While the use of intelligent personal assistants (IPAs) has exploded in recent years, little is known about their use to promote English as a foreign language (EFL) development. Thus, this study addresses this gap in the literature by examining the in-class use of the IPA, Alexa, among second language (L2) English students to support improvements in listening comprehension and speaking proficiency. The study utilized a quasi-experimental design with an experimental group (n = 13) which took part in a 10-week treatment of student-IPA interaction and a control group (n = 15) which did not. Results from the Mann-Whitney U test found that the experimental group was able to make more significant gains in L2 speaking proficiency. However, a significant difference was not found when comparing improvements in L2 listening comprehension. These findings suggest that IPAs may be a useful tool to promote L2 speaking skills and underscore the necessity for additional research on the emerging technology for language learning.
description.provenance:
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Previous issue date: 2020-02-01
endingpage:
26
identifier.citation:
Dizon, G. (2020). Evaluating intelligent personal assistants for L2 listening and speaking development. Language Learning & Technology, 24(1), 16–26. https://doi.org/10125/44705
identifier.doi:
10125/44705
identifier.issn:
1094-3501
identifier.uri:
http://hdl.handle.net/10125/44705
llt.topic:
Language Teaching and Technology Forum
number:
1
publicationname:
Language Learning & Technology
publisher:
University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center Center for Language & Technology (co-sponsored by Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning, University of Texas at Austin)
site_url:
/item/10125-44705/
startingpage:
16
subject:
Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning (ICALL) L2 Listening L2 Speaking
title:
Evaluating intelligent personal assistants for L2 listening and speaking development