Artificial Intelligence for Integrating English Oral Practice and Writing Skills

Oral language proficiency is vital for language learners because it is eventually the skill they mostly use (Warschauer, 1997). Oral interactions account for the bulk of our everyday communications that remain the primary mode of discourse through out the world (Peregoy & Boyle, 2005). It is without question that the development of oral language skill in second or foreign language learners is of major importance. In addition, English writing course has been found to be one of the most difficult subjects for most ESL/EFL English teachers (Tso, 2002; Hung, 2003). For many ESL/EFL learners, even writing short sentences is a difficult task for them. Up till now, researchers and educators are still searching for the best cure for those problems. With the help of highly developing technology, there have been many tools such as online chat room and referential websites that give ESL/EFL teachers other opportunities to promote the use of written and oral language to communicate in an authentic way. This article will focus on the use of artificial intelligence in language teaching and learning. The application of artificial intelligence has been found in different areas, such as engineering and medical field. Artificial intelligence has been employed in language teaching as well. A large number of studies have shown that computers and Internet are effective media for language teaching and learning (Van Handle & Corl, 1998; Sebastian, 2003). In this paper, it will briefly introduce the history of artificial intelligence and show some instructional activities of using an artificial intelligence program, Lucy, especially in integrating oral practice and writing activities for beginning learners.