Designing chatbot interfaces for language learning : ethnographic research into affect and users' experiences

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Abstract

During the past few decades, there has been increasing attention to multimodal adaptive language learning interface design. The purpose of this study was to examine users’ experiences with a chatbot language learning interface through the lens of cognitive emotions and emotions in learning. A particular focus of this study was on users’ interactions with a chatbot in a public setting and in a private environment. Focusing on the event of users’ interaction with a chatbot interface, seventy-five interactions were videotaped in this study, in which fifteen users were asked to interact with the chatbot “Lucy” for their language learning. The video-stimulated post interaction interviews with participants provided complementary data for understanding their experiences with the language learning system. Analysis of twenty-five interactions selected from a total of seventy-five revealed five main factors of chatbot language tutor interface design and their relative significance in the process of users’ meaning making and knowledge construction. Findings showed that users’ sensory, emotional, cultural, linguistic and relational engagement influenced their responses to the chatbot interface, which in turn, shaped their learning processes. Building on a theoretical framework of cognitive emotions and emotions in learning, this study documented users’ language learning processes with the chatbot language learning interface by investigating users’ experiences. The findings and techniques resulting from this study will help designers and researchers achieve a better understanding of users’ experiences with technology and the role of emotions in the processes of learning when using technology and assist them to improve the design of language learning environments.

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