Communicative Strategies and Patterns of Multimodal Integration in a Speech-to-Speech Translation System

When multilingual communication through a speech-to-speech translation system is supported by multimodal features, e.g. pen-based gestures, the following issues arise concerning the nature of the supported communication: a) to what extend does multilingual communication differ from ‘ordinary’ monolingual communication with respect to the dialogue structure and the communicative strategies used by participants; b) the patterns of integration between speech and gestures. Building on the outcomes of a previous work, we present results from a study aimed at addressing those issues. The initial findings confirm that multilingual communication, and the way in which it is realized by actual systems (e.g., with or without the push-to-talk mode) affects the form and structure of the conversation.