Computational Linguistics | Ch 13: Speech and Phonological Processing | Podcast

Chapter 13: Speech and Phonological Processing Foundations of Computational Linguistics: For EFL University Students Podcast companion • Printed textbook pages 214–228 Speech systems must connect changing acoustic signals with linguistic categories and written words. This chapter follows recognition and synthesis processes and examines how accent and variation affect evaluation. Central question: How can a computational system connect a variable speech signal with linguistic categories and written forms? Learning objectives 1. Explain how phones, phonemes, and transcriptions are related, using contrasts from several languages. 2. Identify time, frequency, formants, and stop closures in waveforms and spectrograms. 3. Trace how a speech recognizer and a text-to-speech system move between sound, phonological categories, and written words. 4. Apply word error rate to a reference and a hypothesis, and evaluate what it shows and hides. Five core topics 13.1 Speech Sounds, Phonological Categories, and Transcription (p. 215) Distinguish individual speech sounds, contrastive phonological categories, and the transcription systems used to represent them. 13.2 Acoustic Representations: Waveforms and Spectrograms (p. 216) Read time, frequency, amplitude, and acoustic patterns in waveforms and spectrograms without confusing the two displays. 13.3 Automatic Speech Recognition (p. 218) Trace how a recognizer uses acoustic and linguistic information to produce a written hypothesis from speech. 13.4 Text-to-Speech, Pronunciation, and Prosody (p. 220) Follow the steps from written text to pronunciation and prosody in synthesized speech. 13.5 Accent, Variation, and the Evaluation of Speech Systems (p. 222) Calculate word error rate and compare performance across varieties, recognizing that one aggregate score can hide important differences. Study with the textbook Read pages 214–228, review this chapter companion, and attempt the activities before checking the explained answers. Refer to the book for exact examples, calculations, diagrams, notation, and qualifications. Free textbook: https://zenodo.org/records/23095075 Textbook DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23095075 Chapter resources: https://sites.google.com/view/els4efl... ELS4EFL series website: https://sites.google.com/view/els4efl... YouTube channel:    / @elsforefl   About the textbook Series: English Language Studies for EFL University Students (ELS4EFL) Branch: Theoretical Linguistics Project Director: Prof. Munassir Alhamami First Edition | Version 1 | 2026 Citation Alhamami, M. (2026). Foundations of computational linguistics: For EFL university students (First Edition, Version 1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23095075 This is an AI-generated study companion created with Gemini Notebook (NotebookLM) from the textbook. Consult the book for complete teaching, practice activities, and explained answers. Original textbook content is licensed under CC BY 4.0 except where otherwise stated. Material credited to other sources remains subject to its stated terms. Chapter and topic headings follow the textbook; the study explanations in this description are supplementary adaptations. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... #ComputationalLinguistics #NLP #EFL