Third reflection: Bots as Language Learning Tools

Foreign Language Learning (FLL) students commonly have few opportunities to use their target
language. Teachers in FLL situations do their best to create opportunities during classes through
pair or group work, but a variety of factors ranging from a lack of time to shyness or limited opportunity for quality feedback hamper this. This paper discusses online chatbots' potential role in fulfilling this need. Chatbots could provide a means of language practice for students anytime and virtually anywhere.

Learning a language is not easy. Even under the best conditions students face cultural differences, pronunciation problems, ebbing motivation, a lack of effective feedback, the need to learn specialized language, and many other obstacles during their studies. Students in foreign language learning situations commonly face all of these general challenges while having little or no opportunity to use their language of study beyond the classroom, where students classically listen to a recording then repeat and/or write in a workbook. More recently, students might interact with some language software during laboratory periods. During class, students may or may not practice with other students and only in the smallest classes do students get a chance to practice one-on-one with their teacher. The practice students might obtain in class is often not very interactive and potentially plagued by lack of confidence, shyness, and unchecked mistakes in grammar and pronunciation (students in pairs or group practice).

Nowadays, there are 750 million EFL speakers in the world (Graddol, 2000), many of whom live in countries with relatively few native speakers and have little opportunity to practice English. A chatterbot’s purpose, as previously stated, is to carry on a conversation with a human being. This makes chatterbots a potentially valuable resource for EFL learners. Their value as learning tools is limited, however, by their still growing language abilities and design. In their present state they are most useful to higher level students. This is because most of them were designed to interact with and entertain native speakers.

Six ways in which chatbots can be potentially useful to the interested teacher are:

1) Free Speaking: This is a great way to give the students a chance to experiment. It is an excellent reward for those students who have completed their class work early. Depending on the class, the second time you assign students to free speak with a chatbot it may be helpful to give the students a topic to focus on. Assign a topic not attached to class work if this is meant to be a break rather than an extension of class.
2) Review: This has to be the most practical use of chatbots. In FLL situations it is common for students to spend a class covering material that they never get the opportunity to actually use. At the end of a class the teacher might reserve 10-15 minutes for students to try out their new language skills. This can be done with the textbook or without, depending on the teacher’s goals.
3) Self Analysis: Some chatbot WebPages provide a ‘view transcript’ function. This can be an excellent means of having students evaluate themselves, their partners, or even the bots. Simply have the students chat away in either of the above exercises, then view, print or email their transcripts to themselves.
4) For the Teacher: With the subscription of a bot like Jabberwacky, a teacher can keep track of studentbot conversations and get an idea of how students are progressing, what kind of language they need help with and perhaps most importantly, what kind of language and topics they want to learn more about.
5) For more advanced students, a piece of paper covering the screen except where he or she is typing (enter scissors and a little imagination), is a means of forcing the student to focus in on the audio and encourage them to reply as best they can. Though perhaps challenging and occasionally fraught with miscommunication, there is no risk to the
student’s confidence and when real communication occurs there is an invaluable sense of
accomplishment.
6) Finally, all of the above suggested uses assumed that computers were available in the classroom. In situations where this is not the case, similar exercises can be assigned as homework. If the teacher wishes to check and ensure the students are doing their assignments, again transcripts might be printed and brought to class or cut, pasted, and emailed to the teacher.

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In this article it is said that many Foreign Language Learning (FLL) students commonly have few opportunities to use their target language, and teachers to do their best in creating the opportunities in which students can talk with another through working in pair or in group, but sometimes we have to keep in mind that some students are shy and they are afraid of making mistakes while they are speaking.
All of us know that to learn a foreign language is not easy because it involves pronunciation problems and also imply knowing a lot of words. Foreign language learners have little or no opportunity to use their language of study beyond the classroom. They do not practice the target language in real context; they learn the language just listening to a recording then repeating and/or writing in a workbook. Shy students are always afraid of speaking in from of their class so if they had the chance to express themselves freely the would overcome their shyness and would be able to improve their confidence too.