| SLE-# | Class | Target | Recommendation | Reason/argument for importance |
| SLE-01 | 1,2,3,4,7 | I, II, III, IV, V | The introduction and the extension of updated curriculum on SLE education in universities to develop strategic needs accross multilingual Europe. | The technological break-through and the market demands in speech technology reached a point where the education and training of a growing number of employees is time consuming and it may be considered to introduce the technology at universities through different forms: the extension of existing curriculum with few basic courses, a full SLE curriculum in a dedicated program, ODL, European Masters, etc. |
| SLE-02 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | I, III, IV, V | To improve and to strength the links between industry (research and development laboratories) and universities in the area of SLE. | With the rapid development of computing, SLE has a significant role in HCI applications, mobile communications and multimedia products. The links university-industry are important in the definition of the job profiles, to increase the quality of the training process, to obtain feed-back from real-life applications or to benefit of industry’s support (development, training and mobilities sponsoring). |
| SLE-03 | 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 | I, II, III, IV, V | The definition of a coherent system for acquisition of competencies
and skills through dedicated training models addressed to various job
profiles and to expected changes in the SLE market.
|
The SLE graduates are educated with very specific knowledge and skills which they may use in a wide range of fields of professional career. The job market cover a large area from R&D in SLE, over application development and marketing, to the support for channel suppliers and users. Therefore, the relative importance of SLE skills or educational background vary largely. |
| SLE-04 | 4, 7 | II, III, IV, V | The creation of an European infrastructure for testing,
evaluation, certification, quality assessment and dissemination of
training resources in the area of SLE in order to increase the quality of
collaboration among different institutions over Europe.
|
The rapid changes in the area of SLE (market, scientific results), particularly and in Information Technology, generally, impose efficient criteria for testing and evaluation of teaching materials. At EU level, through specialized consortia it is possible to have an continuous exchange of ideas on quality issues. The production of computer-based modules, software tools, best practice dissemination, technology transfer units, information collection and dissemination are some aspects that can contribute to a standard framework for progress and quality improvement. |
| SLE-05 | 3, 6, 7 | II, III, IV, V | The definition of a system for the accreditation of SLE
courses and a validation procedure for that.
|
The accreditation will improve the course content, practical skills definition and it will ensure a common methodology for evaluation and more confidence between institutions for research purposes, student and staff exchanges, etc. |
| SLE-06 | 4, 5 | I, III, IV | Continuous interdisciplinary professional development
for teaching staff in speech technology in the context of life long
learning and modern teaching methodologies.
|
Latest theoretical and practical developments in a changing field such SLE should be in attention of the trainers, head of departments or institutions via a flexible system that allows self access to information or retraining through different activities: educational networks, summer schools, practical placements in industry. |
| SLE-07 | 1, 2, 3 | I, IV, V | The adaptation of educational technology
infrastructure to current innovations imposed by the market or research
imperatives.
|
Information processing in the fields of SLE needs not only theoretical background or programming skills, but also considerably computing resources in order to face difficult aspects from practice or research. |
| SLE-08 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 | I, III, IV, V | For universities in Central and Eastern Europe it is imperative to strength the links with similar institutions from EU in order to set up new curricula, to retrain the staff and to develop the educational and research infrastructure according to well recognized standards. | In CEEC the SLE subject is thought in different ways, but I few universities, and not many times adapted to new technologies. Eastern countries can benefit from the know-how transfer from western universities or to join educational/research networks to develop the training infrastructure in SLE area. Teaching staff retraining is needed through various forms. Dedicated joint west-east educational programmes can be foreseen in the benefit of speech technology or for market purposes (speech technology market in CEEC is almost empty!). |
| SLE-09 | 1, 2 | I, II, III, IV | Larger coordinated efforts are needed to continue the promotion of
research an innovations in SLE for developing new applications using the
integration of speech and language. |
The theory on speech processing, from one side, and computational linguistics, on the other side, are in a tremendous progress. Putting them together in new information technology applications could be in the benefit of the economic progress and could act as a feed-back to educational theory. Research tools can be made available for educational reuse. |
| SLE-10 | 4, 6 | III | Building professional competencies through training mobilities in the
EU frame by different programmes and according to a common accreditation
system (ECTS). |
On European scale, the educational institutions can not offer all the time a specific training for individual purposes or do not satisfy students’s expectations. There are needed coordinated efforts to promote training mobilities through international recognition of credits an commonly agreed degree requirements. |
| SLE-11 | 1, 2, 7 | I, III, IV | Industry, national and international bodies should continue to support
projects for the development, testing and evaluation of advanced training
modules for SLE, including ODL and LLL. ISCA-SIG on education can play an
important role. |
Since the field of SLE is a high technology one, while at the same time the pedagogical methodology and technical demands are higher and higher, the elaboration of training materials and tools should be supported by funded programmes. Research projects should deliver their results for educational purposes. |
| SLE-12 | 4, 6 | I, II, III | To continue the organisation of summer schools in the idea of the
integration of speech and language. |
Summer schools are very important meetings for undergraduates, graduates, post-graduates or very specialized researchers for gathering information and for experience exchanging on state of the art topics in language and speech technology. They open different ways of collaborations and allow access for people with complementary background from different regions across Europe. |
| SLE-13 | 5, 7 | III, IV, V | More phonetics and computational linguistics in technical university
education could better prepare students for the professional jobs in
SLE. |
According to the survey made by SLE WG, computing skills, signal processing, speech production, speech analysis, statistics are well represented in the curricula. The education in linguistics, dialogue modelling or DSP programming can reduce the necessity of learning the basics in those areas through job training or personal efforts. |
| SLE-14 | 7 | III, IV, V | The contents of curricula in SLE should be in consensus with the multidisciplinarity of this field. It is stratified into different approaching levels. A selection of tutorials modules are recommended together with software resources available in relation to curricular requirements and educational criteria. | See the results of SLE WG in SCS (Vol. II, p.32, Vol. III, P.23). |
"TARGET" is:
I. Commerce and Industry
II. International
III. EU
IV. National
V. Institutional
STUDENT AWARNESS PLAN:
- Restructuring in educational
framework in order to sensibilize teaching staff to integrate in their speciffic
curricula, aplicative aspects on speech technology directly linked to the
students' field of training.
- Development of
dmonstration kits in a very genric form suitable for presentations what speech
technology is. educational materials can be delivered in elctronic form:
software tools, web-pages, CD-ROM demos, video tapes, etc.
- The initioation of dedicated measures for awarness in
secondary education: job orientation, grammar teaching, foreign language
teaching, commercial products, etc.