Guidelines for Designing Social Robots as Second Language Tutors

In recent years, it has been suggested that social robots have potential as tutors and educators for both children and adults. While robots have been shown to be effective in teaching knowledge and skill-based topics, we wish to explore how social robots can be used to tutor a second language to young children. As language learning relies on situated, grounded and social learning, in which interaction and repeated practice are central, social robots hold promise as educational tools for supporting second language learning. This paper surveys the developmental psychology of second language learning and suggests an agenda to study how core concepts of second language learning can be taught by a social robot. It suggests guidelines for designing robot tutors based on observations of second language learning in human–human scenarios, various technical aspects and early studies regarding the effectiveness of social robots as second language tutors

Using Social Robots to Teach Language Skills to Immigrant Children in an Oslo City District

Social robots have been shown to help in language education for children. This can be good aid for immigrant children that need additional help to learn a second language their parents do not understand to attend school. We present the setup for a long-term study that is being carried out in blinded to aid immigrant children with poor skills in the Norwegian language to improve their vocabulary. This includes additional tools to help parents follow along and provide additional help at home.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figur

Human-Robot Teaming Configurations: A Study of Interpersonal Communication Perceptions and Affective Learning in Higher Education

Technology encourages collaboration in creative ways in the classroom. Specifically, social robots may offer new opportunities for greater innovation in teaching. In this study, we combined the established literature on co-teaching teams with the developing field of machine actors used in education to investigate the impressions students had of different team configurations that included both a human and a robot. Participants saw one of three teams composed of a human and a social robot with different responsibilities present a short, prerecorded lecture (i.e., human as lead teacher-robot as teaching assistant, robot as lead teacher-human as teaching assistant, human and robot as co-teachers). Overall, students rated the human-led team as more appealing and having more credibility than the robot-led team. The data suggest that participants would be more likely to take a course led by a human instructor than a social robot. Previous studies have investigated machine actors in the classroom, but the current findings are unique in that they compare the individual roles and power structures of human-robot teams leading a course

Thoughts on the usage of audible smiling in speech synthesis applications

In this perspective paper we explore the question how audible smiling can be integrated in speech synthesis applications. In human-human communication, smiling can serve various functions, such as signaling politeness or as a marker of trustworthiness and other aspects that raise and maintain the social likeability of a speaker. However, in human-machine communication, audible smiling is nearly unexplored, but could be an advantage in different applications such as dialog systems. The rather limited knowledge of the details of audible smiling and their exploitation for speech synthesis applications is a great challenge. This is also true for modeling smiling in spoken dialogs and testing it with users. Thus, this paper argues to fill the research gaps in identifying factors that constitute and affect audible smiling in order to incorporate it in speech synthesis applications. The major claim is to focus on the dynamics of audible smiling on various levels

The effectiveness of robot-enacted messages to reduce the consumption of high-sugar energy drinks

This exploratory study examines the effectiveness of social robots' ability to deliver advertising messages using different "appeals" in a business environment. Specifically, it explores the use of three types of message appeals in a human-robot interaction scenario: guilt, humour and non-emotional. The study extends past research in advertising by exploring whether messages communicated by social robots can impact consumers' behaviour. Using an experimental research design, the emotional-themed messages focus on the health-related properties of two fictitious energy drink brands. The findings show mixed results for humour and guilt messages. When the robot delivered a promotion message using humour, participants perceived it as being less manipulative. Participants who were exposed to humourous messages also demonstrated a significantly greater intent for future purchase decisions. However, guilt messages were more likely to persuade consumers to change their brand selection. This study contributes to the literature as it provides empirical evidence on the social robots' ability to deliver different advertising messages. It has practical implications for businesses as a growing number seek to employ humanoids to promote their services

Social robots and L2 teaching for children: a preliminary study on the embodiment of gestures

Experimental research confirms that using social robots with pre-school children as tutors for their learning has important positive effects in terms of children's learning and emotional involvement. In particular, the use of social robots for language learning (L1 and L2) leads to more learned words and a better memory of them. However, many technological limitations prevent from fully implementing the concept of embodiment, a distinctive feature of robotic technology compared to other computer-based technologies, and especially of gestures. In order to contribute to solve the problem, in a preliminary psychological test with Italian children learning English as L2, it was shown that appropriate modifications of the learning environment combined with a more limited use of gestures allow to achieve better results in terms of learning than a larger use of gestures in a less structured environment. If experimentally verified, these results would suggest the development of learning architectures which offer more affordances with respect to the task at hand, while implementing more limited forms of embodiment that are in line with current technological limitations. Robot sociali e insegnamento di L2 ai bambini: uno studio preliminare sull’embodiment della gestualitàLe ricerche sperimentali confermano che l’utilizzo di robot sociali in funzione di tutor per l’apprendimento di bambini nella fascia di età prescolare ha importanti effetti positivi in termini di apprendimento e di coinvolgimento emotivo dei bambini. In particolare, l’uso di robot in supporto all’apprendimento linguistico (L1 e L2) si traduce in un numero maggiore di parole apprese e in un migliore ricordo delle stesse. Numerosi limitazioni tecnologiche impediscono tuttavia la piena realizzazione nei robot sociali del concetto di embodiment, in particolare per quanto riguarda la gestualità. Proprio per contribuire a dare una soluzione al problema, in una prova psicologica preliminare con bambini italiani che apprendono la lingua inglese come L2 si dimostra che in un ambiente di apprendimento opportunamente strutturato una gestualità più limitata permette di conseguire migliori risultati di apprendimento e ricordo delle parole apprese rispetto a un uso maggiore della gestualità in un ambiente meno organizzato. Se sperimentalmente verificati, tali risultati indirizzerebbero verso lo sviluppo di architetture dell’ambiente di apprendimento più ricche di affordance rispetto al compito che consentano conseguentemente di implementare forme di embodiment più limitate in linea con le limitazioni tecnologiche attuali

User experience in social robots

Social robots are increasingly penetrating our daily lives. They are used in various domains, such as healthcare, education, business, industry, and culture. However, introducing this technology for use in conventional environments is not trivial. For users to accept social robots, a positive user experience is vital, and it should be considered as a critical part of the robots’ development process. This may potentially lead to excessive use of social robots and strengthen their diffusion in society. The goal of this study is to summarize the extant literature that is focused on user experience in social robots, and to identify the challenges and benefits of UX evaluation in social robots. To achieve this goal, the authors carried out a systematic literature review that relies on PRISMA guidelines. Our findings revealed that the most common methods to evaluate UX in social robots are questionnaires and interviews. UX evaluations were found out to be beneficial in providing early feedback and consequently in handling errors at an early stage. However, despite the importance of UX in social robots, robot developers often neglect to set UX goals due to lack of knowledge or lack of time. This study emphasizes the need for robot developers to acquire the required theoretical and practical knowledge on how to perform a successful UX evaluation.publishedVersio

Second Language Tutoring Using Social Robots: A Large-Scale Study

We present a large-scale study of a series of seven lessons designed to help young children learn English vocabulary as a foreign language using a social robot. The experiment was designed to investigate 1) the effectiveness of a social robot teaching children new words over the course of multiple interactions (supported by a tablet), 2) the added benefit of a robot's iconic gestures on word learning and retention, and 3) the effect of learning from a robot tutor accompanied by a tablet versus learning from a tablet application alone. For reasons of transparency, the research questions, hypotheses and methods were preregistered. With a sample size of 194 children, our study was statistically well-powered. Our findings demonstrate that children are able to acquire and retain English vocabulary words taught by a robot tutor to a similar extent as when they are taught by a tablet application. In addition, we found no beneficial effect of a robot's iconic gestures on learning gains