Australia uses five different tests to evaluate potential immigrants’ mastery of English, but only one of those tests uses computer-assisted voice recognition. Louise Kennedy, a native English speaker from Ireland, was unfortunate enough to receive the automated test when she was applying for residency in Australia. She failed.
The Pearson Test of English (PTE) Academic utilizes an automated question system that asks applicants a series of questions on a monitor and records their vocal responses. The recordings are then analyzed by a system and a score is generated. Despite the fact that Kennedy received high marks on the reading and writing portions of the exam, she scored a 74 on the oral section. Australia requires a 79 or higher, so she’s out of luck and now searching for new options.
“There’s obviously a flaw in their computer software when a person with perfect oral fluency cannot get enough points,” she tells The Guardian.
As governments begin to employ more speech analysis and automated screening technology in their immigration and travel procedures, experts have warned that the tech may not be ready yet. In March, news broke that Germany would be using voice recognition technology to identify refugees’ country of origin.
University of Essex linguistics Professor Monika Schmid told Deutsche Welle in March that analyzing speech can be very difficult and factors like a subject’s age, use of slang, and human nature’s ability to adapt the way one speaks are all complex hurdles for software to overcome. But in Kennedy’s case, she was being tested on her basic fluency in English rather than what country she’s from. Still, the system didn’t recognize that she speaks the language.
