Intelligent personal assistants for autonomous second language learning: An investigation of Alexa

Abstract

The ubiquity of smartphones and the grow-ing popularity of smart speakers have given rise to cloud-based, intelligent personal assistants ( ipa s), such as Siri and Google Assistant. However, little is known about the use of ipa s for Autonomous Second Language Learning ( asll ). Thus, the aims of this study were two-fold: to assess Japanese English as a Foreign Language ( efl ) students’ perceptions towards ipa s, also known as virtual assistants, for asll , and to better understand learner behavior of these technologies. A total of 14 Japanese university students were given smart speakers and interacted with a companion ipa , Amazon Alexa, over a two-month period in their homes. Moreover, the participants completed a survey consisting of Likert-scale items and open-ended questions to obtain their views of the ipa for asll . While the results indicated that the students had mostly favorable views of Alexa for l 2 learning, many of them did not actively engage with the virtual assistant during the data collection period. Furthermore, students tended to give up when faced with communication difficulties with the ipa . These findings highlight the potential of ipa s for asll and underscore the gap between what students say, and what they actually do, with language learning technology.