Understanding spoken language through TalkBank

Abstract

Ongoing advances in computer technology have opened up a deluge of new datasets for understanding human behavior (Goldstone & Lupyan, 2016). Many of these datasets provide information on the use of written language. However, data on naturally occurring spoken-language conversations are much more difficult to obtain. A major exception to this is the TalkBank system, which provides online multimedia data for 14 types of spoken-language data: language in aphasia, child language, stuttering, child phonology, autism spectrum disorder, bilingualism, Conversation Analysis, classroom discourse, dementia, right hemisphere damage, Danish conversation, second language learning, traumatic brain injury, and daylong recordings in the home. The present report reviews these resources and describes the ways they are being used to further our understanding of human language and communication.