Virtual Dialogue for Foreign Language Training

Interactive Drama has adapted the virtual dialogue method for foreign language training. The resulting model allows students to engage native speakers on CD-ROM in lengthy, face-to-face dialogues using natural spoken language.

Erosion of proficiency is a major problem for linguists. The problem is especially acute for military linguists who, upon completing intensive study in basic courses at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey, California, typically receive assignments that provide little or no opportunity to use their language skills. The majority of linguists inevitably experience rapid, significant loss of proficiency. The problem is amplified by the fact that the military expects “individual readiness” of all troops. Military linguists must be prepared to transfer, on a moment’s notice, to jobs that require them to use the language. 

Addressing this problem, IDI developed four Virtual Conversations™ programs to comprise a series in Arabic. The programs allow students to gather information through direct dialogue with the video character. All four programs allow the user to speak to the character in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA); two of the programs also allow the character to be interviewed in Iraqi dialect. Each character presents the student with a problem that can be resolved by inference from the information obtained in the interview.

These programs were used in rigorous research studies conducted by IDI at DLI under a contract with DARPA and in association with the U.S. Army Research Institute. The experiments allowed the researchers to measure the use and effectiveness of the virtual dialogue method in a formal language training environment.

The development of the programs, the experiments that measured their use and remarkable effectiveness in language training, and the significant findings of the research, are described in an article published in 1999 in the CALICO Journal (Vol. 16, No. 3).

Quad Chart (PDF)

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