What aspects of prosody and non-verbal language can be learned autonomously?

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26580103
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Kawai Goh 北海道大学, メディア・コミュニケーション研究院, 教授 (70312981)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: prosody / non-verbal language / CALL / 韻律 / 身体言語 / コンピュータ支援学習 / 反転学習 / 能動学習

Outline of Final Research Achievements

When learning to speak non-native languages face to face, we need training in hearing, saying, seeing, and moving: that is, (a) hearing what other people say, (b) saying what you want to say, (c) seeing the posture, hand movements, facial expressions, and eye contact that other people use to show their intent, and (d) moving your body to show your intent.
In order to efficiently use classroom time, we want to prepare saying and moving before class. We designed, implemented, and evaluated learning experiences that combine autonomous learning (i.e., learning at our own pace), flipped learning (i.e., preparing for interactions in class), and active learning (i.e., interacting in class). Students use computer-aided language learning (CALL) outside of class, and interact face to face with people in class.
Results show that (a) singing improves aspects of prosody, (b) saying and writing by using collocations improves fluency, and (c) repeating the use of gestures improves their automaticity.

Free Research Field

educational engineering 教育工学