Patent ID: 8271281

Claim:
A method for assessing pronunciation abilities of a user, the method comprising: presenting at least one text prompt to the user; recording at least one spoken input spoken by the user in a language in response to the at least one text prompt; and automatically assigning, by using at least one processor and at least one classifier, the user to one of a plurality of classes based on one or more features obtained from the at least one recorded spoken input, wherein each of the plurality of classes corresponds to a pronunciation ability in the language, wherein the at least one classifier comprises a first classifier, wherein the plurality of classes comprises a first subset of classes comprising at least one class and a second subset of classes comprising at least one class, wherein the first subset of classes is disjoint from the second subset of classes, wherein: presenting the at least one text prompt comprises presenting a first text prompt to the user, recording the at least one spoken input comprises recording a first spoken input spoken by the user in response to the first text prompt, assigning the user to one of the plurality of classes comprises determining whether the user belongs to any class in the first subset of classes or to any class in the second subset of classes by applying the first classifier to one or more features obtained from the first spoken input, and wherein the method further comprises: presenting a second text prompt to the user if it is determined that the user belongs to any class in the first subset of classes; and presenting a third prompt to the user if it is determined that the user belongs to any class in the second subset of classes, wherein the second prompt is different from the third prompt.