INTERSPEECH 2004 - ICSLP 8th International Conference on Spoken Language Processing Jeju Island, Korea October 4-8, 2004

Reference Marking in Children's Computer-Directed Speech: An Integrated Analysis of Discourse and Gestures

Simona Montanari, Serdar Yildirim, Elaine Andersen, Shrikanth Narayanan

University of Southern California, USA

Understanding the fine details of children's speech and their gestural characteristics helps, among other things, in creating natural computer interfaces. We analyze reference marking in young children's computer-directed speech using audio-video data from 3- to 6-year-old children engaged in a series of age-appropriate computer tasks, using a Wizard of Oz technique. Along with speech transcriptions and acoustic information, discourse (referential devices, conversational repairs) and gestural characteristics (hand/head movement type) were annotated in a synchronized multi-layer system. The results point to the developmental variability and the multimodal nature of the speech young children produce while interacting with the computer agent, suggesting that interfaces addressed to this age group should be specifically designed to integrate multisensory information as well as to adjust to the child's specific needs and interactional style.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Montanari, Simona / Yildirim, Serdar / Andersen, Elaine / Narayanan, Shrikanth (2004): "Reference marking in children's computer-directed speech: an integrated analysis of discourse and gestures", In INTERSPEECH-2004, 1841-1844.