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The Role of Intelligent Personal Assistants in Migrant Learners’ Willingness to Communicate in English as a Second Language

Modern approaches to second language (L2) pedagogy emphasise communicative competence as part of the language teaching goals. However, it has been observed that some learners are more willing to engage in L2 communication than others, and that this disposition may be affected by several variables that are not bounded to their linguistic competence. In the case of migrants, who are required to learn and use a second language to integrate into their new environment, there is a critical need for opportunities and resources to support their Willingness to Communicate (WTC) beyond the classroom. Intelligent personal assistants (IPA) offer a dynamic oral conversational opportunity in language learning that seems to have potential for improving language learners’ Willingness to Communicate. As part of this doctoral study, a conversational experience will be designed to bring together conversational and instructional principles that take into consideration the learners’ needs, their environment, and instructional activities to produce output in the English language. The research is of benefit to educators, and the HCI and UX community that is focused on the design or implementation of conversational experiences with IPAs in language learning.