Traditionally, assessment of spoken interaction in the context of second language (L2) learning has neither included visual features nor interactional phonetics; although we know, that they are central to the interaction between people. Therefore, more research is needed on verbal and nonverbal features of interaction in L2 Finnish dialogues.
AASIS builds on results and experiences gained in our previous project, DigiTala (Research Council of Finland 2019–2023). In DigiTala, we developed an ASR-based (automatic speech recognition) online tool for assessing L2 Swedish and Finnish learners’ speech automatically and providing automated feedback to the language learners. DigiTala publications
In addition to the already measurable features of speech in monologue tasks (e.g. task completion, pronunciation, fluency, range and accuracy), the research interests of the AASIS project include sounds and visuals (interactional phonetic and nonverbal cues, e.g. facial expressions, gestures, head movements, silences, overlapping speech, turn-taking). Furthermore, the main data collected in AASIS will be videoed, as we focus on spoken interaction in dialogue speaking tasks.
The research project utilizes expertise of language didactics (University of Helsinki), speech and language processing (Aalto university) and phonetics (University of Jyväskylä). People
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