SLR validation: Current trends & developments

This paper deals with the quality evaluation (validation) of Spoken Language Resources (SLR). The current situation in terms of relevant validation criteria and procedures is briefly presented. Next, a number of validation issues related to new data formats (XMLbased annotations, UTF-16 encoding) are discussed. Further, new validation cycles that were introduced in a series of new projects like SpeeCon and OrienTel are addressed: prompt sheet validation, lexicon validation and pre-release validation. Finally, SPEX’s current and future activities as ELRA’s validation centre for SLR are outlined.