{"id":59,"date":"2022-06-03T03:31:03","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T10:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicationjunction\/?p=59"},"modified":"2022-07-14T17:04:30","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T00:04:30","slug":"voice-to-text-task","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicationjunction\/2022\/06\/03\/voice-to-text-task\/","title":{"rendered":"Task 3: Voice to text task"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Grabowska, K. (n.d.). Unrecognizable female audiobook narrator recording audiobook<\/em>. Pexels. https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/unrecognizable-female-audiobook-narrator-recording-audiobook-4475526\/<\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Invader
By: Alexis Reeves<\/h2>
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The other day I was minding my own business watching TV in my living room when all the sudden I heard the sound it’s horrible horrible sound of some sort of thing I looked around and then I saw it big brown hairy moth yes that’s right I’m off in my living room I was absolutely terrified I didn’t know what to do I’ve never even seen him off here before nevermind in my living room so I decided to go into my lock myself into my bedroom and think of what to do next well in my bedroom I decided I need to be brave it’s not going to go anywhere on its own and I needed to get back out and think of a plan so I decided to pick up my broom and just started waving it around to keep the airflow so that perhaps The Moth wouldn’t get close to me while I thought it what to do so while I was doing that I thought I need to get to the other side of the room to open the window more so the moth can get out but it was very scary moment because I do not like insects and especially moss and especially don’t like them in my house so I needed to act fast to get rid of it so what I did was I kept waving the broom around and it was keeping them all the way from me I played around a bit with the lights to perhaps scare it away or let it see the window more clearly so after that as I was going to get closer to the windows open it I suddenly didn’t hear them all flopping around anymore I thought could this be it could be gone but I was a bit skeptical so so I decided to stop dropping the broom around and just listen and look around check the corners of the room and I went over to the window and I closed it shut and then I waited after about a few minutes I realized it was finally gone and I could breathe a little sign of relief because then my head I was still sure it was coming back somehow after about an hour of trying to relax and finally realizing it wasn’t coming back I vowed to never leave my window open again at night cuz all sorts of creatures sneaking any given moment and I was not here for it I kind of laughed a little bit to myself after though as I was wondering if my neighbors had heard my shrill screams and my banging around with the with the 3 month at the ceiling in the wall trying to make sure it wasn’t there all in all I was glad it was over with and have learned from my mistakes and again I am never ever leaving my window open at night again who knows what type of creatures are lurking out there in the darkness you know play jazz you and everybody else does the same Beware of the night creatures they could come in any given moment you’ve been warned<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When initially looking at the text produced from my speech to text app, the first thing I noticed was that the text appeared to lack proper punctuation. I wasn\u2019t sure if I was supposed to add it in by dictation and simply assumed the voice to text app would pick up on this via pauses and perhaps intonation and the tempo of my speech. When I read the text back, I realized it didn\u2019t do so. As a teacher I know that the meaning of a text can be vastly different in the absence of proper punctuation. \u00a0For example, the following sentence was transcribed using the app, \u201cI decided to stop dropping the broom\u201d. This would imply I was dropping the broom continuously throughout the story. However, what I said in reality would read more like this, \u201cI decided to stop, dropping the broom.\u201d This sentence on the other hand conveys that I was in the process of doing something at least one time with the broom and I stopped the action by putting\/dropping the broom down. This was how I had intended the story to sound, rather than what was transcribed. The speech to text app also chose to capitalize \u2018the moth\u2019 in my story almost as if to make it a main character or a villain\u2019s name as demonstrated in the following, \u201cso that perhaps The Moth wouldn’t get close to me\u201d. The app also capitalized some improper nouns without a period beforehand such as in this example, \u201csame Beware of\u201d, perhaps due to a glitch in the system. The app did, on the other hand, correctly capitalize \u2018I\u2019 and \u2018TV\u2019. These mistakes in transcribing punctuation mentioned above showcase the importance of punctuation in the process of meaning making in written text and confusion that could arise in its absence or misinterpretations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the words were spelled correctly in the transcribed text however, a mistake I found really interesting was that the voice to text app wrote \u2018cuz\u2019 instead of \u2018because\u2019. Although I do write \u2018because\u2019 in the abbreviated spelling, \u2018cuz\u2019 when sending text messages for example, I didn\u2019t think I have ever actually said it orally. This was fascinating because I started to wonder if perhaps I have started saying these types of abbreviations that I normally text now in an oral fashion without consciously doing so. This notion of language changing or being influenced in the presence of computer technology is echoed by Schmandt-Besserat (2009) as described, \u201cThe future of writing will also be determined by communications technologies.\u201d (p. 23)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the text became distorted when the words weren\u2019t transcribed correctly according to what was actually spoken as seen in the following sentence, \u201cI’ve never even seen him off here before\u201d. In reality when I spoke I said, \u201cI\u2019d never even seen them here before.\u201d This and other small mistakes in transcribing were made by the app such as transcribing \u2018moss\u2019 instead of \u2018moth\u2019 or \u2018windows\u2019 instead of \u2018window\u2019 for example. Some more common mistakes found in the text were amongst the smaller words and pronouns recorded incorrectly such as \u201cit\u201d instead of \u201cif\u201d and \u201chim\u201d instead of \u201cthem\u201d.  I consider these mistakes as they change the meaning of the text from that which I originally intended. For example, when the app recorded the following, \u201cI’ve never even seen him off here before\u201d having \u2018him\u2019 replace \u2018them\u2019 implies that I knew the moth was a male moth and therefore it also implies that I was either really well-researched on moths or it could also imply that the moth was my pet and therefore I knew its gender. In reality it was neither of those things and that is where the mistake aspect comes in as the meaning and the implications of the text have changed through this improper transcription.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These mistakes made me reflect on discrepancies between oral and written texts. I thought about how history was originally passed down by word of mouth and similar to a game of telephone, small mistakes such as these could change the meaning drastically and therefore the story itself. I further reflected on how many stories had been altered throughout history before writing was invented and how it was impossible to figure out the exact origins of many things in history before writing took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, the app captured my general story idea more or less correctly, about a moth invading my living room. The details and most of the punctuation however were incorrect leading to some confusion laced throughout. The fear and the mood I expressed orally however were not really aptly conveyed through the writing. It seems the app did not pick up on my intonation and tempo at times to add in exclamation marks to convey the fear and excitement felt at different points in the story, therefore creating a loss of emotion and tone throughout. These notions of differences in the transference from oral storytelling into written text are echoed in the following,<\/p>\n\n\n

although writing represents information about how words are pronounced, it does not record the<\/p>\n

identifying details of any individual utterance of those words. It records language, but not actual<\/p>\n

speech. Even in cases of dictation or courtroom stenography, much information about the actual<\/p>\n

speech is lost, such as intonation and emotional content. (Gnanadesikan, 2011, p. 9)<\/p>\n\n\n

Oral storytelling becomes distorted and changes as it is passed on with details lost or swapped along the way. Therefore although oral storytelling coveys more emotion, it can be a bit more interpretative and less ordered or factual than written storytelling where the details can be revisited in the exact same fashion as they were originally conveyed over time as long as the paper or medium (web page) in which they were written is still intact and someone can read the symbols correctly. If it is a story of historical significance for example this attention to detail maintained through writing can attribute more value to the story as its meaning is more thoroughly maintained from its original intent. As described by Gnanadesikan (2011),<\/p>\n\n\n

Writing is generally done more deliberately than speaking, so finished written pieces are much more<\/p>\n

carefully crafted than a typical spoken sentence. Written texts can thus convey their message more<\/p>\n

precisely, adding to the sense that writing is worth more than speech. (p. 5)<\/p>\n\n\n

Finally, if I\u2019d have scripted the story, perhaps it would sound more like a monologue as I would be the only character speaking throughout the play.<\/p>\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gnanadesikan, A. E. (2011).\u201cThe First IT Revolution.\u201d In\u00a0The writing revolution: Cuneiform to the<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 internet <\/em>(Vol. 25). John Wiley & Sons (pp. 1-10).<\/p>\n

Schmandt-Besserat, D. (2009). \u201cOrigins and Forms of Writing.\u201d In Bazerman, C. (Ed.).\u00a0Handbook of research<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0on writing: History, society, school, individual, text<\/em>.\u00a0New York, NY: Routledge.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Analysis When initially looking at the text produced from my speech to text app, the first thing I noticed was that the text appeared to lack proper punctuation. I wasn\u2019t sure if I was supposed to add it in by dictation and simply assumed the voice to text app would pick up on this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87946,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,8,10],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-oral","tag-voice","tag-voice-to-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicationjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicationjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicationjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicationjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87946"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicationjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicationjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicationjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicationjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicationjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/communicationjunction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}