At the beach, two children are pretending to be explorers, wearing their beach towels as capes. They climb among the rock pools collecting stones and shells. Now and then they check in with each other to compare treasures or call out to their parents to come and look. Later they sit and sort their treasures. Tired of being explorers they build a sand castle together and decorate it with the small treasures they’ve found.

Learning through play.

This study investigated the effect of Chatbot-Assisted Dynamic Assessment (CA-DA) on vocabulary learning and provided insights into learner abilities drawn from its implementation. Through the use ...

Chatbot-assisted dynamic assessment (CA-DA) for L2 vocabulary learning and diagnosis

Supporting self-efficacy beliefs and interest as educational inputs and outcomes: Framing AI and Human partnered task experiences

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Extended Reality (XR) have been employed in several foreign language education applications to increase the availability of experiential learning methods akin to in...

Foreign language acquisition via artificial intelligence and extended reality: design and evaluation

The purpose of this article is to set out the design principles and architecture of a second language (L2) learning voice chatbot. Building on L2 acquisition theories and chatbot research, in this article, we report on a South Korean government-funded longitudinal project in which we designed and developed a chatbot called “Ellie”. Chatbot Ellie has three chat modes, “General Chat,” “Task Chat,” and “Skills”. In the General Chat mode, L2 users can have short talks about personal information, whereas in the Task Chat mode, they can engage in a wide range of problem-solving L2 tasks to achieve task goals by exchanging meanings with Ellie. The Skills mode offers form-focused language practice. Ellie was piloted among 137 Korean high school students, who used Ellie individually or in a group, for seven weeks in their English classes. The quality of the chatbot was investigated in terms of the appropriateness of language level, continuity of conversation, and success in task performance. Based on the results of the pilot, Ellie appears to have considerable potential to become an effective language learning companion for L2 learners, and has implications for the design and developments of future L2 chatbots.

Design principles and architecture of a second language learning chatbot

Bots are destined to dominate how humans interact with the internet of things that continues to grow around them. Despite their still budding intellectual capacity, major companies (e.g., Apple, Google and Amazon) have already placed (chat)bots at the centre of their flagship devices. (Chat)Bots currently fill the internet acting as guides, merchants and assistants. Chatbots, designed as communicators, however, have yet to make a meaningful contribution to perhaps their most natural vocation: foreign language learning partners. This review engages in three questions that surround this issue: 1. Why are chatbots not already at the centre of foreign language learning? 2. What are two key developers of chatbots working towards that might push chatbots into the language learning spotlight? 3. What might researchers, educators, and developers together do to support chatbots as foreign language learning partners right now?

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Diana Lăpușneanu

Papers

Bots for language learning now: Current and future directions