DEVELOPING AN APPROACH TO SUPPORT INSTRUCTORS TO PROVIDE EMOTIONAL AND INSTRUCTIONAL SCAFFOLDING FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS THROUGH BIOSENSOR-BASED FEEDBACK

Abstract

Delivering a presentation has been found to be one of the most anxiety-inducing tasks faced by English language learners (ELLs). Researchers suggest that instructors should be more aware of the emotional state of ELLs to provide the appropriate level of emotional and instructional scaffolding support needed to improve presentation performance. Challenges can be faced by instructors attempting to determine the emotional state of ELLs solely through observation of their facial expressions and behaviors. To address the ambiguity in this process, the research described in this dissertations focuses on identifying the potential of using biosensor-based feedback to support instructors. A novel approach has been adopted to classify the intensity and characteristics of public speaking anxiety and foreign language anxiety among ELLs, with a view to provide tailored feedback to instructors. A focus group interview was conducted to identify instructors' needs for solutions providing emotional and instructional support for ELLs. This was followed by an ideation and design session, where prototypes incorporating biosensing technology were designed to support teaching. Findings informed the design of a more refined prototype system, which was evaluated with 17 English language instructors. The contributions of this research include: (1) the demonstration of the feasibility of using electrodermal activity to measure emotional states of ELLs during a classroom presentation; (2) the development of an algorithm for classifying degree of anxiety and predominant type of speaking anxiety among learners; (3) the development of an approach to investigate methods to measure levels of anxiety among ELLs through the use of a biosensor and to design and evaluate solutions to support educators using this technology; and (4) design guidance for an educational system using EDA data within an ESL/EFL environment.