Interlanguage pragmatics with a pedagogical agent: the request game

This article describes the development and evaluation of a computer-assisted language learning approach which integrates a finite state dialogue engine with an animated pedagogical agent. The design of the request game is theoretically motivated by interlanguage pragmatics and Long's Interaction Hypothesis. The tutoring system creates a venue in which a student can practice pragmatic routines and particular pragmatic features in simulated academic situations. The system was programmed to recognize students' written messages so that they can receive immediate and relevant feedback on their output. To test the usability of the system, a prototype of the request game has been tested with English learners in an English as a second language program in the US. The article concludes with the preliminary evaluation results of the system.