Interactive Storytelling with Social Robots to Support Multilingual Children

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of an educational social storytelling robot on multilingual children aged 4-12 years by telling stories in their native language (Arabic). This work emphasizes the importance of using native languages within schools to stimulate inclusion and learning. Our experiment compared two conditions: one where the NAO robot engaged in interactive storytelling by using gestures and posing questions, and another where it merely told the story. Children enjoyed the sessions and the use of their native language in particular, and there was a trend suggesting that children knew more target words after the storytelling sessions. However, there were no significant differences in learning outcomes, engagement, enjoyment, or story comprehension between the interactive and non-interactive conditions. Together, these findings suggest a promising role for using educational robots in storytelling to support multilingual children.