A Visualization System for Reflecting on English Speaking Progress under Distributed Tutorship

Abstract

With the rise of the gig economy, online language tutoring platforms are becoming increasingly popular. These platforms provide temporary and flexible jobs for native speakers as tutors and allow language learners to have one-on-one speaking practices on demand, on which learners occasionally practice the language with different tutors (i.e., distributed tutorship). With distributed tutorship, learners can hold flexible schedules and receive diverse feedback. However, learners face challenges in consistently tracking their learning progress because different tutors provide feedback from diverse standards and perspectives, and hardly refer to learners’ previous experiences with other tutors. We present a visualization system for facilitating learners’ learning progress reflection by grouping and ranking different tutors’ feedback, tracking how each feedback type has been addressed across learning sessions, and visualizing the learning progress.