Comments on: The Best Online “Chatbots” For Practicing English http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/05/07/the-best-online-chatbots-for-practicing-english/ ...For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:30:31 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: ddeubel http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/05/07/the-best-online-chatbots-for-practicing-english/comment-page-1/#comment-4784 ddeubel Thu, 07 May 2009 22:21:35 +0000 http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/?p=3147#comment-4784 Hi Larry, Thanks for mentioning our Dave bot. In addition, what is special about the Dave bot is that it has drop boxes for questions and responses. Students don't have to type to practice and speak to the bot. Very important because 2nd language learners don't have good keyboarding skills in English. We also have another page full of links to many interesting bots, a few you mentioned. http://eflclassroom.ning.com/Wpage/page/show?id=826870%3APage%3A65362 I'd also add - I rate a good bot as a very effective tool for students to gain input. Especially in an EFL context where it is very hard to get native speakers to practice with. It will never replace face to face but I think it is nearly as good as talking to a human on the phone. I truly believe that. Voice is voice, sound is sound..... David http://eflclassroom.ning.com Hi Larry,

Thanks for mentioning our Dave bot. In addition, what is special about the Dave bot is that it has drop boxes for questions and responses. Students don’t have to type to practice and speak to the bot. Very important because 2nd language learners don’t have good keyboarding skills in English.

We also have another page full of links to many interesting bots, a few you mentioned. http://eflclassroom.ning.com/Wpage/page/show?id=826870%3APage%3A65362

I’d also add – I rate a good bot as a very effective tool for students to gain input. Especially in an EFL context where it is very hard to get native speakers to practice with. It will never replace face to face but I think it is nearly as good as talking to a human on the phone. I truly believe that. Voice is voice, sound is sound…..

David
http://eflclassroom.ning.com

]]>