Bridging Fluency Disparity between Native and Nonnative Speakers in Multilingual Multiparty Collaboration Using a Clarification Agent

Multiparty collaboration using a common language is often challenging for nonnative speakers (NNS). Conversation can move forward rapidly, with terms and references unfamiliar to NNS often going unexplained because NNS do not request clarification due to cognitive overload or face concerns. Language difficulties may further lead to NNS having a low level of participation in a conversation, which could be a loss for multilingual teams. To help NNS resolve potential confusions due to unfamiliar language use without risking face concerns, we created a conversation agent that asked clarification questions intended to help NNS follow and participate in multiparty conversations. We conducted a within-subjects laboratory experiment with 17 triads of 2 NS and 1 NNS, who performed a series of collaborative tasks under three conditions: a) no agent, b) a high-level agent that resembles a NNS with good command of English, and c) a low-level agent that resembles a NNS with poor English skills. Results suggest that NS made significantly more clarifications in both agent conditions than without an agent. In the high-level agent condition, NNS reported an increase in understanding after the agent's interruption and spoke significantly more. Further, NNS evaluated their communication competence in English highest in the low-level agent condition and lowest in the control condition. Our findings suggest several directions to improve the tool to better facilitate multilingual multiparty communication.

[1]  Clifford Nass,et al.  Computers are social actors , 1994, CHI '94.

[2]  E. Schegloff,et al.  A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation , 2015 .

[3]  Clifford Nass,et al.  Helper agent: designing an assistant for human-human interaction in a virtual meeting space , 2000, CHI.

[4]  Zsuzsa Tóth,et al.  FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANXIETY AND ADVANCED EFL LEARNERS: AN INTERVIEW STUDY , 2011 .

[5]  Miyuki Takino,et al.  Power in International Business Communication and Linguistic Competence: Analyzing the Experiences of Nonnative Business People Who Use English as a Business Lingua Franca (BELF) , 2020 .

[6]  Hao-Chuan Wang,et al.  Task Rebalancing: Improving Multilingual Communication with Native Speakers-Generated Highlights on Automated Transcripts , 2017, CSCW.

[7]  H. Li,et al.  Interruption and Involvement in Discourse: Can Intercultural Interlocutors be Trained? , 2005 .

[8]  Naomi Yamashita,et al.  Two Sides to Every Story: Mitigating Intercultural Conflict through Automated Feedback and Shared Self-Reflections in Global Virtual Teams , 2017 .

[9]  Pamela Rogerson-Revell,et al.  Participation and performance in international business meetings , 2008 .

[10]  Jean Wong,et al.  The Token "Yeah" in Nonnative Speaker English Conversation , 2000 .

[11]  Russell H. Fazio,et al.  A practical guide to the use of response latency in social psychological research. , 1990 .

[12]  S. Hart,et al.  Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of Empirical and Theoretical Research , 1988 .

[13]  Susan R. Fussell,et al.  What's it worth to you?: the costs and affordances of CMC tools to asian and american users , 2010, CSCW '10.

[14]  Laura Gurzynski‐Weiss,et al.  Comparing learners’ state anxiety during task-based interaction in computer-mediated and face-to-face communication , 2011 .

[15]  Brian Scassellati,et al.  Vulnerable robots positively shape human conversational dynamics in a human–robot team , 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[16]  H. Giles,et al.  Communication accommodation theory: A look back and a look ahead , 2005 .

[17]  Toru Ishida,et al.  Lost in transmittance: how transmission lag enhances and deteriorates multilingual collaboration , 2013, CSCW.

[18]  Nicole A Mills,et al.  A Reevaluation of the Role of Anxiety: Self‐Efficacy, Anxiety, and Their Relation to Reading and Listening Proficiency , 2006 .

[19]  L. Wheeler,et al.  A Social Comparison Theory Meta-Analysis 60+ Years On , 2017, Psychological bulletin.

[20]  Anne-Wil Harzing,et al.  Language management in multinational companies , 2003 .

[21]  Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon,et al.  The Reliability of a Dialogue Structure Coding Scheme , 1997, CL.

[22]  Susan R. Fussell,et al.  Improving Multilingual Collaboration by Displaying How Non-native Speakers Use Automated Transcripts and Bilingual Dictionaries , 2015, CHI.

[23]  Ass,et al.  Can computers be teammates? , 1996 .

[24]  Garey Ramey,et al.  Coordination Economies, Advertising and Search Behavior in Retail Market by Kyle Bagwell and Garey Ramey: A Comment , 2003 .

[25]  Pamela J. Hinds,et al.  Language as a lightning rod: Power contests, emotion regulation, and subgroup dynamics in global teams , 2013, Journal of International Business Studies.

[26]  C. Nass,et al.  Are People Polite to Computers? Responses to Computer-Based Interviewing Systems1 , 1999 .

[27]  Susan R. Fussell,et al.  Understanding informal communication in multilingual contexts , 2013, CSCW.

[28]  Anne-Wil Harzing,et al.  The language barrier and its implications for HQ‐subsidiary relationships , 2008 .

[29]  H. Li.  Grounding and information communication in intercultural and intracultural dyadic discourse , 1999 .

[30]  B. J. Fogg,et al.  Can computers be teammates? , 1996, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[31]  Akiko Noda,et al.  A Temporary Decline of Thinking Ability During Foreign Language Processing , 1993 .

[32]  Jessica Hammer,et al.  Beyond Dyadic Interactions: Considering Chatbots as Community Members , 2019, CHI.

[33]  M. Eisenhower.  Study Abroad And Second Language Use Constructing The Self , 2016 .

[34]  Hart Blanton,et al.  Evaluating the Self in the Context of Another: The Three-Selves Model of Social Comparison Assimilation and Contrast , 2013 .

[35]  E. Schegloff,et al.  A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation , 1974 .

[36]  Peter H. Rossi,et al.  Measuring social judgments : the factorial survey approach , 1983 .

[37]  David W. McDonald,et al.  Theory-driven design strategies for technologies that support behavior change in everyday life , 2009, CHI.

[38]  Bin Xu,et al.  Improving machine translation by showing two outputs , 2014, CHI.

[39]  Susan R. Fussell,et al.  Effects of public vs. private automated transcripts on multiparty communication between native and non-native english speakers , 2014, CHI.

[40]  Pino Cutrone.  A cross-cultural examination of the backchannel behavior of Japanese and Americans: Considerations for Japanese EFL learners , 2014 .

[41]  Peter J. Costa,et al.  Truncated Outlier Filtering , 2014, Journal of biopharmaceutical statistics.

[42]  Herbert H. Clark,et al.  Contributing to Discourse , 1989, Cogn. Sci..

[43]  B. J. Fogg,et al.  Can computer personalities be human personalities? , 1995, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[44]  Susan R. Fussell,et al.  Increasing Native Speakers' Awareness of the Need to Slow Down in Multilingual Conversations Using a Real-Time Speech Speedometer , 2019, Proc. ACM Hum. Comput. Interact..

[45]  Susan R. Fussell,et al.  "Let Me Ask Them to Clarify If You Don't Want To" - A Clarification Agent for Nonnative Speakers , 2018, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[46]  Sarah Mercer,et al.  Towards an Understanding of Language Learner Self-Concept , 2011 .

[47]  Arash Eshghi,et al.  Collective Contexts in Conversation: Grounding by Proxy , 2016, Cogn. Sci..

[48]  Susan R. Fussell,et al.  Understanding and Identifying Design Opportunities for Facilitating Humorous Interactions in Multilingual Multicultural Contexts , 2021, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[49]  Pellegrino Aveni,et al.  Study Abroad and Second Language Use: Acknowledgments , 2005 .

[50]  Herbert H. Clark,et al.  Grounding in communication , 1991, Perspectives on socially shared cognition.

[51]  Xun Cao,et al.  Investigating the impact of automated transcripts on non-native speakers' listening comprehension , 2016, ICMI.

[52]  S. Thompson.  Social Learning Theory , 2008 .

[53]  D. Rivers.  Evaluating the self and the other: Imagined intercultural contact within a ‘native-speaker’ dependent foreign language context , 2011 .

[54]  B. J. Fogg,et al.  How users reciprocate to computers: an experiment that demonstrates behavior change , 1997, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[55]  A. Strauss,et al.  The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research aldine de gruyter , 1968 .

[56]  Susan R. Fussell,et al.  Groups in groups: conversational similarity in online multicultural multiparty brainstorming , 2010, CSCW '10.

[57]  E.,et al.  GROUPS : INTERACTION AND PERFORMANCE , 2001 .

[58]  M. Clark,et al.  Research Methods in Personality and Social Psychology , 1990 .

[59]  P. Macintyre.  Willingness to Communicate in the Second Language: Understanding the Decision to Speak as a Volitional Process , 2007 .

[60]  Pamela J. Hinds,et al.  The (Un)Hidden Turmoil of Language in Global Collaboration , 2012 .

[61]  Joseph S. Valacich,et al.  The Effects of Media and Task on User Performance: A Test of the Task-Media Fit Hypothesis , 2000 .

[62]  Patrick Chambres,et al.  Fictitious social position of competence, and performance in a foreign-language interaction situation: An experimental approach , 1998 .

[63]  Joonhwan Lee,et al.  Bot in the Bunch: Facilitating Group Chat Discussion by Improving Efficiency and Participation with a Chatbot , 2020, CHI.

[64]  R. Clément,et al.  Conceptualizing Willingness to Communicate in a L2: A Situational Model of L2 Confidence and Affiliation , 1998 .

[65]  Akiko Noda,et al.  Interlanguage Dissimilarity Enhances the Decline of Thinking Ability During Foreign Language Processing , 1995 .

[66]  L. Festinger.  A Theory of Social Comparison Processes , 1954 .

[67]  L. Taylor,et al.  Human Agency in Social Cognitive Theory , 1989 .

[68]  Zheng Yao,et al.  Two is Better Than One: Improving Multilingual Collaboration by Giving Two Machine Translation Outputs , 2015, CSCW.

[69]  Walter Bender,et al.  Influencing group participation with a shared display , 2004, CSCW.

[70]  Hideaki Kuzuoka,et al.  Effects of video and text support on grounding in multilingual multiparty audio conferencing , 2014, CABS '14.

[71]  A. Bandura.  Human agency in social cognitive theory. , 1989, The American psychologist.