It is widely recognized that one of the best ways to learn a foreign language is through spoken dialogue with a native speaker. However, this is not a practical method in the classroom due to the one-to-one student/teacher ratio it implies. A potential solution to this problem is to rely on computer spoken dialogue systems to role play a conversational partner. This paper describes several multilingual dialogue systems specifically designed to address this need. Students can engage in dialogue with the computer either over the telephone or through audio/typed input at a Web page. Several different domains are being developed, in which a students conversational interaction is assisted by a software agent functioning as a "tutor" which can provide them with translation assistance at any time. Some of the research issues surrounding high-quality spoken language translation and dialogue modeling for language games are discussed.
Cite as: Seneff, S. (2007) Web-based dialogue and translation games for spoken language learning. Proc. Speech and Language Technology in Education (SLaTE 2007), 9-16
@inproceedings{seneff07_slate,
author={Stephanie Seneff},
title={{Web-based dialogue and translation games for spoken language learning}},
year=2007,
booktitle={Proc. Speech and Language Technology in Education (SLaTE 2007)},
pages={9--16}
}