Chatbots in Foreign Language Teaching: Current Issues and Prospects for Forthcoming Research

Abstract

The current stage is characterized by the dynamic development of artificial intelligence technologies and their introduction into foreign language teaching. Chatbots are one of such dialogical interactive teaching programs capable of developing foreign-language oral and written speech skills of a learner by maintaining a dialogue with them and imitating human speech on the basis of natural language and machine learning technologies and the algorithms of human speech embedded in the programme. The present paper is based on the analysis and synthesis of methodological studies devoted to the development of methods of teaching pupils and students foreign-language oral and written speech interaction based on chatbots. The most frequently discussed aspects in the problems of modern research are identified, and the prospects for further research related to the use of chatbots in teaching a foreign language are defined. The most commonly discussed aspects in methodological papers include: a) identifying learners’ attitudes towards the use of chatbots; b) identifying the possibility of developing learners’ written and oral speech skills based on chatbots; c) determining the level of learners’ proficiency in a foreign language for educational interaction with a chatbot. As prospective research, we identify studies aimed at a) developing step-by-step methods of teaching foreign language speech interaction based on chatbots; d) defining the nomenclature of foreign language speech interaction skills with a chatbot.