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The Korean Association for the Study of English Language and Linguistics
[ Article ]
Korea Journal of English Language and Linguistics - Vol. 21, No. 0, pp.712-734
ISSN: 1598-1398 (Print) 2586-7474 (Online)
Print publication date 31 Jan 2021
Received 15 Jun 2021 Revised 20 Aug 2021 Accepted 25 Aug 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15738/kjell.21..202108.712

Effects of AI Chatbots on EFL Students’ Communication Skills

Hea-Suk Kim ; Yoonjung Cha ; Na Young Kim
(1st author) Professor, Department of General Education, Seoul Women’s University shskim@swu.ac.kr
(corresponding author) Professor, Peace and Liberal Arts College, Hanshin University yjcha@hs.ac.kr
(corresponding author) Professor, Department of General Education, Sehan University nykim@sehan.ac.kr


© 2021 KASELL All rights reserved
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how AI chatbots affect students’ speaking skills and how they motivate and shape students’ speaking experiences in the EFL classroom. Forty-nine university students who enrolled in a general English course took part in the study. They were divided into two different proficiency levels. The pre- and post-test design compared students’ improvement in English speaking within and between the two levels. The test results indicated that both groups showed significant improvement in the two speaking tasks including read a text aloud and respond to questions. In terms of students’ proficiency between the two levels, there was no significant difference in pronunciation. However, a notable difference in intonation and stress in the read a text aloud task was detected. Also, in terms of the second task: respond to questions, statistical differences were found in all of them. Regarding the fluency between the two levels, a statistical difference was likewise found. In addition, we explored the findings of a questionnaire illustrating students’ perspectives toward using AI chatbots in their English classes. Finally, this study discusses how AI chatbots can help with language learning and how they can be used in EFL settings in the future.

Keywords:

EFL, communication skill, fluency, pronunciation, intonation & stress, WPS

Acknowledgments

This paper was supported by Sehan University Research Fund in 2021.

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