CPIAbot is a conversational assistant supporting the learning of Italian L2 for migrants. It has been tested in particular in the context of CPIA - Centri Provinciali per l'Istruzione degli Adulti - MIUR.
The project was developed by the ITD-CNR in collaboration with a) PhD in Digital Humanities - University of Genoa; b) Department of Modern Languages and Culture University of Genoa; c) CPIA Genoa Centre East and CPIA Genoa Centre West (MIUR). The multimodal chatbot, realised on the Telegram app, has primitive functions and multi-day dialogues (for the exercise of the four skills and communicative competence). The system meets the language needs of the migrant population in Italy: literacy and development of communicative competence. In the context of the CPIA PreA1/A1 courses, the experimentation activity concerned the monitoring of the use of CPIAbot in lessons and the co-construction of various chatbot functions with teachers concerning the co-design of chatbot dialogues and the creation of linguistic/didactic content.
CPIAbot is a multimodal chatbot, which allows written and voice interaction with learners and teachers. Compared to many mobile language learning apps with GUI-type UX/UI, the main innovative aspect is the language-first approach, whereby the learner, instead of using a GUI/web-type interface, speaks and writes with a conversational agent, with whom he/she can experience simple conversations in Italian. Secondly, the application acts as an intermediary agent with the students, allowing teachers, with a natural language interface, to send messages and exercises to be done to single students or whole classes, remotely controlling learning through simple chat commands.