Comparative study of effects of language instruction program using intelligence robot and multimedia on linguistic ability of young children

This research explores feasibility of using intellectual robots as a language instruction tool for young children. Since the intellectual robots have several sensors which can recognize status of the other parties, it can perform various bi-directional interaction strategies. This study verified how such bi-directional interaction using intellectual robots affects the improvement of linguistic ability. The subjects were 34 4-year-old children, 17 of whom were in the traditional media-assisted reading program, and 17 of whom were in the Robot-assisted reading program. The results indicated that the children in the robot-assisted groups improved significantly compared with media-assisted groups in linguistic ability (story making, understanding, word recognition, PPVT (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test)). Furthermore, the benefits and limitations of using Intelligent Robot in linguistic education are discussed.