Hirohisa Furukawa

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About

Hirohisa Furukawa’s research lies at the intersection of second-language acquisition, multimodal communication, and human-robot interaction. He is best known for developing a dialogue-based tutoring system that teaches English to Japanese students through natural, small-group conversations. His pioneering work includes the creation of a multimodal corpus of multi-party conversations in second language contexts (2012), which has garnered 7 citations and serves as a foundational resource for modeling how learners manage turn-taking and topic flow in real-time interactions. Furukawa’s 2011 study on multimodal turn management (2 citations) further advanced the field by analyzing the precise timing and alignment that underpin conversational fluency. A key achievement is his plan to transfer software tutoring agents into embodied robots, aiming to enrich conversation through more natural, physically present interactions. This vision positions Furukawa as a bridge between computational linguistics and robotics, with direct implications for educational technology and companion robots. His work continues to inform the design of systems that support second-language learners in dynamic, multi-party settings.