``Validation'' in this document

The term validation in the context of spoken language resources (SLR) has slightly different meanings depending on the authors.

Henk van den Heuvel describes the main goals of the validation process of a SLR as

1. Checking the SLR against a fixed set of requirements.
2. Putting a `quality stamp' on a SLR as a result of the aforementioned check. If the database passes the check, then we say that is has been ``validated''.
3. The evaluation of a SLR in a field test, thus testing the usability of the SLR in an actual application.
4. ...

(e.g. [1], p. 1)

The European Language Resources Association (ELRA) defines the term validation as follows:

``The term `validation' in ELRA is normally used in reference to the activity of checking the suitability for the market, the adherence to standards, and the quality control of the LR product.''

...

([3])

Both sources subsume the evaluation of a SLR, that is a quality assessment for the usability in an actual application or for the marketability, as an integral part of the validation.

In this document we will concentrate only on the first point in van den Heuvel's list: the validation against the specification of a SLR or - if no specification is available - against the documentation.^1.4

We agree with Heuvel on the second point that it is essential for the future infrastructure of SLRs to come up with a methodology to assess the quality of a SLR against basic standards (`good practice') to achieve a quality grade of an existing SLR. Please refer to the excellent paper ``Validation of Content and Quality of Existing SLR: Overview and Methodology'' by H. van den Heuvel et al ([2]) for this topic.