Abstract

Abstract e desrie multilingul ypen oure gevv gmeD gevvEvD whih reuses speeh trnsltion tehnology developed using the egulus pltform to rete n utomti onverstion prtner tht llows intermediteElevel lnguge students to improve their £uenyF e ontrst gevvEv with ng9s nd eneff9s trnsltion gme systemD in prtiulr foussing on three issuesF pirstD we rgue tht the grmmrEsed reognition rhiteture offered y egulus is more suitle for this type of pplitionY seondD tht it is preferle to prompt the student in lngugeEneutrl formD rther thn in the vIY nd thirdD tht we n pro¢tly reord suessful intertions y ntive spekers nd store them to e reused s online help for studentsF he urrent systemD whih will e demoed t the onfereneD supports four vPs @inglishD prenhD tpnese nd wedishA nd two vIs @inglish nd prenhAF e onlude y desriing n evlution exeriseD where version of gevvEv on¢gured for inglish vP nd prenh vI ws used y severl hundred high shool studentsF eout hlf of the sujets reported positive impressions of the systemF 1. Introduction and background es the world eomes smllerD n ever growing numer of people ¢nd tht they need to e le to spek foreign lnE gugesF st is lihé tht the est wy to gin pro¢ieny in lnguge is to spend time in ountry where tht lnguge is spokenD nd tht the seond est wy is intensive oneEonE one tuition with ntive spekerF nfortuntelyD neither of these options is fesile for the mjority of lnguge stuE dentsF glssroom ourses nd selfEstudy using ooks nd udio resoures re fr heperD ut for most people yield disppointing resultsF elthough it is often possile to gin resonle working knowledge of grmmr nd vouE lryD it seems in generl tht £ueny only omes from exE tended prtil use of spoken lnguge in intertive diE logue situtionsF yver the lst PH yersD spoken lnguge tehnology hs eE ome vstly more essileD nd it is nturl tht gevv hs eome inresingly interested in developing ppliE tions whih llow students to use the mhine s onE verstionl prtner @xeronneD PHHQAF hen the desired input from the student is tightly onstrined @wht @ihsni nd unodtD IWWVA refer to s losed response designAD it is lredy possile to uild systems tht n usefully dE dress ertin types of gevv tsksF e stndout instne is gw9s reding tutor vsix @wostow et lFD IWWRAD whih hs een shown in ontrolled studies to improve hildren9s reding skills signi¢ntlyF hespite suesses like vsixD it is doutful tht losed reE sponse design systems n ddress the entrl issues in seE ond lnguge lerningF sn nother overview pperD @ghenD PHHIA suggests tht effetive systems for lnguge lernE ing need to prioritise llowing the lerner to produe lrge quntities of sentenes on their ownF ine this isD y defE initionD lmost impossile to relise in losed response pplitionD the next ovious thing to try is some kind of freeEformt spoken dilogue gmeF es noted in @ihsni nd unodtD IWWVAD muh work hs een invested in developing methods for uilding interE tive spoken dilogue systems for ommndEndEontrol nd knowledgeEse queryD nd people hve used this tehnolE ogy to onstrut gevv pplitionsY one onvining exmE ple is vg @tohnsonD PHHUAF ystems of this kind reD howeverD expensive to uildF he key prolem is tht diE logue gmes require detiled modelling of lnguge menE ing t level deep enough to support vlid system reE sponsesD hllenging tsk even in reltively trivil doE minsF por exmpleD in £ight ooking dominD formuE lting orret response to request like pind me £ights from qenev to vondon might involve trnslting strt representtions of queries into form suitle for querying rveloityY sking lri¢tion questions to determine the required dteD time of deprture nd irlineY determining tht there re severl irports in vondonD nd sking if one of them is preferredY nd so onF ine dilogue gmes s suh re dif¢ult to reliseD it is nturl to seek other kinds of lnguge gmes whih mke it possile to prtise £uenyD ut whih re simpler to implementF e promising ide in this re is trnsltion gmes @ng nd eneffD PHHUAF sn generlD trnsltion reE quires shllower understnding of lnguge thn dilogue in order to reh similr level of performneY for exmE ple trnslting the sentene pind me £ights from qenev to vondon does not involve knowing ny detils of E tul £ightsD ut only the relevnt grmmr nd voulryF ng nd eneff suessfully reused speeh nd lnguge tehnology developed t ws under other projets @qodE deu et lFD IWWRA to uild speehEenled gme for stuE dents who wished to prtie ghineseF sn their gmeD the