KARAOKE APPLICATION TO ENHANCE FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING

Abstract

In this thesis, we highlight the advantages of using music for second language learning. It describes a multi-language karaoke application called SLIONS. When developing this application, we followed a user-centered design process which was informed by conducting interviews with domain experts, extensive usability testing and reviewing existing gamified applications. The key feature is that we used automatic speech recognition to provide students with personalized feedback based on their singing pronunciation. We also provided multi-modal instruction to help students learn each song in the foreign language. To test the efficacy of SLIONS, we conducted a pilot study with English and Chinese language learning students (N=18). The initial quantitative results show that our application can improve pronunciation and vocabulary. In addition, the qualitative feedback from the students suggests that SLIONS is both fun to use and motivates students to practice speaking and singing in a foreign language.