Affective effects of speech-enabled robots for language learning

Abstract

This study introduces the speech and language technologies used in the educational assistant robots that we developed for language learning and exploring the affective effects of robot-assisted language learning (RALL). To achieve this purpose, a course was designed in which students have meaningful interaction with intelligent robots in an immersive environment. A total of 24 elementary students, ranging in age over 9-13, were enrolled in English lessons. Descriptive statistics and pre-test/post-test design were used to investigate the affective effects of RALL approach. The result showed that RALL is promoting and improving students' satisfaction, interest, confidence, and motivation at the significance level of 0.01.