Fun and frustrating: Students’ perspectives on practising speaking English with virtual humans
AbstractSpeaking in a foreign language is considered challenging to both teach and learn. Virtual humans (VHs), as conversational agents (CAs), provide opportunities to practise speaking skills. Lower secondary school students (N = 25) engaged in an AI-based spoken dialogue system (SDS) and interact...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Cogent Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2170088 |
| _version_ | 1797671653236277248 |
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| author | Elin Ericsson Sylvana Sofkova Hashemi Johan Lundin |
| author_facet | Elin Ericsson Sylvana Sofkova Hashemi Johan Lundin |
| author_sort | Elin Ericsson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | AbstractSpeaking in a foreign language is considered challenging to both teach and learn. Virtual humans (VHs), as conversational agents (CAs), provide opportunities to practise speaking skills. Lower secondary school students (N = 25) engaged in an AI-based spoken dialogue system (SDS) and interacted verbally with VHs in simulated everyday-life scenarios to solve given tasks. Our analysis is based on system-generated metrics and self-reported experiences collected through questionnaires, logbooks, and interviews. Thematic analysis resulted in seven themes, revolving around the speaking practice method, scenarios and technology, which, in combination with descriptive statistics, enabled a deeper understanding of the students’ experiences. The results indicate that, on average, they found it easy, fun, and safe, but sometimes frustrating in scenarios not always relevant to their everyday lives. Factors suggested as underlying the levels of experienced frustration include technical issues and constraints with the system, such as not being understood or heard as expected. The findings suggest that lower secondary school students conversing with VHs in the SDS in an institutional educational context facilitated a beneficial opportunity for practising speaking skills, especially pronunciation and interaction in dialogues, aligning with the key principles of second language acquisition (SLA) for language development. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T21:18:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-315503e2cd9449f0b8c1cc815be8be7d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2331-186X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T21:18:40Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cogent Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-315503e2cd9449f0b8c1cc815be8be7d2023-09-28T10:28:08ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCogent Education2331-186X2023-12-0110110.1080/2331186X.2023.2170088Fun and frustrating: Students’ perspectives on practising speaking English with virtual humansElin Ericsson0Sylvana Sofkova Hashemi1Johan Lundin2Department of Applied Information Technology, Division of Learning, Communication and IT, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SwedenDepartment of Education, Communication and Learning, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SwedenDepartment of Applied Information Technology, Division of Learning, Communication and IT, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SwedenAbstractSpeaking in a foreign language is considered challenging to both teach and learn. Virtual humans (VHs), as conversational agents (CAs), provide opportunities to practise speaking skills. Lower secondary school students (N = 25) engaged in an AI-based spoken dialogue system (SDS) and interacted verbally with VHs in simulated everyday-life scenarios to solve given tasks. Our analysis is based on system-generated metrics and self-reported experiences collected through questionnaires, logbooks, and interviews. Thematic analysis resulted in seven themes, revolving around the speaking practice method, scenarios and technology, which, in combination with descriptive statistics, enabled a deeper understanding of the students’ experiences. The results indicate that, on average, they found it easy, fun, and safe, but sometimes frustrating in scenarios not always relevant to their everyday lives. Factors suggested as underlying the levels of experienced frustration include technical issues and constraints with the system, such as not being understood or heard as expected. The findings suggest that lower secondary school students conversing with VHs in the SDS in an institutional educational context facilitated a beneficial opportunity for practising speaking skills, especially pronunciation and interaction in dialogues, aligning with the key principles of second language acquisition (SLA) for language development.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2170088experienceinteractionlower secondary school studentsspoken dialogue systemvirtual humans |
| spellingShingle | Elin Ericsson Sylvana Sofkova Hashemi Johan Lundin Fun and frustrating: Students’ perspectives on practising speaking English with virtual humans Cogent Education experience interaction lower secondary school students spoken dialogue system virtual humans |
| title | Fun and frustrating: Students’ perspectives on practising speaking English with virtual humans |
| title_full | Fun and frustrating: Students’ perspectives on practising speaking English with virtual humans |
| title_fullStr | Fun and frustrating: Students’ perspectives on practising speaking English with virtual humans |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fun and frustrating: Students’ perspectives on practising speaking English with virtual humans |
| title_short | Fun and frustrating: Students’ perspectives on practising speaking English with virtual humans |
| title_sort | fun and frustrating students perspectives on practising speaking english with virtual humans |
| topic | experience interaction lower secondary school students spoken dialogue system virtual humans |
| url | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/2331186X.2023.2170088 |
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