Chatbot Messenger – A platform to learn Chinese vocabulary at elementary and intermediate levels

With the aim of developing an integrated chat dialog (Chatbot) on the Messenger platform to improve the effectiveness of vocabulary learning according to the Boya Chinese curriculum at elementary and intermediate levels for students, the group of students including 05 members have successfully implemented the topic "Application of information technology in developing Chatbot on Facebook's Messenger platform to improve the effectiveness of learning Chinese vocabulary at elementary and intermediate levels".

The research team consisted of 05 students: Dang Thi Van Anh, Duong Thi Tu Anh, Nguyen Thi Hoai An, Nguyen Thi Lan Anh, Nguyen Xuan Truong, under the guidance of Dr. Dinh Bich Thao – Director of the Center for Testing and Quality Assurance, School of Languages ​​and Tourism.

The research team developed the topic under the guidance of Dr. Dinh Bich Thao

Chatbot Messenger Technology

According to the Cambridge dictionary, a chatbot is a computer program designed to have a conversation with a human being, especially over the internet. Chatbots often communicate with users in the form of text or voice messages. Because they are designed to simulate how to converse with humans, chatbot systems often require constant adjustment and testing. Chatbots are applied in many fields such as e-commerce, customer service, finance and banking, entertainment, healthcare, education, etc.

Chatbots are now mostly known as messages on social networking platforms. The basic benefit of Chatbot is that it works 24/7 and responds very quickly to all human requests. In addition, Chatbot can handle many different requests simultaneously without overlap or confusion. Chatbots also contribute to improving user satisfaction. In addition to always responding quickly and positively, Chatbot will always treats customers perfectly.

Chatbot sample (menu/button)

Researching on Chatbot, the research team found that it has a lot of benefits and was widely applied in many fields, especially in retailing. However, in terms of education and training, Chatbot is rarely used and if there is an application, it only serves the customer care needs of businesses and organizations in the field of education and training. Instead, educational institutions develop their own websites and apps.

Chinese vocabulary and vocabulary levels

For the Chinese language, elementary vocabulary is the group of words that are basic, simple and frequently used in communication activities. Elementary vocabulary is the most basic foundation for the process of conquering the Chinese language. For intermediate vocabulary, this is the group of words with above-basic levels to help learners have more in-depth skills when using another language. At this level, learners will acquire many new knowledge and skills on the basis of the elementary level.

The textbooks and dictionaries selected by the team are included in the Chinese vocabulary database

Based on the practical experience as well as the analysis of reference data to overcome limitations in some Chinese vocabulary learning applications, the research team found that in most applications, if they want to store words vocabulary or lessons, users will need to log in to their account to access the application. And in case they delete the application, the data will be lost.

Understanding this problem, the research team had the idea to build a feature to save words using Chatbot application running on Messenger platform with 02 advantages: limited data loss and unlimited data.

Programming a Chatbot system to learn Chinese vocabulary

Chatbot to learn Chinese vocabulary at elementary and intermediate levels interact with users via audio or text and use the Facebook Messenger API platform to communicate with users. The parts that the team needs to develop include: Translator: Translating user requests; Processor: Processing user requests based on data provided by Translator; Responsor: Receiving the output from the Processor and returning the corresponding result to users.

Operation Structure of Messenger Facebook API Platform

The selected data source for training Chatbot is the vocabulary data in the Elementary Boya Chinese textbook (volume 1, volume 2), the Intermediate Boya Chinese textbook I (volume 1, volume 2). These textbooks are currently used for teaching at Hanoi University of Industry, many universities and other foreign language centers.

Conversation model between Chatbot and users

Chatbot system test results

Survey participants are mainly students of Hanoi University of Industry, with the number of 77 students, of Course 15 and 16. In terms of Chinese ability, 39.60% of students participated in the survey have HSK 1 - HSK 2, 40.59% of students participating in the survey have HSK 3 - HSK 4 level, 19.80% of students participating in the survey have HSK 5 - HSK 6 level.

Through the survey about user’s most favorite function of Chatbot, the research team found that 45.54% of respondents liked the vocabulary learning function, 34.65% of respondents preferred the word practice function, 19.80% of respondents enjoyed the dictionary function.

Evaluation result of the level of favorites for the three main functions of Chatbot

Users' subjective review of Chinese vocabulary learning methods with Chatbot CLT gave the result: 88.12% of users found that learning with Chatbot CLT helped them feel more excited and inspired to learn; 8.91% of users felt that it was not much different from traditional ways of learning and 2.97% of users thought it was inconvenient to learn with this way.

Result of users' subjective review

Review on the ease of use of Chatbot CLT gave the result: 58.42% of users rated "Very satisfied", 35.64% rated “Satisfied”, a total of 94.06% of users found the Chatbot easy to use. 4.95% of users rated "Neutral" and 0.99% of users found the Chatbot difficult to use. Average score: 4.51/5.

Ease of use rating results

Similarly, review on the friendliness showed that: 59.41% of users rated "Very satisfied", 34.65% rated "Satisfied" and 5.94% of users rated "Neutral", no users rated "Dissatisfied" about the friendliness of the Chatbot. Average score: 4.53/5.

Chatbot friendliness rating results

Evaluation of the effectiveness when using Chatbot CLT gave the result: 45.54% of users rated "Very satisfied", 47.52% rated "Satisfied", the total rate is 93.06%; 4.95% of users rated “Neutral”; while 1.98% of users rated "Not satisfied" about the effectiveness of Chatbot. GPA 4.37/5.

Result of evaluating the effectiveness of Chatbot

Overall: 48.51% of users rated "Very satisfied" about Chatbot, 46.53% rated "Satisfied; 3.96% “Neutral” and 0.99% “Not satisfied” with Chinese Vocabulary Learning Chatbot CLT. GPA: 4.42/5.

Overall rating of Chatbot

In addition to the abovementioned evaluation indicators, Chatbot CLT received a lot of constructive comments. Some users have suggested adding some additional features such as learning grammar, Vietnamese-Chinese dictionary, learning specialized vocabulary, checking errors, etc. In addition, users want the research team to add more features so that it is more convenient when using the Chatbot.

Overall, after conducting a survey on 101 users using Chatbot CLT, the research team received a lot of positive feedback as well as practical suggestions to help Chatbot more and more convenient and effective.

The effectiveness of the application

Through the process of conducting the project, the research team has successfully programmed Chatbot CLT to learn Chinese vocabulary at elementary and intermediate levels according to the Boya Chinese curriculum for elementary and intermediate levels. Chatbot CLT has three main functions, which are "Learning vocabulary", "Practicing words", "Chinese-Vietnamese dictionary". Chatbot CLT has provided users with 2,518 Chinese words at elementary and intermediate level, 20,850 Chinese characters with favorable strokes, 2,518 sentences for vocabulary checking, 440,752 audio files pronouncing words of examples in the dictionary. The current number of Chatbot CLT users is more than 100 people, the Facebook page get 380 likes.

The Facebook page "Chinese Learning Technology" founded by the research team, facilitates the research

At the Conference on Summarizing and Awarding Students in Scientific Research in 2022, the research paper "Application of information technology in developing Chatbot on Facebook's Messenger platform to improve the effectiveness of learning Chinese vocabulary at elementary and intermediate levels" of the group was awarded the First prize. This is a worthy reward for the efforts of both teachers and students during the research and conduct of the project.

Dr. Than Thanh Son - Head of Department of Academic Affairs awarded the First Prize to Team leader Dang Thi Van Anh (3rd from left)