Robo-Sensei

Reviews

The strength of Robo-Sensei is clearly evident in its answer-judging capability. It gives remarkably flexible feedback by analyzing the student's input, and not by predicted incorrect answers.

—Kazumi Hatasa (Purdue University) in Oshirase, the newsletter of the National Council of Japanese Language Teachers (NCJLT)

Robo-Sensei can help develop overall linguistic accuracy, sociocultural awareness, and typing accuracy. Robo-Sensei can profitably supplement most commonly used elementary and intermediate-level Japanese textbooks as a personal tutor that provides detailed and individualized feedback. The quality of the digital photos (which the author took in Japan) and computer-created animation used in the program is excellent and exceptionally effective in holding users' interests during exercises.

—Eiko Ushida, Lecturer of Japanese, University of California, San Diego (in The CALICO Journal)

Robo-Sensei's great strength is that it parses the learner's input and gives very specific feedback, providing explanations of grammatical errors present. Further, Robo-Sensei can process input of complete sentences, unlike most programs that allow only fill-in-the-blank phrases or multiple-choice responses. This is a tremendous advance in language teaching technology, even more impressive considering the complexity of the Japanese writing system.

—Bernard Susser, Professor, Doshisha Women's College, Japan

This software is cutting-edge. I am unaware of any such innovative language software (certainly not in ESL) that incorporates artificial intelligence and natural language processing technology. The software program allows users to generate language and provides meaningful feedback on individual errors. Not only are the lessons pedagogically sound, but they also contain engaging cultural content. Lessons center on various cities in Japan and common places. Students not only learn and practice the Japanese language while using Robo-Sensei, but also they learn about Japan, gaining valuable cultural insights.

—Johnnie Johnson Hafernik, Professor and ESL Program Coordinator, the University of San Francisco

Robo-Sensei is a sophisticated program that incorporates interactivity to a great degree and re-enforces students' learning effectively by providing useful, immediate, and individualized grammatical explanations pertinent to each grammatical error made by the user.

—Midori McKeon, Professor of Japanese, San Francisco State University

The makers of this program have provided another step in the evolution of computer-assisted language learning software, and users will benefit from its flexible tutoring aspect. 

—Gary Whitby, The Ohio State University (in Modern Language Journal)

Immediate and individualized feedback based on analysis of the user's input allows users to learn from the mistakes that they make.  Step-by-step grammar exercises (first filling in the blank and then inputting a whole sentence followed by listening comprehension) also helps users to gradually build up their grammar knowledge and confidence as they go through the lesson. Each lesson develops a story, and with its pictures and cultural notes users can simultaneously learn about Japanese culture and history while practicing their language skills.  This technology may be the future format of all language textbooks

—Reiko Itoh, Lecturer of Japanese, University of Canterbury, New Zealand