Designing a poetic voice companion to improve adult learner’s self-confidence : Kavy

Abstract

Conventional chatbots, such as Siri, have predominantly been based on the questionand- answer model, where a communicator seeks a specific answer to accomplish a specific task. The conversational capabilities of chatbots offer great potential to promote English language learning, particularly in developing countries, such as Sri Lanka, where many young adults lack confidence in speaking English. This is due to limited exposure to conversational-style learning and a lack of opportunity to practice without social anxiety, which is often rooted in the fear of making mistakes. A conversational chatbot, Kavy, was developed as a companion to help these individuals practice English. In a study with 40 users, the effectiveness of Kavy in improving communicators’ proficiency (e.g., verbal expression, conversation length, quality of speech) and self-confidence was investigated, using both poetic and non-poetic conversational styles. It was found that users were highly motivated by the poetic version, resulting in a significant increase in vocabulary. However, the poetic chatbot also faced challenges, as it could be confusing when the learner’s level of English was rather low. This pioneering work is seen as a first and promising approach that should continue to be investigated in the future.