What about accuracy?

If LanguageBug never corrects, how can learners know if they are speaking it right? How could learners improve if they are the only ones assessing themselves? The answer is that accuracy is not a priority within LanguageBug for several reasons.

Corrections

First, Corrective Feedback (CF) is not a common-sense in the field of language learning (Sung; Tsai, 2014). CF may even cause learners some foreign language anxiety (Gregersen; Horwitz, 2002)(see: No Corrections?!).

Variations

Also, it is hard to determine what is accurate in speech. One single language may have several spoken variations, all correct. Creating any hierarchy of desirability among variations would be problematic.

Repetition

LanguageBug learners can perceive and correct their own mistakes, at their own time. Learners become able to produce more comprehensible and accurate utterances as they keep practicing. This self-assessment mechanism relies on the Constructivist concept of Accommodation (Martinez, 2010) (see: Is it behaviorist?).

Expected level: beginner

LanguageBug aims to help non-speakers of Portuguese become Novice speakers. We should expect Novice speakers to face difficulties with intelligibility and pronunciation (ACTFL, 2012). Addressing those issues should be a priority only during the Intermediate and Advanced stages.

Conclusion

Accuracy is not a core goal for Beginner and Novice learners. Also, issues are surrounding corrective approaches, including the likelihood that it will cause some anxiety (Gregersen; Horwitz, 2002). For all these reasons, LanguageBug does not interpret the accuracy of speech as one of its priority goals.