InSTIL/ICALL 2004 Symposium on Computer Assisted Learning June 17-19, 2004 Venice, Italy

Tactical Language Training System: Supporting the Rapid Acquisition of Foreign Language and Cultural Skills

W. Lewis Johnson (1), Stacy Marsella (1), Nicolaus Mote (1), Hannes Viljhálmsson (1), Shrikanth Narayanan (2), Sunhee Choi (2)

(1) USC / Information Sciences Institute, Marina del Rey, CA, USA
(2)University of Southern California, University Park, Los Angeles, CA, USA

The Tactical Language Training System helps learners acquire communicative competence in spoken Arabic and other languages. An intelligent agent coaches learners, assessing their mastery and providing tailored assistance. Learners then perform missions in an interactive story environment, where they communicate with autonomous, animated characters. Our fundamental hypotheses are that such a learning environment will be more engaging and motivating than alternative approaches, and will lead to more rapid skill acquisition.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Johnson, W. Lewis / Marsella, Stacy / Mote, Nicolaus / Viljhálmsson, Hannes / Narayanan, Shrikanth / Choi, Sunhee (2004): "Tactical language training system: supporting the rapid acquisition of foreign language and cultural skills", In ICALL-2004, paper 005.