Paper: An overview of artificial intelligence in computer-assisted language learning
Interesting paper taking a 10 thousand ft view on the state of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). While the field has existed since the 60s and 70s there's been an explosion in AI language learning apps in the past few years.
On page 11 and 12 the paper covers automated speech assessment which is where I think most of the industry is focused on at the moment, and highlights a couple factors for gauging usefulness:
- Explicitness: going beyond indicating that an error was committed, instead identifying the specific nature of the error and how to correct it
- Accuracy: impacts students' perception of the tool
I'm surprised the author doesn't mention timeliness, as perceived lag between answer and response has to have pretty minimal thresholds to be acceptable. Also motivational impact? This is something Duolingo has tried to hack for years with varying levels of success, and I'm curious how much these AI apps will lean into gamification.