Background
The idea of chatbots or conversational agents emanated from Alan Turing’s proposal that a machine ‘can think’ like human beings and can show signs of intelligent behavior (Jiyou & Chen, 2009). Therefore, a chatbot should pass a test that is called the ‘Turing test’ which is the criterion for machine intelligence. Abu Shawar and Atwell (2007) surveyed a number of conversational agents that are used in several domains including education. They think that “the aim of chatbot designers should be: to build tools that help people, facilitate their work, and their interaction with computers using natural language; but not to replace the human role totally, or imitate human conversation perfectly” (Shawar & Atwell, 2007).
Chat bots or …show more content…
Hence, they were not reliable for use with students (Abu Shawar & Atwell, 2007; Jiyou & Chen, 2009). Therefore, this paper will focus on Tutor Mike: a “Robot English Tutor” as described by Professor Ron C. Lee (LINK). Tutor Mike is a well-informed and knowledgeable teacher that can correct the user’s spelling and grammar mistakes, give some advice about learning English and provide definitions about parts of speech. The Chatbot can also help students know more about cultures, history, geography and any other information related to general …show more content…
Groupings: Groupings is divided into two categories:
A. Grouping of students: group work, pair work or individual.
In this case, the task was individualized and done outside the classroom. Group work could not be implemented due to the lack of such feature in the software. However, this was convenient for the students since they can learn at their own pace, individualize their experience and reflect according to their own problems. It was also beneficial for the teachers as they examine the snapshots so that they can have some insights on their students’ problems.
B. Grouping of material used to explain the task. The materials referred to here in this study are whether the software is accessible or not, whether the students have internet access at home, whether they can use it in open access labs instead in addition to the materials used to gather information of the students (surveys, assignments, classroom discussions…etc.).
3. Bridge: refers to bridging the gap between what the students already know (prior knowledge) and what they are going to learn from the task. Since the situation involves utilizing the chatbot as an ESL Tutor, the students can use their prior knowledge to build on to make learning more meaningful. When they chat with Tutor Mike, they will use certain words they know and they will make mistakes which will be corrected by the
The idea of chatbots or conversational agents emanated from Alan Turing’s proposal that a machine ‘can think’ like human beings and can show signs of intelligent behavior (Jiyou & Chen, 2009). Therefore, a chatbot should pass a test that is called the ‘Turing test’ which is the criterion for machine intelligence. Abu Shawar and Atwell (2007) surveyed a number of conversational agents that are used in several domains including education. They think that “the aim of chatbot designers should be: to build tools that help people, facilitate their work, and their interaction with computers using natural language; but not to replace the human role totally, or imitate human conversation perfectly” (Shawar & Atwell, 2007).
Chat bots or …show more content…
Hence, they were not reliable for use with students (Abu Shawar & Atwell, 2007; Jiyou & Chen, 2009). Therefore, this paper will focus on Tutor Mike: a “Robot English Tutor” as described by Professor Ron C. Lee (LINK). Tutor Mike is a well-informed and knowledgeable teacher that can correct the user’s spelling and grammar mistakes, give some advice about learning English and provide definitions about parts of speech. The Chatbot can also help students know more about cultures, history, geography and any other information related to general …show more content…
Groupings: Groupings is divided into two categories:
A. Grouping of students: group work, pair work or individual.
In this case, the task was individualized and done outside the classroom. Group work could not be implemented due to the lack of such feature in the software. However, this was convenient for the students since they can learn at their own pace, individualize their experience and reflect according to their own problems. It was also beneficial for the teachers as they examine the snapshots so that they can have some insights on their students’ problems.
B. Grouping of material used to explain the task. The materials referred to here in this study are whether the software is accessible or not, whether the students have internet access at home, whether they can use it in open access labs instead in addition to the materials used to gather information of the students (surveys, assignments, classroom discussions…etc.).
3. Bridge: refers to bridging the gap between what the students already know (prior knowledge) and what they are going to learn from the task. Since the situation involves utilizing the chatbot as an ESL Tutor, the students can use their prior knowledge to build on to make learning more meaningful. When they chat with Tutor Mike, they will use certain words they know and they will make mistakes which will be corrected by the