Social robots as second-language tutors for young children. Challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Social robots are increasingly being used in education to support or even replace teachers. However, it is not clear yet whether robots are effective tools for education. This dissertation has been carried out within the L2TOR project, which investigated the use of robots to support young children’s second-language learning. One review and several experiments are reported on the effectiveness of robots for word learning, the use of tablets in robot-assisted lessons, and on individual differences between children regarding the robot’s effectiveness for word learning. The main findings are that children did not learn more words when playing with a robot than without and that differences between children in the perception of the robot and their language and attention skills affect their interaction with the robot and their learning. This dissertation shows that robots have potential as a new digital technology in education, but that they cannot fulfill their potential yet as of this moment, amongst others due to their technical limitations in speech and object recognition. The implications of these findings for the future development of robots for education are discussed.