Let's Chat: A conversational dialogue system for second language practice

Early and intermediate second language (L2) learners often encounter difficulties when engaging in introductory social conversations, typically having had little opportunity to practise such interactions. This article describes a project to design and prototype a computer dialogue system, Let's Chat, which would allow learners to rehearse social conversations without a human partner. While most existing systems do not facilitate interactions of a sufficiently high quality to be useful for L2 acquisition, Let's Chat does so by relying on communication through pre-stored phrases, thereby steering clear of the technological limitations of conventional natural language processing. This approach is supported by research that suggests that the holistic assimilation of L2 sequences can boost the communicative capabilities and fluency of learners. By practising with Let's Chat, learners would acquire good target language input in the form of well-constructed, native-like utterances and thus be better-prepared, more confident participants during natural conversations.