Enhancing Student Comprehension of Lecture Content in a Foreign Language

In this study, we compared the effects of speech-to-text recognition (STR) versus speech-enabled language translation (SELT) on comprehension of lecture content in a foreign language. When the instructor lectured in a foreign language, the STR system generated texts from the voice input and showed them to control students. During the SELT process, in addition to the STR function of receiving speech input from the instructor, CAT translated the STR output from a foreign language into native language of the students, and displayed it to experimental students. We compared post-test results of the control and experimental students. Our results showed that the experimental students outperformed the control students on the post-tests. Based on our results, some implications were made.