It is widely recognized that one of the best ways to learn a foreign language is through spoken dialogue with a native speaker. However, this is not a practical method in the classroom due to the one-to-one student/teacher ratio it implies. A potential solution to this problem is to rely on computer spoken dialogue systems to role play a conversational partner. This paper describes several mult...

The paper addresses the question of rhythmic structuring of conversational interaction. Conversational speech requires active cooperation and coordination of the behavior of two or more speakers. Previous research indicates that one of the mechanisms used by speakers to regulate conversational interaction, is close monitoring and adaptation to rhythmic patterns. When this does not function prop...

Research on dialogue deals with the study of language as it is used in conversation. Dialogue is a multi-agent activity and this makes conversational language markedly different from the kind of language found in texts. This chapter introduces the main phenomena that characterise language in dialogue interaction — including disfluencies, dialogue acts, alignment, grounding, and turn-taking — an...

The Tactical Language and Culture Training System (TLCTS) is designed to teach foreign language and culture skills using a task based approach. The system is unique from other language and culture training systems in that it uses an interactive environment containing conversational agents that behave appropriately for the targeted language and culture. In this presentation we explain our curren...

Many online human activities leave digital traces that are recorded in natural-language format. The exploitation of this unprecedented resource under a computational framework can bring a phase transition in our understanding of human social behavior and shape the future of social media systems. This thesis describes a computational approach to an intriguing aspect of conversational behavior, l...

Text mining (TM) and computational linguistics (CL) are computationally intensive fields where many tools are becoming available to study large text corpora and exploit the use corpora for various purposes. In this chapter we will address the problem of building conversational agents or chatbots from corpora for domain-specific educational purposes. After addressing some linguistic issues relev...

User interfaces of most data-centered software systems are oriented on the data structure of the respective application. While such interfaces work well for trained users, they are most often not suitable for non-expert users. In this paper, we present ALEX, an advisory artificial conversational agent that uses machine learning and natural language processing to gather information from a relati...

Speech-enabled dialogue systems developed within an iCALL framework offer a potentially powerful tool for dealing with the challenges of teaching/learning an endangered language where learners have limited access to native speaker models of the language and limited exposure to the language in a truly communicative setting. This paper explores the major potential of virtual conversational agent ...

Despite the significant advances in syntactic parsing of written text, the application of these techniques to spontaneous spoken language has received more limited attention. The explosive growth of available corpora of transcribed spoken language opens up new opportunities in that direction. High accuracy parsers for spoken language will in turn provide a platform for development of a wide ran...

The paper addresses the question of rhythmic structuring of conversational interaction. Conversational speech requires active cooperation and coordination of the behavior of two or more speakers. Previous research indicates that one of the mechanisms used by speakers to regulate conversational interaction, is close monitoring and adaptation to rhythmic patterns. When this does not function prop...