SMAP-ST: Smart MBTI-Adaptive Public Speaking Tutor

Abstract

Up to 80% of graduate students in the UK struggle to speak confidently in front of an audience, whether during class presentations, seminars, assessments or interviews. A major reason for this is the lack of a consistent support during their school education for developing strong public speaking skills whilst most teachers do not feel confident, with the tools they have, to support learners in developing these skills. Consequently, many primary and secondary school students do not have enough opportunities to develop their public speaking skills. Beyond institutional gaps, individual differences such as personality traits can significantly impact a student’s confidence and ability to speak in public. For some students, public speaking can trigger overwhelming anxiety or cognitive overload. Students with more introverted or sensitive traits, for example, may feel intense discomfort when asked to perform in public. Personality patterns can create a range of barriers that traditional classroom environments rarely accommodate. These patterns affect more than just academic performance; they also limit opportunities after graduation. Without targeted support, many students may miss out on opportunities simply because there is a lack of effective support for their diverse communication needs. SMAP-ST (Smart MBTI-Adaptive Public Speaking Tutor) is an intelligent tutoring system powered by AI. It is designed to support oral presentation training in an online environment that combines text and voice-based interactions with a virtual tutor. Thanks to interaction with SMAP-ST, students can rehearse presentations on selected topics through guided interaction and receive immediate, personalized feedback on their communication skills. The system’s distinctive feature is its MBTI-based personalisation, whereby the tutor adapts the tone and structure of the feedback to suit different personality types. This helps students to identify their own weaknesses during speech, boost their confidence and fluency, and be effective at the same time because it fits with their personality traits. The system is evaluated by analysing collected data during user interaction with the SMAP-ST to identify the effectiveness of the response generated for each personality trait.