Computer-Based Social Interactions to Facilitate Language Learning

能够有效地用一种以上的语言进行沟通不仅是一个教育目标，而且是这一代学生必须具备的生活技能，他们必须能够在全球劳动力中竞争和发挥作用。交际能力--知道说什么，什么时候说，怎么说--是外语学生努力实现的主要挑战之一。第二语言研究表明，当外语学生对自己与母语者进行对话的能力缺乏信心时，他们在课堂上不太可能进行口头交流。该项目开发语言学习技术，为第二语言学生提供脚手架机会，以获得词汇和会话短语，同时发展听力理解技能和目标语言的口语能力。本研究的目的是通过反复设计、开发和评估一款移动的游戏来探索第二语言学生的交际能力的发展。与游戏角色进行基于语音的互动将使第二语言学生能够提高他们的词汇习得，听力理解技能和目标语言西班牙语的口语能力。这项研究的结果将为设计更复杂的语言学习技术提供信息，以促进任何外语的交际能力。这项研究计划旨在反复设计计算机生成的会话游戏角色，称为非玩家角色（NPC），使外语学生参与社交互动，促进西班牙语的第二语言习得。 研究问题包括：我们如何策略性地设计会话NPC来支撑新手对目标语言的熟练程度？新手的熟练度如何随着时间的推移而变化，作为游戏中与会话NPC的社交互动的结果？这些游戏中的社交互动对创造有意义的游戏体验，提高新手对目标语言的熟练程度有什么建议？这项探索性研究的结果将为一种新的语言学习技术提供信息，这种技术专门用于提高外语学生对目标语言的熟练程度，作为传统课堂教学的补充。该项目将涉及开发和评估基于游戏的社交互动模型（GSIM）的有效性，GSIM是一个概念框架，将母语和非母语人士之间的游戏社交互动与目标语言的成功词汇习得联系起来。GSIM将激励NPC在游戏过程中的语言行为，使NPC能够模仿人类的互动，促进新手对目标语言的熟练程度。在一个移动的游戏的背景下，该项目将迭代设计会话NPC，为第二语言学生提供脚手架的机会，以提高他们的词汇习得，听力理解和口语能力的目标语言。这项研究还将研究非洲裔美国妇女如何在游戏过程中感知和与目标语言的对话NPC互动，从而确定对这一特别未充分研究的人群的学习成果产生积极影响的关键设计元素。

The ability to effectively communicate in more than one language is not only an educational goal, but a required life skill for this generation of students who must be able to compete and function in a global workforce. Communicative competence---knowing what to say, when to say it and how to say it--- is one of the primary challenges that foreign language students struggle to achieve. Second language research reveals that foreign language students are less likely to communicate verbally in the classroom setting when they lack confidence in their ability to carry a conversation with native speakers. This project develops language learning technology that provides scaffolded opportunities for second language students to acquire vocabulary words and conversational phrases while simultaneously developing listening comprehension skills and speaking capabilities in the targeted language. The goal of this research is to explore the progression of second language students' communicative competence through iteratively designing, developing and evaluating a mobile game that features intelligent, conversational computer generated game characters. Speech-based interactions with game characters will enable second language students to increase their vocabulary acquisition, listening comprehension skills and speaking capabilities in the targeted language, Spanish. Results of this research will inform the design of more sophisticated language learning technology that facilitates communicative competence in any foreign language.This research program seeks to iteratively design computer generated conversational game characters known as Non Player Characters (NPCs) that engage foreign language students in social interactions that facilitate second language acquisition in Spanish. Research questions include: How do we strategically design conversational NPCs to scaffold novices' proficiency in the targeted language? How do novices' proficiency change over time as a result of social interactions with conversational NPCs during gameplay? What do these in-game social interactions suggest about creating meaningful gameplay experiences that improve novices' proficiency in the targeted language? The results of this exploratory research will inform a new genre of language learning technology specifically designed to increase foreign language students' proficiency in the targeted language as a supplement to traditional classroom instruction. The project will involve developing and evaluating the efficacy of the Game-based Social Interaction Model (GSIM), a conceptual framework that links in-game social interactions between native and non-native speakers to successful vocabulary acquisition in the targeted language. The GSIM will motivate the NPCs' verbal behaviors during gameplay, enabling the NPCs to emulate human-like interactions that facilitate novices' proficiency in the targeted language. In the context of a mobile game, the project will iteratively design conversational NPCs to provide scaffolded opportunities for second language students to increase their vocabulary acquisition, listening comprehension and speaking capabilities in the targeted language. This research will also examine how African American women perceive and interact with conversational NPCs in the targeted language during gameplay, thus identifying crucial design elements that positively influence learning outcomes specific to this particularly understudied population.