Increasing Engagement in Automatic Speech Recognition-Infused Interactive Speaking Activities: The Impact of Video Perspective

Although automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology has become widely used in English as a foreign language (EFL) education, most research and implementations focus on pronunciation alone. However, this study utilized ASR to create an interactive video-watching and speaking activity to teach indirect speech acts to EFL learners, focusing on the video perspective; that is, whether the watcher is situated as a third-person observer of a situation or as a first-person participant within the video. While the former potentially provides more context clues, the latter may be more engaging, resulting in a more immersive experience. This difference is particularly important when learning indirect speech acts, which often involve uncomfortable situations and face-threatening acts. We created two online activities in which EFL learners watched a video and then responded via ASR, one from a first-person and one from a third-person perspective. Pre- and posttests were used to measure improvement, engagement statistics (clicks and percentage correct) were taken from the online activities, and simple post-treatment surveys were taken. The results indicate that learners improved overall, and that practicing with first-person videos provided a more engaging activity that had a more discernible impact on pre- to posttest improvement, which was corroborated by survey responses.