Learning Communication Skills through Computer-based Interactive Simulations

A learning environment for the training of communicative competence has to consider the complexity of human experience, since it requires a number of cues that are managed hic et nunc in the flow of communicative exchange. Therefore, communicative competence has been traditionally considered as a typical face-to-face learning topic. So far, few opportunities exist to learn by experience in an e-learning environment that can combine user’s practising and experiencing with an adequate scaffolding structure, giving the learner both the opportunity to fail and the opportunity to give sense to the perspectives selected. Recent work on computer-based interactive simulations and autonomous agents is offering new opportunities for the training of communicative competence in different contexts. Simulation creates a unique environment for developing and executing communication skills. Moreover, the communicative interaction can be developed and enhanced in a realistic, but non-threatening situation. The present chapter aims at analysing how communication skills should be learned through computer-based interactive simulations. First, a definition of communication skills will be indicated considering their involvement in tackling communicative exchanges effectively. Second, an architecture for building interactive simulations will be proposed. In particular, a road map for building e-learning simulations specifically targeted at the training of communication skills will be sketched out, focusing on the development of a narrative structure that should adequately reduplicate the flow of the communicative interaction.