The UBC Visible Speech Project: Combined Animation and Ultrasound Demonstrations of Speech Articulation

TitleThe UBC Visible Speech Project: Combined Animation and Ultrasound Demonstrations of Speech Articulation
Faculty/College/UnitArts
StatusCompleted
Duration1 Year
Initiation04/01/2013
Completion08/31/2014
Project Summary

All undergraduate students in linguistics and speech sciences need to understand how the vocal organs move to produce speech sounds. This is a challenging subject for both students and teachers, because most of these movements are hidden. Media that makes dynamic speech articulations visible is therefore an excellent enhancement for our undergraduate classes. Building on and connecting to existing work, the UBC Visible Speech project will make an important new contribution to this area of educational media. Specifically, the project will produce a series of 91 videos, combining two complementary views for each sound:

  • An animated drawing, illustrating the hidden movements for a sound; and
  • An ultrasound video, showing the same sound produced by a live speaker.

These movies, available online in an accessible, sustainable, format, will enhance teaching and learning in a way that benefits at least 500 UBC undergraduate students each term, in at least ten courses.

Funding Details
Year 1: Project YearYear 1
Year 1: Funding Year2013/2014
Year 1: Project TypeSmall TLEF
Year 1: Principal InvestigatorKathleen Hall
Year 1: Funded Amount18,233
Year 1: Team Members

Kathleen Hall, Assistant Professor, Linguistics, Faculty of Arts