Reproducing Proficiency-Conditioned Dialogue Features with Full-duplex Spoken Dialogue Models

Takao Obi, Sadahiro Yoshikawa, Mao Saeki, Masaki Eguchi, Yoichi Matsuyama


Abstract
Real-time, human-centered conversational AI requires systems that handle spoken dialogue with overlap and rapid turn-taking. Although full-duplex models promise these capabilities, empirical work applying them to conversational AI is still nascent. To fill this gap, this study investigates whether the full-duplex model can reproduce the human dialogue features. We adapt a full-duplex spoken dialogue model to a large corpus of second-language (L2) learner interviews and train proficiency-conditioned models. We then conduct real-time interview sessions between these models and a spoken dialogue system designed to elicit spontaneous learner speech, and analyze reaction time, response frequency, and fluency metrics across aggregated CEFR levels (A/B/C). Our results show that proficiency-conditioned models partially reproduce levelwise trends and distributions observed in human interviews across multiple metrics. These findings suggest that full-duplex models can reproduce dialogue features of human dialogues and offer a promising foundation for conversational AI systems.
Anthology ID:
2026.iwsds-1.4
Volume:
Proceedings of the 16th International Workshop on Spoken Dialogue System Technology
Month:
February
Year:
2026
Address:
Trento, Italy
Editors:
Giuseppe Riccardi, Seyed Mahed Mousavi, Maria Ines Torres, Koichiro Yoshino, Zoraida Callejas, Shammur Absar Chowdhury, Yun-Nung Chen, Frederic Bechet, Joakim Gustafson, Géraldine Damnati, Alex Papangelis, Luis Fernando D’Haro, John Mendonça, Raffaella Bernardi, Dilek Hakkani-Tur, Giuseppe "Pino" Di Fabbrizio, Tatsuya Kawahara, Firoj Alam, Gokhan Tur, Michael Johnston
Venue:
IWSDS
SIG:
Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:
43–51
Language:
URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2026.iwsds-1.4/
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Takao Obi, Sadahiro Yoshikawa, Mao Saeki, Masaki Eguchi, and Yoichi Matsuyama. 2026. Reproducing Proficiency-Conditioned Dialogue Features with Full-duplex Spoken Dialogue Models. In Proceedings of the 16th International Workshop on Spoken Dialogue System Technology, pages 43–51, Trento, Italy. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
Reproducing Proficiency-Conditioned Dialogue Features with Full-duplex Spoken Dialogue Models (Obi et al., IWSDS 2026)
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PDF:
https://aclanthology.org/2026.iwsds-1.4.pdf