Motivate the learners to practice english through playing with chatbot CSIEC

Abstract

CSIEC (Computer Simulation in Educational Communication), is an interactive web-based human-computer dialogue system with natural language for English instruction. In this paper we present its newest developments and applications in English education. After brief introduction of the project motivation and the related works, we illustrate the system structure with a flow diagram, and describe its pedagogical functions in details, including free chatting, chatting on a given topic and the chatting scoring mechanism. We review the free Internet usage within six months, and evaluate its integration into English classroom. The summarization and assessment findings confirm that the chatting function has been enhanced and fully used by the users, and the application of the CSIEC system in English instruction can interest the learners to study English and motivate them to practice English more frequently. Finally we discuss the application driven approach of system development, and draw some conclusions for the further improvements. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.