If a Japanese student is going to stand a chance walking up to a foreigner and starting a conversation, they should at least be able to ask 5-10 questions with the utmost confidence that what they are saying is correct. The only way to do that is to practice asking the same questions many times. But how can they do that when the only chance they have to ask a foreigner even one question happens on a very rare occasion? Introducing chatbots.
Chatbots aren’t new, but the fact they have been around for almost 10 years, and haven’t been exploited to their full potential, baffles me. Sites like Oddcast and Sitepal have been putting faces to them for years, but we still haven’t figured out how to make them mainstream. Don’t you think our students would love to sit in class with their cell phones practicing English?
OK. Maybe that sounds a little far fetched, but is it? Imagine if we could involve them in conversations with virtual friends who become their partners for a semester. The students could train them to say how to respond to every question posed to them. How fun would that be? Yes, of course that would be a very advanced exercise, but in the simplest form it would mean we could at least get students to communicate in the classroom in a way that is much more interactive than the 3 minutes they have with a native speaker.
Here is a video I recorded today of a chatbot I made. I’m going to experiment with it to see how the students take to using it. It’s also available through the web so those without Second Life can also access it.
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 I'm an American living in Japan working at a university. I teach English and research ways to teach in virtual worlds. Real name: Mike McKay Location: Kobe University: Mukogawa Women's University |
hi,
Thanks for this posting!
Do you have more information about this chatbot, like a direct URL.
We are currently collecting all chatbots in the world on chatbots.org. So if you have an Slurl or so, we could publish your chatbot as well.
Hi Erwin,
Thanks. I sent you an email with some info about the bot. Nice site. I’m really happy someone is categorizing them. My students will find them very useful I’m sure. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a field I think this will be a great asset.
Best,
Mike
It’s there:
http://www.chatbots.org/bot/mike
Some writing about chatbots.org is appreciated
Erwin
Hi, I’m looking for a chatbot my efl/esl students can use on their ktais - not Second Life.
Can they use this one? Or do you know one they can use?
Thanks.
I tried this one on a ketai but it doesn’t work. I installed one on my server and it works. I think it’s because pandorabots has javascript advertising.
I’d give you the address to my bot but it’s not ready for use yet. The students also need to know that chatbots on ketais can be costly.
Keep in touch for updates.