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Predicting User Acceptance of Tamil Speech to Text by Native Predicting user acceptance of Tamil speech to text by native Tamil Brahmans RAMACHANDRAN, Raj Available from Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/24461/ This document is the author deposited version. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it. Published version RAMACHANDRAN, Raj (2018). Predicting user acceptance of Tamil speech to text by native Tamil Brahmans. Doctoral, Sheffield Hallam University. Copyright and re-use policy See http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive http://shura.shu.ac.uk Predicting user acceptance of Tamil speech to text by native Tamil Brahmans Raj Ramachandran A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Cultural Communication and Computing Research Institute (C3RI) June 2018 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I extend my sincere and profound thanks to my Director of Studies Dr. Babak Khazaei and my supervisor Dr. Frances Slack. Without their guidance, motivation and constructive feedback, I would not have completed this thesis. I am grateful to all the participants. Their responses and feedback were the guiding force of this research. I thank my friends and colleagues at Unit 12, Science Park, Sheffield Hallam University for all their support. I thank my Amma and Appa for their patience, faith, reassurance and support throughout my life, my wife for her unflinching faith in me and Ashik Anna for his advice and support throughout, especially in difficult times. 2 ABSTRACT This thesis investigates and predicts the user acceptance of a speech to text application in Tamil and takes the view that user acceptance model would need to take into, the cultural constraints that apply in the context and underlines the need for a more explicit recognition. The user acceptance models such as Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) predominantly focus on the technological aspects to determine the acceptance. The cultural variables are considered as external but at the same time they acknowledge the influence of user acceptance due to external variables. The contribution to knowledge is, an empirical link between Tamil usage at a social level that indicates the ability to use and accept Tamil speech to text application. The economic value of Tamil, does not seem to warrant technology use and therefore, speech to text in Tamil was found to be less acceptable in the study samples. In order to achieve the objective of predicting the user acceptance of speech to text in Tamil by the native Tamil speaking Brahmans, the researcher designed and evaluated a paper prototype of an iPhone iOS mobile representation of the paper prototype on the idea of 'what you speak is what you get'. As a result of the researcher’s insider position, the idea was to convert the speech as spoken by the person into Tamil orthography without any technological interference such as auto correct, word prediction and spell check. Due to the syllabic nature of the language and the cultural tendency to code mix and code-switch, the investigation focused on three key areas- code mixing, pronunciation and choice of script . This thesis looks at the complexities involved in accommodating these areas. The user's choice of script was increasingly important as it cannot be assumed that all native Tamil speakers are able to read and write Tamil. In order to bring in rich data, the researcher used the insider and outsider positionality alongside phenomenology. This was also to overcome any potential bias in analysis and interpretation. The multidisciplinary approach to answer the research question was inevitable owing to cultural variables like value and usage of language, social perception of language and its usage specifically code-switching, pronunciation and orthography in the native space. 3 Data gathering was done using quantitative study of transliteration and qualitative interviews of Tamil speaking Brahmans. The findings point to the Vedic philosophical texts and practices that influenced the attitude of the respondents on how words must be pronounced and how they ought to appear in text. The development of the speech to text application could be enriched by using a native approach that embeds cultural and philosophical values. Based on the findings, this thesis has identified areas for further research which is to widely test the user acceptance model proposed in this thesis to aid development of speech to text and to further investigate on native perspective in the wider diaspora and also to investigate cultural and philosophical relevance in speech to text in other languages where technology is in developing stage. 4 TABLE OF CONTENT Chapter 1 – Introduction …………………………………………………………… 9 1.1 Motivation and background………………………………………………………. 9 1.2 Introduction………………………………………………………………………… 9 1.3 Reseach question…………………………………………………………………….11 1.4 Organisation of the thesis……………………………………………………………11 1.5 Outline of chapters…………………………………………………………………..13 1.6 Phrases and concepts used in this thesis…………………………………………….15 Chapter 2 The Tamil context…………………………………………………………..18 2.1 Tamil- geography, identity and politics………………………………………….......19 2.2 Tamil- language……………………………………………………………………...19 2.3 Introduction to the Vedas and the Vedic ‘Dharma’………………………………….22 2.3.1 The Varnashrama dharma………………………………………………………….23 2.3.2 Tamil Brahmans- making up of the middle-class caste……………………............24 2.3.3 Relevance of Vedas an Brahmans…………………………………………………25 2.4 Positionality………………………………………………………………………….26 2.4.1 Insider-outsider position…………………………………………………………... 2.5 Summary……………………………………………………………………………..29 Chapter 3 Literature review…………………………………………………………...31 3.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………….31 3.2 Speech to text……………………………………………………………………......33 3.3 Acceptance models………………………………………………………………….38 3.4 Gaps in literature…………………………………………………………………….41 3.5 Code switching, language and politics………………………………………………42 3.5.1 Notions of Standard English………………………………………………………43 3.5.2 Orthography choices: த뮿ழ் or Tamil…………………………………………...44 3.6 Summary…………………………………………………………………………….46 Chapter 4 Methods 4.1 Research philosophy………………………………………………………………...47 4.2 Phenomenology as a method………………………………………………………..49 4.3 Software engineering as a method…………………………………………………..51 4.4 Abstraction………………………………………………………………………….51 4.5 Who is the customer?.................................................................................................52 4.6 Software development lifecycle…………………………………………………….53 4.6.1 Formulating requirement………………………………………………………….54 4.6.2 Categorising requirement………………………………………………………....54 4.6.3 Requirement definition…………………………………………………………....56 4.6.4 Requirement characteristics……………………………………………………....58 4.6.5 Clarifying As-Is scenario………………………………………………………....58 4.6.6 Clarifying To-be scenario………………………………………………………...59 4.7 Software process model…………………………………………………………….59 4.7.1 Prototyping model………………………………………………………………...60 4.7.2 Types of prototyping……………………………………………………………...60 4.7.3 Incremental and rapid application development………………………………….61 4.8 Prototype design…………………………………………………………………….61 4.8.1 Design considerations for speech to text in Brahman Tamil……………………..62 5 Chapter 5 Evaluation…………………………………………………………………66 5.1 Evaluation of prototype……………………………………………………………66 5.2 Reflection: Design and evaluation………………………………………………...73 5.3 Ethics and social responsibility……………………………………………………74 Chapter 6 Proposed approach………………………………………………………75 6.1 User acceptance model……………………………………………………………75 6.2 Sampling…………………………………………………………………………..78. 6.3 Ethics………………………………………………………………………………78 6.4 Prototyping………………………………………………………………………...78 6.4.1 Prototype…………………………………………………………………………79 6.5 Quantitative pre-test and pilot……………………………………………………..79 6.6 Pre pilot and pilot………………………………………………………………….80 6.7 Observations……………………………………………………………………….86 6.8 Pre-pilot and pilot findings………………………………………………………..87 6.9 Data collection……………………………………………………………………..88 6.9.1 Qualitative interview: Tamil Brahmans………………………………………….89 6.9.2 Icebreaker questions……………………………………………………………..89 6.9.3 Mapping questions into user acceptance model…………………………………90 6.9.4 Prototype testing…………………………………………………………………91 6.10 Summary…………………………………………………………………………92 Chapter 7 Studies and findings………………………………………………………94 7.1 Study 1: The transliteration experiment……………………………………………94 7.2 Study 2: Tamil speakers Vs. Malayalam speakers: A comparative study…………103 7.3 Observation of the pronunciation of ‘Zha’…………………………………………105 7.4 Study 3: Qualitative interviews with Tamil Brahmans…………………………….106 7.5 Summary……………………………………………………………………………111 Chapter 8 Discussion………………………………………………………………….113 8.1 The language dilemma……………………………………………………………..113 8.2 Transliteration and script…………………………………………………………...124 8.3 Researcher’s own experience……….………………………………………………129 8.4 Reflection on user acceptance model……………………………………………….132 8.5 Speech to text in Tamil: The case of google………………………………………..132 8.6 Summary…………………………………………………………………………… 138 Chapter 9 Personal reflection………………………………………………………... 140 9.1 Transition and Tamil Nadu from 2014- 2018……………………………………… 140 9.2 Challenge of being an insider and outsider………………………………………... 141 9.3 Language, pronunciation and my experience……………………………………… 142 9.4 Code mixing, code switching and the notion of Tamil …………………………… 144 9.5 Tamil and Roman orthography……………………………………………………. 145 9,6 Summary ………………………………………………………………………….
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