Abstract:

UBC Language Chatsim investigates whether the immersive qualities of virtual reality combined with artificially intelligent chatbots developed to provide foreign language practice can enhance the efficacy of learning an additional language. Since May 2019, an Emerging Media Lab student/staff/faculty team has been building and testing proof-of-concept virtual target language environments (German kiosk and Canadian convenience store) containing avatars that provide students with limitless opportunities to review and practice a task-based set of language interactions, free from the anxiety of potential communication failure, where they receive constructive feedback on pronunciation, formulaic phrases and lexical choice that requires critical thinking to complete the task.

In my paper, which I will present orally and with supporting visuals (slides and short videos), I'll discuss:
1) The current state of research into the application of XR and AI in foreign language education generally
2) The work we've done over the past two years to reach a working Chatsim prototype that we are currently user testing. This will include a discussion of the roles played in Chatsim by the technologies it uses (among them Unity, Google Cloud API, Google DialogFlow and Sphynx Documentation Generator)
3) The future of the Chatsim project (taking into consideration the challenges, which are ongoing, presented by the Covid-19 pandemic)

Keywords:

Artificial intelligence, extended reality, virtual reality, foreign language learning.