Abstract
This paper describes an embodied conversational agent enhanced with specific conversational strategies aiming to foster learners’ readiness towards communication in a second language (L2). Willingness to communicate (WTC) in a second language is believed to have a direct and sustained influence on learners’ actual usage frequency of the target language. To help overcome the lack of suitable environments for increasing L2 learners’ WTC, our approach is to build embodied conversational agents that can help learners surmount their apprehension towards communication in L2. Here, we focus on the dialogue management aspects of our approach and propose a model based on a set of communication strategies (CS) and affective backchannels (AB) to foster such agents’ ability to carry on natural and WTC-friendly conversations with learners. We examined learners’ expected WTC after interacting with one of the following versions of the system: an agent featuring both CS and AB; an agent featuring only CS; and an agent featuring only AB. The results suggested that combining CS and AB empowers the conversational agent and leads to higher expected WTC among L2 learners. We also found that even the AB-only version of the system had the potential to enhance WTC to some extent. These findings are evidence of the feasibility of enhancing L2 learners’ engagement towards communication using a computer-based environment coupled with appropriate conversational strategies.
Highlights
The ability to communicate in a second language (L2) is a significant asset in facilitating exchanges between people who come from different countries or speak different languages
This paper described DiMaCA, a dialogue management model based on two conversational strategies (i.e., communication strategies (CS) and affective backchannels (AB)) aiming to empower embodied conversational agents to foster L2 learners’ willingness to communicate in an English-as-a-foreign-language context
The pilot study results showed that the combination of CS and AB could be effective, because participants who interacted with the CS + AB version of the system displayed higher expected Willingness to communicate (WTC) than those who interacted with the CS only or AB only versions
Summary
The ability to communicate in a second language (L2) is a significant asset in facilitating exchanges between people who come from different countries or speak different languages. One of the fundamental goals is to provide learners with the ability to communicate effectively in the second language whenever the opportunity presents itself. Following the finding that learners with a higher WTC tend to perform better than others in producing the target language, MacIntyre et al (1998) suggested that increasing learners’ WTC should be the goal of L2 learning. They proposed a pyramidal heuristic model of variables affecting WTC, in which it appears that the environment where learners experience or practice the second language plays an important role in motivating them to take part (or not) in conversation. Many learners feel genuine anxiety about performing in front of others, and many classrooms do not offer learners much in the way of communicative practice (Reinders and Wattana 2014)
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