SOURCES SOUGHT
U -- Creation of Speech Visualization Courseware
- Notice Date
- 8/23/2010
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 611710
— Educational Support Services
- Contracting Office
- USAR Contracting Center - West (POM), Bldg 4385, Suite 2041, 400 Gigling Road, Seaside, CA 93955
- ZIP Code
- 93955
- Solicitation Number
- W9124N10SS0002
- Response Due
- 9/20/2010
- Archive Date
- 11/19/2010
- Point of Contact
- Todd Bales, 831-242-4078
- E-Mail Address
-
USAR Contracting Center - West (POM)
(todd.s.bales@us.army.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Visualization Courseware to be integrated into Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT) for Native English Speakers Learning Chinese Mandarin, Dari, French, Iraqi, Korean, Pashto, Persian-Farsi, German, Portuguese (European), Russian, Spanish, Urdu, and Uzbek FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION ANNOUNCEMENT. This sources sought solicitation is for information and planning purposes only and is issued for the purpose of market research in accordance with FAR Part 10. The Dept of the Army, Contracting Center West Monterey, CA is currently requesting information to determine the existence of viable large and small businesses that are interested and capable of performing the work described herein. Responses are welcome from all business sources. This sources sought solicitation is not limited to any socioeconomic program and/or business set-side. As a result of this notice, the Government may issue a Request for Proposal; however there is no solicitation available at this time. This notice is for planning purposes only, and does not constitute an Invitation for Bids, a Request for Proposals, Solicitation, Request for Quotes, or an indication that the Government will contract for the items contained herein. This notice is not to be construed as a commitment on the part of the Government to award a contract, nor does the Government intend to pay for any information submitted as a result of this notice. The Government will not reimburse respondents for any cost associated with submission of the information being requested or reimburse expenses incurred to interested parties for responses to this sources sought notice. Any responses received will not be used as a proposal. This is not a request for proposals and in no way obligates the Government to award any contract. INTRODUCTION The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) is conducting market research to assess the capabilities of building pronunciation training courseware for Non-Native Speakers (NNS) whose primary language of use is English, and who is learning one of the following languages as a foreign language: Chinese Mandarin, Dari, French, Iraqi, Korean, Pashto, Persian-Farsi, German, Portuguese (European), Russian, Spanish, Urdu, and Uzbek. In conducting the market research, DLIFLC desires to identify products that will offer the most innovative and effective methods of tutoring the pronunciation of Chinese Mandarin, Dari, French, Iraqi, Korean, Pashto, Persian-Farsi, German, Portuguese (European), Russian, Spanish, Urdu, and Uzbek. We are inviting commercial providers/developers of pronunciation visualization software to present their capabilities to the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey. DLIFLC, as a leading foreign language education provider for government personnel, provides a number of foreign language training products to support in-house residence students and those enrolled in via distance learning environments. DLIFLC is searching for a meaningful and effective pronunciation visualization method and feedback system to be integrated into DLIFLCs computer assisted self-learning program, Headstart2. HEADSTART 2 As one of the distributed learning programs produced and managed by DLIFLC, Headstart2 is an introductory-level self-study language training program designed for those who may have neither formal instruction nor any previous experience with the target language. Its main purpose is to familiarize deploying military personnel with the target language and the target culture, using real-life military scenarios within a limited training time-frame. Headstart2 incorporates 750 of the most commonly needed phrases by troops on the ground. This computer-based program uses human-to-avatar interaction, games, word scrambles, and other interactive exercises to engage the user with the learning program. In this 80-100 hour training course, troops are introduced to the writing system of the target language in the first of two tasks. It then gradually guides the learner to read street signs, understand basic greetings, and ask and respond to simple questions. Headstart2 can be downloaded onto devices such as iPods, laptop computers or desktop PCs. Currently, DLIFLC is working on general access of Headstart2. Headstart2 for Chinese Mandarin, Dari, French, Iraqi, Korean, Pashto, Persian-Farsi, German, Portuguese (European), Russian, Spanish, Urdu, and Uzbek are either currently available or in production. DLIFLC has an in-house cadre of experts who are capable of developing full scale instruction design (i.e. curriculum, lesson, activity, etc.) and web interface. Language and curriculum experts are experienced with designing the instructions for military specific purposes. The current Headstart2, however, focuses on listening and reading comprehension and lacks the speaking training module. OBJECTIVE Visual Representation of Pronunciations and Feedback System for Self-Learning Instruction Program DLIFLCs effort is to have a Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT) module in Headstart2, which provides meaningful and effective pronunciation training to native English speakers learning one of the target languages listed above. In doing so, DLIFLC is calling for innovative ways that can provide visual comparison of learner pronunciation and native standard pronunciation for Headstart2. The desired outcome of the visualization system is that learners will self-correct their pronunciation errors by analyzing the two visual representations and provided feedback until they can approximate their pronunciation to the native-like sound. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS DLIFLC expects the offered systems to include two components (below). In terms of system architecture, each module should be encapsulated in structure so that upgrades can be easily made for future requirements. 1) Speech Visualization System In recent years, various commercial language learning software providers have offered visualization courseware that allows students to compare their own recorded utterances to sound waves displayed on a screen. Learners analyze the deviation between the native sounds and their own recorded utterances while approximating a native pronunciation. However, it has been reported that foreign language learners do not always understand how to interpret sound wave displays. The original sound wave display may need modification so that it becomes intuitively more comprehensible for learners to self-correct their pronunciation errors. Some recent programs have used various techniques to display this information, including animated representations of a mouth or a talking head that illustrates the production of specific speech sounds. DLIFLC is inviting companies with innovative sound visualization system to integrate the systems into the CAPT module in Headstart2. Such visualization systems may not be equipped with sophisticated state-of-the-art speech recognition systems, but they are expected to offer innovative and comprehensive ways to visually present the deviation from Native Speakers pronunciation and provide ways for Non-Native Speakers (NNS) to self-correct their pronunciation. 2) Pre-Recorded Feedback In addition to the visualized speech representation, the offerors shall provide instructional feedback on speech errors typically associated with the training words and utterances. In the absence of a sophisticated speech recognition system, the feedback provided can be based on established academic research on native English speakers learning one of the target languages (listed above) and data analysis of actual NNS speech samples. Most errors are considered to stem from one (or more) of the following sources: i)First/Native Language(L1) influence ii)Novel features in Second/Foreign Language (L2) iii)Orthography iv)Polysemous lexicon v)Other inexplicable causes Pre-recorded feedback shall base on the pronunciation error analysis. For example, one of the well documented pronunciation errors made by native English speakers learning Korean is the un-aspirated voiceless stop. Such as, [t], [p], and [k] in Korean are likely to be mispronounced as an aspirated sound at the syllable initial position (e.g. [ph] [th], and [kh]) due to their English L1 influence. Pre-recorded feedback shall be prepared based on the contrastive linguistic research and the data analysis on NNS speech. To maximize benefits, learners should be able to understand the feedback provided without previous knowledge of theoretical phonology or phonetics. To enhance understanding, some of the existing CAPT programs use animated mid-sagittal cross-sections of the human head, showing tongue and velum positions, as well as pitch diagrams, vowel charts, spectrograms, or prosody contours. DLIFLC is also interested in any other innovative procedure that will improve the self-correction process on the NNS pronunciation. INSTRUCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS Offerors shall be able to provide a full-scale CAPT lesson, including instruction, activity, and assessment. In addition to the accuracy and robustness of the system, CAPTs educational standard will be evaluated in terms of activities, quality of input, feedback, student control, and lexical capacity. It is strongly recommended that the offerors consider the followings in designing the full scale CAPT lesson: Activities Activities should engage the learner in interactive communication to the largest possible extent. Typically, these activities will teach the discrimination of minimal pairs or will imitate native speaker models. Question and answer dialogs will provide practice exercises in real world contexts. Quality of Input The tutoring system should be able to demonstrate a variety of native speaker models. It is essential that students are exposed to high quality input from multiple native speakers (gender/age variations) to represent a range of speech sounds. For those target languages that are highly similar to other languages in neighboring regions, the authenticity of the target language must be strongly emphasized, e.g. Modern Standard Arabic vs. Iraqi. Assessment of Student Performance Students should be able to produce speech that is intelligible to most native speakers of the foreign language. CAPT courseware will evaluate learner performance and record their progress as the training proceeds. Adequate levels of both positive and negative feedback should be provided wherever appropriate. Feedback should be easy to understand and constructive. Students should be able to compare their own voice to that of a native speaker and receive explicit guidance in improving their speech performance. Both feedback and scoring should be easily understood without prior theoretical linguistic knowledge. Student Autonomy It is important that students can work independently and can easily control the recordings. Navigation of CAPT should be intuitive and self-explanatory. In addition, students should be able to exit the instruction and resume at the point they ended. They should also be able to go directly to any new subject they intend to practice. CAPT should also be able to provide a snapshot of where they are in the overall training process and the progress they have made to that point. Lexical Capacity To meet the requirements of Headstart2, a pre-selected vocabulary of about 700 to 1,000 words (depending on language) will be provided. REQUEIST FOR INFORMATION Interested offerors shall submit the following information: "Methodologies or strategies to achieve the objectives addressed above "Closely related previous experience with similar projects. "Relevant patented technology (including technology that is patent pending), if any. "Vendors general background, qualifications, and industry-specific awards. DLIFLC is gathering information on the most innovative and effective methods of tutoring the pronunciation of the following languages: Chinese Mandarin, Dari, French, Iraqi, Korean, Pashto, Persian-Farsi, German, Portuguese (European), Russian, Spanish, Urdu, and Uzbek. The Defense Language Institute in Monterey is inviting information for speech visualization software and for pre-recorded feedback system(s). Contact Information Please send information as noted in Request for Information (above) to Todd S. Bales Contract Specialist 400 Gigling Road, Suite 2202 Seaside CA 93955 or e-mail to: todd.s.bales@us.army.mil (place 'DLI - Speech Visualization Courseware' in header)
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/dc2605a2b26bec0b8b62001d17e015b2)
- Place of Performance
- Address: USAR Contracting Center - West (POM) Bldg 4385, Suite 2041, 400 Gigling Road Seaside CA
- Zip Code: 93955
- Zip Code: 93955
- Record
- SN02250378-W 20100825/100823234555-dc2605a2b26bec0b8b62001d17e015b2 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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