Storytelling with robots : effects of robot language level on children's language learning

Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2014.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kory, Jacqueline (Jacqueline Marie)
Other Authors: Cynthia Breazeal.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95608
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author Kory, Jacqueline (Jacqueline Marie)
author2 Cynthia Breazeal.
author_facet Cynthia Breazeal.
Kory, Jacqueline (Jacqueline Marie)
author_sort Kory, Jacqueline (Jacqueline Marie)
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description Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2014.
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spelling mit-1721.1/956082022-01-18T16:59:22Z Storytelling with robots : effects of robot language level on children's language learning Effects of robot language level on children's language learning Kory, Jacqueline (Jacqueline Marie) Cynthia Breazeal. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences. Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences. Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2014. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 62-66). Children's oral language skills in preschool can predict their academic success later in life. Increasing children's skills early on could improve their success in middle and high school. To this end, I examined the potential of a sociable robotic learning/teaching companion in supplementing children's early language education. The robot was designed as a social character, engaging children as a peer, not as a teacher, within a relational, dialogic context. The robot targeted the social, interactive nature of language learning through a storytelling game, mediated by a tablet, that the robot and child played together. During the game, the robot introduced new vocabulary words and modeled good story narration skills. In a microgenetic study, 17 children played the storytelling game with the robot eight times each over a two month period. With half the children, the robot adapted its level of language to the child's level - so that, as children improved their storytelling skills, so did the robot. The other half played with a robot that did not adapt. I evaluated whether this adaptation influenced (i) whether children learned new words from the robot, (ii) the complexity and style of stories children told, and (iii) the similarity of children's stories to the robot's stories. I expected that children would learn more from a robot that adapted, and that they would copy its stories and narration style more than they would with a robot that did not adapt. Children's language use was tracked across sessions. I found that children in the adaptive condition maintained or increased the amount and diversity of the language they used during interactions with the robot. While children in all conditions learned new vocabulary words, created new stories during the game, and enjoyed playing with the robot, children who played with the adaptive robot improved more than children who played with the non-adaptive robot. Understanding how the robot influences children's language, and how a robot could support language development will inform the design of future learning/teaching companions that engage children as peers in educational play. by Jacqueline Kory. S.M. 2015-02-25T17:13:38Z 2015-02-25T17:13:38Z 2014 2014 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95608 903903804 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 66 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences.
Kory, Jacqueline (Jacqueline Marie)
Storytelling with robots : effects of robot language level on children's language learning
title Storytelling with robots : effects of robot language level on children's language learning
title_full Storytelling with robots : effects of robot language level on children's language learning
title_fullStr Storytelling with robots : effects of robot language level on children's language learning
title_full_unstemmed Storytelling with robots : effects of robot language level on children's language learning
title_short Storytelling with robots : effects of robot language level on children's language learning
title_sort storytelling with robots effects of robot language level on children s language learning
topic Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95608
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