The presentation of continuous speech with synchronous printed text

A communications problem encountered by most hearing impared people is their inability to understand spoken English. Since present technology appears unable to eliminate this speech perception problem, it is hoped that a better understanding of the relationship between printed and spoken English will permit the hearing impared person to better use their residual hearing. To aid in such instruction, a system is being developed which permits a fully synchronized presentation of recorded speech with its corresponding printed text. A series of computer algorithms are employed to segment the speech signal into syllable-like units, and to separate the corresponding printed text into syllables. The resulting data are then combined on a syllable-by-syllable basis, and any synchronization errors are corrected through operator intervention prior to the creation of the synchronized speech/text material for the classroom.