Effectiveness of motivational agents on reducing foreign language anxiety

Abstract

Utilizing resources focused on artificial intelligence (A.I.) and its influence on education, this paper analyzes the impact of “animated agents” to aid students in learning and understanding a new language. We used these articles to understand the effect that A.I. has on the anxiety levels of students and how these learners respond to differing motivational agents. Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) is a term used to describe the stress exhibited by learners of a new language, specifically when being negatively evaluated by others or when perceiving an inability in themselves. FLA is a major barrier when it comes to the overall growth of a student and his/her proficiency in the new language, as it increases stress and decreases motivation to learn by making students think that they are not good enough. Because this has led to a notable decline in learners’ performance in that subject, pedagogical methods have been developed and examined to provide emotional support. With a group of 56 students and an e-learning system, researchers utilized either motivational or explanatory feedback through the use of text, voice, or animated agents (characters that can engage students and present information), and measured anxiety levels across the different combinations. While the motivational support of an agent was most sufficient, gender played a big role in the efficacy of different pedagogical methods; therefore, incorporating the gender of the learner into artificial intelligence systems and animated agents in the future would personalize feedback in forms that males and females can better take in and implement. To provide more equity in education, these results can be applied to other anxiety barriers that actively prevent students from developing the skills essential for their learning. With the proper assistance from A.I., FLA can become a thing of the past, and language learners can no longer suffer from the stress of learning something entirely new.