Biography
Neasa Ní Chiaráin is working on the development of speech and language technology for Irish, particularly on Irish language synthetic voices as part of the ABAIR initiative (www.abair.ie) in the Phonetics and Speech Lab, CLCS. As well as working on the development of the underpinning linguistic resources needed for synthesis, her research focuses on exploring the application of speech and language technology in a Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) context, particularly for the teaching/learning of Irish.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
The Potential of Text-to-Speech Synthesis in Computer-Assisted Language Learning: A Minority Language Perspective in, editor(s)Alberto Andujar , Recent Tools for Computer- and Mobile-Assisted Foreign Language Learning, Hershey, PA, IGI Global, 2020, pp149 - 169, [Neasa Ní Chiaráin, Ailbhe Ní Chasaide]
Towards the design of iCALL tools for beginner Mandarin Chinese learners in Ireland in, editor(s)Fanny Meunier, Julie Van de Vyver, Linda Bradley, and Sylvie Thouësny , CALL and complexity - short papers from EUROCALL 2019, Research-publishing.net, 2019, pp385 - 390, [Hongfei Wang, Neasa Ní Chiaráin]
An iCALL approach to morphophonemic training for Irish using speech technology in, editor(s)Fanny Meunier, Julie Van de Vyver, Linda Bradley, and Sylvie Thouësny , CALL and complexity - short papers from EUROCALL 2019, Research-publishing.net, 2019, pp314 - 320, [Neasa Ní Chiaráin, Ailbhe Ní Chasaide]
Neasa Ní Chiaráin, Ailbhe Ní Chasaide, An Scéalaí: autonomous learners harnessing speech and language technologies, SLaTE 2019: 8th ISCA Workshop on Speech and Language Technology in Education, Graz, Austria, 20/09/19 - 21/09/19, ISCA, 2019, pp94 - 98
Ní Chasaide, A., Ní Chiaráin, N., Berthelsen, H., Wendler, C., Murphy, A., Barnes, E. and Gobl, C. , Leveraging Phonetic and Speech Research for Irish Language Revitalisation and Maintenance, ICPhS 2019: the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia, 2019, pp994 - 998
Barnes, E., Ní Chasaide, A. and Ní Chiaráin, N., The design and pre-testing of literacy and cognitive tasks in Irish and English, Literacy Association of Ireland 42nd International Conference, Dublin, Ireland, 2018, pp1 - 11
An Scéalaí: synthetic voices for autonomous learning in, editor(s)P. Taalas, J. Jalkanen, L. Bradley and S. Thouesny , Future-proof CALL: Language Learning as Exploration and Encounters - short papers from EUROCALL 2018, Research-publishing.net, 2018, pp230 - 235, [Ní Chiaráin, N. and Ní Chasaide, A.]
Neasa Ní Chiaráin, Ailbhe Ní Chasaide, Recycling learner data for acquisition of targeted linguistic features: a custom-built iCALL platform, Proceedings of the XIXth International CALL Research Conference, CALL Your Data, Bruges, Belgium , edited by J. Colpaert, A. Aerts and F. Cornillie , 2018, pp292 - 294
Ó Broin, D., Barnes, E., Ní Chiaráin, N. and Ní Chasaide, A., A Story Based Game for Teaching Phonics for the Irish language, Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Games Based Learning, Sophia Antipolis, France, 2018, pp495 - 503
Emily Barnes, Neasa Ní Chiaráin, Ailbhe Ní Chasaide, Departures from the "norm": how the phonology, morphology and orthography of the Irish language impact on literacy instruction and acquisition, Exploring the Literacy Landscape: Celebrating 40 Years of Research and Practice, Literacy Association of Ireland 40th Annual Conference, Marino Institute of Education, Dublin, 29-30 September 2016, Literacy Association of Ireland, 2017, pp22 - 32
Criteria for evaluating a game-based CALL platform in, editor(s)K. Borthwick, L. Bradley and S. Thouësny , CALL in a climate of change: adapting to turbulent global conditions - short papers from EUROCALL 2017, Voillans, France, Research-publishing.net, 2017, pp229 - 234, [Neasa Ní Chiaráin, Ailbhe Ní Chasaide]
Ní Chasaide, A., Ní Chiaráin, Wendler, C., Berthelsen, H., Murphy, A. and Gobl, C., The ABAIR Initiative: Bringing Spoken Irish into the Digital Space, INTERSPEECH 2017, Stockholm, Sweden, 2017, pp2113 - 2117
Emer Gilmartin, Jaebok Kim, Alpha Diallo, Yong Zhao, Neasa Ní Chiaráin, Ketong Su, Yuyun Huang, Benjamin R. Cowan, Nick Campbell, CARAMILLA - Speech Mediated Language Learning Modules for Refugee and High School Learners of English and Irish, Proceedings of the Seventh ISCA workshop on Speech and Language Technology in Education 2017, 7th ISCA workshop on Speech and Language Technology in Education (SLaTE 2017), Stockholm, Sweden, 25-26 August 2017, edited by Olov Engwall, Jose Lopes and Iolanda Leite , KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden, 2017, pp138 - 143
Ní Chiaráin, N. and Ní Chasaide, A., Effects of Educational Context on Learners' Ratings of a Synthetic Voice, Proceedings of the 7th ISCA Workshop on Speech and Language Technology in Education (SLaTE 2017), Stockholm, Sweden, 2017, pp47 - 52
Ní Chiaráin, N., & Ní Chasaide, A., The Digichaint interactive game as a virtual learning environment for Irish, Proceedings of CALL communities and culture - short papers from EUROCALL 2016, Limassol, Cyprus, edited by Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous, Linda Bradley, and Sylvie Thouësny , Research-publishing.net, 2016, pp330 - 336
Ní Chiaráin, N. and Ní Chasaide, A. , Faking Intelligent CALL: the Irish context and the road ahead, Proceedings of the joint workshop on NLP for Computer Assisted Language Learning and NLP for Language Acquisition at SLTC, Umeå, Sweden, 16/11/2016, edited by Elena Volodina, Gintarė Grigonytė, Ildikó Pilán, Kristina Nilsson Björkenstam, Lars Borin , (130), Linköping University Electronic Press, Linköpings universitet, 2016, pp60 - 65
Emer Gilmartin, Jaebok Kim, Alpha Diallo, Yong Zhao, Neasa Ni Chiarain, Benjamin R. Cowan, Ketong Su, Yuyun Huang and Nick Campbell, CARAMILLA - Speech Mediated Language Learning Modules, Proceedings of the 12th Summer Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces eNTERFACE'16, eNTERFACE'16, Enschede, The Netherlands,, August 2016, edited by Truong, K. P. and Reidsma, D. , CTIT, 2016, pp61 - 65
Ní Chiaráin, N. and Ní Chasaide, A. , Chatbot Technology with Synthetic Voices in the Acquisition of an Endangered Language: Motivation, Development and Evaluation of a Platform for Irish, Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2016), Portoro , Slovenia, 23-28 May 2016, edited by Nicoletta Calzolari, Khalid Choukri, Thierry Declerck, Sara Goggi, Marko Grobelnik, Bente Maegaard, Joseph Mariani, Helene Mazo, Asuncion Moreno, Jan Odijk, Stelios Piperidis , European Language Resources Association (ELRA), 2016, pp3429 - 3435
Ní Chiaráin, N., & Ní Chasaide, A., Evaluating Synthetic Speech in an Irish CALL Application: Influences of Predisposition and of the Holistic Environment, Proceedings of SLaTE 2015: ISCA International Workshop on Speech and Language Technology in Education, Leipzig, Germany, edited by S. Steidl, A. Batliner, & O. Jokisch , 2015, pp149-154
Ní Chasaide, A., Ní Chiaráin, N., Berthelsen, H., Wendler, C., & Murphy, A., Speech Technology as Documentation for Endangered Language Preservation: The Case of Irish, Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences , Glasgow, Scotland, 2015, pp1-5
Ní Chiaráin, N., & Ní Chasaide, A. , The TATL framework for CALL development., Critical CALL - Proceedings of the 2015 EUROCALL Conference, Padova, Italy, edited by Francesca Helm, Linda Bradley, Marta Guarda, Sylvie Thouësny , Research-publishing.net, 2015, pp427 - 432
Ní Chiaráin, N., & Ní Chasaide, A. , Evaluating text-to-speech synthesis for CALL platforms. , Antwerp CALL 2014: International CALL Research Conference, Antwerp: University of Antwerp, 2014, pp104-110
Cabral, J., Campbell, N., Ganesh, S., Gilmartin, E., Haider, F., Kenny, E., Kheirkhah, M., Murphy, A., Ní Chiaráin, N., Pellegrini, T., Rey Orozko, O., MILLA - Multimodal Interactive Language Learning Agent, DialWatt - Semdial 2014. The 18th Workshop on the Semantics and Pragmatics of Dialogue, Edinburgh, Scotland, edited by V. Rieser & P. Muller , 2014, pp164-166
Ní Chasaide, A., Ní Chiaráin, N., Wendler, C., Berthelsen, H., Kelly, A., Gilmartin, E., Uí Dhonnchadha, E., Gobl, C., Towards personalised, synthesis-based content in Irish (Gaelic) language education, Proceedings of the ISCA Special Interest Group link (SIG) on Speech and Language Technology in Education (SLaTE) , Venice, Italy, 2011, pp29-32