Study10: Helping GIs Learn Arabic

Experts Use AI to Help GIs Learn Arabic

06/21/04

Computer scientists in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering combine interactive technologies to teach GIs Arabic language and culture. The innovative system allows learners to rehearse real-world tasks in a realistic environment.

By Eric Mankin

Communication is not entirely spoken. The learning system teaches the meaning of gestures, which the student must also be able to understand.

To teach soldiers basic Arabic quickly, USC computer scientists are developing a system that merges artificial intelligence with computer game techniques.

The Rapid Tactical Language Training System, created by the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Center for Research in Technology for Education (CARTE) and partners, tests soldier students with videogame missions in animated virtual environments where, to pass, the students must successfully phrase questions and understand answers in Arabic.

Video and easy to understand 2 page introduction to the system at

http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/10321.html

Followed by a link to the system home page at

http://www.isi.edu/isd/carte/proj_tactlang/index.html.

8 page PDF paper below ( Johnson, W.L., Vilhjálmsson, H. H., and Marsella, S. , Serious games for language learning: How much game, how much AI?. In AIED) explains more in easy to follow article AIED.