　

Table of Contents List of Contributors Series Editors' Foreword Acknowledgments List of Tables and Figures Part I: Introduction Chapter 1: Overview of Automated Speech Scoring Keelan Evanini and Klaus Zechner Chapter 2: Validity Considerations for Using Automated Scoring in Speaking Assessment Mo Zhang, Brent Bridgeman, and Larry Davis Chapter 3: Assessing Scoring Accuracy and Assessment Accuracy for Spoken Responses Using Human and Machine Scores Mo Zhang, Lili Yao, Shelby J. Haberman, and Neil J. Dorans Part II: Components of an Automated Speech Scoring System Chapter 4: Automatic Speech Recognition for Automated Speech Scoring Yao Qian, Patrick Lange, and Keelan Evanini Chapter 5: Scoring and Filtering Models for Automated Speech Scoring Anastassia Loukina and Su-Youn Yoon Part III: Speech Features Introduction to Part III Klaus Zechner Chapter 6: Features Measuring Fluency and Pronunciation Ching-Ni Hsieh, Klaus Zechner, and Xiaoming Xi Chapter 7: Features Measuring Vocabulary and Grammar Su-Youn Yoon, Xiaofei Lu, and Klaus Zechner Chapter 8: Features Measuring Content and Discourse Coherence Xinhao Wang and Keelan Evanini Part IV: Recent Developments and Outlook Chapter 9: Providing SpeechRater Feature Performance as Feedback on Spoken Responses Lin Gu and Larry Davis Chapter 10: Beyond Monologues: Automated Processing of Conversational Speech Vikram Ramanarayanan, Keelan Evanini, and Eugene Tsuprun Chapter 11: Summary and Outlook on Automated Speech Scoring Klaus Zechner Appendix Index