Wait-learning: Leveraging conversational dead time for second language education

Abstract

Second-language learners are often unable to find time for language practice due to constraints in their daily lives. In this paper, we examine how brief moments of waiting during a person's existing social conversations can be leveraged for second language practice, even if the conversation is exchanged in the first language. We present an instant messaging (IM) prototype, WaitChatter, that supports the notion of wait-learning by displaying contextually relevant foreign language vocabulary and micro-quizzes while the user awaits a response from her conversant. The foreign translations are displayed just-in-time in the context of the conversation to promote incidental learning. In a preliminary study of WaitChatter, we found that participants were able to integrate second language learning into their existing instant messaging activities, and that a particularly opportune time to embed foreign language elements may be immediately after the learner sends a chat message.