T is for Treu, but how do you pronounce that?

We are happy to announce that Pauline Welby, LPL member and research associate at the Interdisciplinary laboratory for research in education (Univ. of New Caledonia), has just been awarded funding as part of the Australia-France 2024 collaborative research program. This is a joint funding from the French Embassy in Australia and the Australian Academy of Social Sciences. The program aims to support interdisciplinary research that addresses contemporary societal challenges and strengthens links between Australia, France and the Pacific region.

The project “T is for Treu, but how do you pronounce that? Integrating pronunciation respellings into multimodal language learning resources” aims to help teachers and heritage learners of the Drehu language, spoken by the indigenous Kanak people of New Caledonia, to correctly pronounce words by addressing conflicts between written and spoken language. Specifically, the project focuses on the word ‘treu’, which means ‘moon’ in Drehu. The challenge is that the pronunciation of ‘treu’ may be influenced by the French language, leading to incorrect pronunciation.

To overcome this challenge, the research team will develop tools and resources that provide pronunciation respellings based on French orthography. These tools will be integrated into multimedia texts to assist learners in understanding and pronouncing Drehu words accurately. The project builds on previous research efforts and aims to preserve and promote the linguistic diversity of the region.

Partners: Aix Marseille University, CNRS, Laboratoire Parole et Langage ; University Paris 3/INALCO ; University of New Caledonia ; University of South Australia ; Flinders University (Australia)

 

More information: https://socialsciences.org.au/news/2024-australia-france-collaborative-research-program/

Link to an interactive alphabet book in Drehu: https://c-lara.unisa.edu.au/accounts/rendered_texts/17/normal/page_2.html

Contact: pauline.welby@cnrs.fr

 

 

Credits: P. Welby

SOLIST project: Qingye SHEN joins the LPL

As part of the SOLIST project, we are pleased to announce the arrival of Ms Qingye Shen as a technical collaborator. Qingye Shen will contribute to the implementation of various experiments aimed at studying interactions between listeners in speech perception. Qingye Shen is a Chinese national and holds a bachelor's degree in biological sciences and a master's degree in ecology from East China Normal University in Shanghai. She previously held administrative responsibilities at the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain Functional Genomics. SOLIST (The Social Listener) is a research project supported by the Institut Carnot Cognition. It brings together members of the laboratory (Noël Nguyen, Leonardo Lancia, Thierry Legou) and two French partners (Julien Diard, LPNC, Grenoble; Ladislas Nalborczyk, NeuroSpin, Paris-Saclay).

More information: https://www.lpl-aix.fr/actualite/nouvelles-du-carnot-cognition-interview-avec-roxane-bertrand-deux-nouveaux-projets-lpl-finances/

News from Carnot Cognition: Interview with Roxane Bertrand & two new LPL projects funded!

Roxane Bertrand interviewed by Carnot Cognition

Over the last few months, the Carnot Cognition Institute has published a series of testimonials from researchers and industrialists, highlighting partnership research initiatives in cognitive technologies. In this context, the Institute has just interviewed Roxane Bertrand, CNRS research director.

Link to the interview (in French): https://www.institut-cognition.com/interview/roxane-bertrand-lpl/

Two new LPL projects have been selected in the latest Carnot Cognition call for projects in 2023
  • Social Listener - SOLIST project led by Noël Nguyen (LPL) in collaboration with Julien Diard (LPNC) and Ladislas Nalborczyk (Neurospin).
  • Projet EXPOLECT_DOM led by Stéphanie Ducrot (LPL) in collaboration with Jonathan Grainger (LPC)

Augmented reality at the service of deaf people

We are pleased to announce that Brigitte Bigi, CNRS researcher at LPL, has been awarded for the project "Seeing sounds with automated 'Cued Speech': augmented reality at the service of deaf people".

Funded by the International Foundation for Applied Research on Disability (FIRAH) to the tune of €50,000, it has been developed in partnership with the Datha Association (Parents of deaf children and friends of deaf people) and the International Academy Supporting Cued Adaptations (AISAC).

The LPL project team includes the following members: Brigitte Bigi (project manager), Núria Gala, Michel Pitermann and Carine André.

More information:
Elaboration of the first LPL Cued speech corpus (2021) : https://www.lpl-aix.fr/en/actualite/what-about-cued-speech/
Link to the Cued speech corpus (CLeLfPC) : https://www.ortolang.fr/market/corpora/clelfpc

Credits: 2021 B. Bigi and M. Zimmermann

Feedback about the mission in Maasai country: the SYSORI project

Following a first mission in 2020, Alain Ghio (LPL) and Didier Demolin (LPP) returned to Maasai country last June to record speakers around Arusha in northern Tanzania using laboratory techniques such as aerophonometry and electroglottography for their field study.

Full article on the Great African Rift Interdisciplinary Group (CNRS) website (in French): https://rift-cnrs.fr/theme-recherche/juin-2022-retour-mission-pays-massai/

First mission in 2020 (in French): https://lejournal.cnrs.fr/articles/dans-le-secret-des-langues-a-clics

 

Photo credits: Projet Sysori / A. Ghio et D. Demolin

COBRA Hackathon session in Ferrara

From June 27 to July 1, a week of training was held in Ferrara, Italy, within the framework of the European network of innovative training Marie Skłodowska-Curie COBRA. This was the 4th training session of the network, following those organized by the academic partners in Bratislava, Aix-Marseille and Edinburgh. It offered doctoral students from the network the possibility of following a series of courses given by Stefan Benus (Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava) on alignment between speakers in conversation, by Leonardo Lancia (LPP, Paris 3) on the mathematical analysis of time series in inter-individual interactions, and by Delphine Potdevin and Sébastien Biaudet (DAVI, Puteaux) on conversational agents.

In addition, a hackathon led by Thierry Legou (LPL) allowed doctoral students to familiarize themselves with the Arduino open platform for rapid prototyping of programmable interactive electronic objects. Thierry Legou notably offered an overview of the possibilities proposed by the Arduino platform in the field of on-board sensors. One of the demonstrations presented consisted in building and programming a device allowing the collection of physiological signals thanks to a sensor attached to an electronic card and a micro-controller. This kind of device is usable in studies on social interactions in natural situations.

Appointment was given to the participants for the 5th training session, jointly organized by Susanne Fuchs (Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft), Christine Mooshammer (Humboldt-Universität) and Friedemann Pulvermüller (Freie Universität) in Berlin in March 2023.

ITN MSCA COBRA: www.conversationalbrains.eu

Research blog: www.cobra-network.eu/research-blog

COBRA @Twitter: @CobraNetwork

 

Photo credits: COBRA Network

“Open Science Award for Open Source Research Software” ceremony

“Open Science Award for Open Source Research Software” ceremony

& Inauguration of the national research data portal

On July 8, the inauguration of the national federated research data platform Recherche Data Gouv will take place, followed by the ceremony of 2022 Open Science Award for Open Source Research Software.

As a reminder, the SPPAS automatic annotation software developed at LPL by Brigitte Bigi, CNRS researcher, is among the 2022 winners.

The PENSA project: For an open and critical digital culture at the university

PENSA is a European Erasmus + strategic partnership project in higher education. It aims to develop the skills of teachers for a critical use of digital in education and to promote open and free digital uses among students. The project associates 7 universities (including 6 of the CIVIS consortium), a scholarly association  and a company. At the LPL are involved Marco Cappellini (project coordinator), Christelle Combe, Isabelle Cros and Sandrine Eschenauer.

After starting in March 2021, the project carried out the first training of trainers in June, the first online exchange between students from AMU and the University of Tübingen, and launched the website as well as the first newsletter.

The project gave rise to two communications at the EuroCALL 2021 conference and the RANACLES Congress, as well as a plenary conference.

Website: https://pensa.univ-amu.fr/
Contact: marco.cappellini@univ-amu.fr