SPRING

Lack of proper English pronunciations is a major problem for immigrant\npopulation in developed countries like U.S. This poses various problems,\nincluding a barrier to entry into mainstream society. This paper presents a\nresearch study that explores the use of speech technologies merged with\nactivity-based and arcade-based games to do pronunciation feedback for Hispanic\nchildren within the U.S. A 3-month long study with immigrant population in\nCalifornia was used to investigate and analyze the effectiveness of computer\naided pronunciation feedback through games. In addition to quantitative\nfindings that point to statistically significant gains in pronunciation\nquality, the paper also explores qualitative findings, interaction patterns and\nchallenges faced by the researchers in dealing with this community. It also\ndescribes the issues involved in dealing with pronunciation as a competency.\n