Using Voice Integrated Technology for the Purpose of Foreign Language Acquisition
Bridgette Castronovo
Background
One of the most striking ways that the United States differs from
similarly developed nations is through its lack of
bilingualism considering the relative diversity of its population. It is
estimated that less than 20% of American adults consider themselves
to be bilingual while nearly 93% of Europeans in the same age
range indicate fluency in two or more languages (Figure from
American Counsels for International Education, 2017). This static is
created in part through the late incorporation of foreign
language coursework within the school systems and the lack of
emphasis on skills necessary to achieve conversational
fluency. To help combat this statistic, it is necessary to increase
opportunities to converse in a target language without the pressure
associated with participating in an authentic conversation with a native
speaker.
Fortunately, the rapidly evolving field of voice activated technology
may provide a promising opportunity to increase language fluency if
approached correctly and with the knowledge of certain linguistic
principals in mind. Any program run through a voice activated device
should be designed with the goal of creating an immersive experience
for the user in the forefront as “abundant research shows that a
constructivist instructional design emphasizing student-center active
learning is superior to older/lector memorization models” that
are traditionally employed in a classroom setting (Brandon & All, 2010;
Bruning, Schraw, & Ronning, 1999). As such, it is paramount that
supplementary language acquisition materials in the field of voice
integrated technology utilize the mixed modality that such a
technology provides to its advantage by employing the principal
that language acquisition and retention is greatest in subjects who
incorporate multimedia applications into their learning (Brandon & All,
2010; Bruning, Schraw, & Ronning, 1999). The ideal voice activated
application would provide exposure to the
necessary grammatical constructs present in the target
language through the use of immersive techniques such as simulated
conversations.
Objectives
Engineering Goals: To code an Alexa skills program using
Java script and Alexa lambda integration technology that
will supplement traditional language learning with
automated prompts and discussions in a target language
(Spanish).
⬜Objective One: To successfully launch the program
(called an Alexa Skill) on an Alexa enabled device with a
specific trigger phrase (Alexa, open my Spanish
Conversation or Grammar Skill) and prompt the user to
select a lesson in Spanish.
⬜Objective Two: After the user chooses to begin a
conversation (lesson intent 1-15), they will receive a
question or prompt from the Alexa enabled device in
Spanish to which they will respond in kind.
⬜Objective Three : When the user asks their Alexa
enabled device to open a grammar lesson (five questions
per lesson), they should receive a prompt which will
direct them to answer a question related to a specific
grammar concept that is imperative for conversational
fluency. The program will process their response and
then indicate to the user whether they provided the
correct answer before moving on to the next question.
⬜Objective Four: If the user makes a request that cannot
be processed, they should receive an error message that
instructs them that their request was unsuccessful, and
they should try again.
Material and Methods
Materials
● Computer Programs: Alexa Skills Developer Console
● Amazon AWS Management Console
● An Alexa enabled Echo Dot
● Computer
Method(s)
1. Create an Amazon Web Services Account and open the Alexa
Developer Console.
2. Choose “Create a New Custom Skill”.
3.Design the framework of the frontend program of the custom Alexa
Skill and trigger the skill on an Alexa enabled device with the
launch phrase “Alexa, open my Spanish Learning Skill”.
4.Use JavaScript to code the backend program to support the frontend
program created in step three.
5.Create an intent with Alexa Skills Developer Portal and program
several utterances that trigger the intent in both English and Spanish.
7. Repeat step five to create as many additional Intents as required (15
total).
8.Code the backend part of the program using JavaScript to support the
intents created in step five by creating a handler for each intent that
process the utterance and responds with a programed speech output in
Spanish.
9.Create an error handler that will receive the speech inputs that the
Alexa device is unable to process so that the user is prompted with an
error message.
10. Create the frontend program for the grammar lessons by
incorporating the slots function which will process the user's response to
the prompt.
11. In the backend code, create the necessary handler that processes
the user's response and corrects when necessary before asking the
next question.
12.Test the code on an Alexa enabled device by opening the skill and
then requesting one of the lessons.
Experimental Design:
Results
Figure 1: Snippet of code from my Spanish
Conversation Skill
(
Results continued Conclusion
Conclusion One: The engineering goal for this project was to program
a functioning Alexa Skill that would allow a user to converse with the
Figure 2 Alexa device in a target language (Spanish) as well as to supplement
these conversations with grammar lessons that expose the user to
complex sentence structure and grammar topics that are commonly
used in conversational Spanish. This engineering goal was
successful, as the programed Alexa Skill successfully asks the user
questions in Spanish and provides talking points when prompted. In
addition, the program successfully supplements these simulated
conversations with grammar lessons that include practice with topics
such as the use of past and present subjective, the future tense, and
the conditional tense. When a grammar lesson is triggered, the
program successfully provides a prompt in Spanish that directs the
user to give a verbal answer. The program then listens for the user’s
response and will correct it if the user has answered incorrectly
before supplying the next question (total of five questions per lesson).
Conclusion Two: In addition to creating a functioning program as
detailed above, this Alexa Skill successfully utilizes a diverse range of
conversation topics (15) that trigger the past, present, and future
Figure 3
tenses while prompting the student to use a wide range of vocabulary
which is essential to developing fluency. In addition, the supplemental
grammar lessons function as intended by testing the user’s knowledge
of complex grammar concepts such as the past and present
subjunctive, conditional, future, irregular preterit, and imperfect tenses
by listening to their response and then correcting if necessary.
Project Summary: This skill successfully creates an immersive
experience in the target language with a focus on the practical skills
needed for a fluent conversation by addressing the necessary
grammatical constructs as well as by providing prompts for
conversation in a controlled environment. There is a total of 15
functioning conversation prompts that can be easily triggered by the
user in addition to five grammar lessons that are designed to support
and strengthen the users’ responses in the simulated conversation.
Figure 4
References
Figure 5 Sorry I’ll get these done soon