“Thanks for the Practice!”: LLM-Powered Social Robot as Tandem Language Partner at University

Large language models (LLMs), when integrated into social robots, have the potential to transform robot-assisted language learning by offering personalized, interactive communication. However, there is limited research exploring their potential to simultaneously reduce anxiety and enhance language-speaking skills among international university students, who often feel anxious when speaking a foreign language. This study addresses this gap by evaluating the impact of a humanoid robot powered by the OpenChat-3.5 LLM as a tandem partner for German language learning. Using a between-subjects design with 22 multilingual participants, two interaction conditions were tested: immersive (German-only) and bilingual (German-English). Our findings indicate that participants in the immersive mode reported experiencing significantly reduced perceived judgment by the robot compared to the bilingual mode. Although female participants showed a trend of greater improvement in learning gain, no significant gender differences were found. Open-ended feedback highlighted the need for enhanced contextual responses, slower speech rate, faster response times, and error corrections to enhance language speaking support. This study aims to advance social robots for learning by demonstrating the usage of generative AI in creating non-judgmental language practice scenarios.