Masters Thesis Presentation - Tristan Timpers

Title: Learning English is “Eazy”: An Exploratory Study of Foreign Language Learning With Social Robotics for Children with DLD

Abstract:

The difficulties that children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) face when learning lan- guages were increased when learning English as a foreign language became mandatory in special education schools. Curricula such as CodeTaal are aimed specifically at these children to help them learn English through techniques like cross-linguistic comparisons and metalinguistic engagement. This study explores possibilities into integrating the CodeTaal curriculum with an educational social robot, AlphaMini. We designed a robotic tutor that provides feedback during a short exercise per- formed on a tablet. Surveys were administered to participants before and after the short exercise to measure their opinion. Additionally, visual observation methods were used to study the interaction between the robot and the child. The results of the survey showed that the participants tended to perceive the robot to be more helpful than a tablet in learning English, but also found it more difficult to use. This was backed up by the visual observations in which many children struggled to understand the exercise, taking more time than expected, and asking the human instructor for help instead of the robot. These results and observations should be used in future developments of educational social robots for children with DLD.

Supervisors: Dr. Paul Vogt, Dr. Suzan Scheffer