Engagement in longitudinal child-robot language learning interactions: Disentangling robot and task engagement

Mirjam de Haas; Paul Vogt; Rianne van den Berghe; Paul Leseman; Ora Oudgenoeg-Paz; Bram Willemsen; Jan de Wit; Emiel Krahmer

doi:10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.100501

Engagement in longitudinal child-robot language learning interactions: Disentangling robot and task engagement

Mirjam de Haas, Paul Vogt, Rianne van den Berghe, Paul Leseman, Ora Oudgenoeg-Paz, Bram Willemsen, Jan de Wit, Emiel Krahmer

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

This study investigated a seven sessions interaction between a peer-tutor robot and Dutch preschoolers (5 years old) during which the children learned English. We examined whether children's engagement differed when interacting with a tablet and a robot using iconic gestures, with a tablet and a robot using no iconic gestures and with only a tablet. Two engagement types were annotated (task engagement and robot engagement) using a novel coding scheme based on an existing coding scheme used in kindergartens. The findings revealed that children's task engagement dropped over time in all three conditions, consistent with the novelty effect. However, there were no differences between the different conditions for task engagement. Interestingly, robot engagement showed a difference between conditions. Children were more robot engaged when interacting with a robot using iconic gestures than without iconic gestures. Finally, when comparing children's word knowledge with their engagement, we found that both task engagement and robot engagement were positively correlated with children's word retention.

Original language	English
Article number	100501
Journal	International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction
Volume	33
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.100501
Publication status	Published - 1 Sept 2022
Externally published	Yes

Funding

This work has been supported by the EU H2020 L2TOR project (grant 688014). We would like to thank the children, their parents, and the schools for their participation. Furthermore, we would like to thank Laurette Gerts, Annabella Hermans, Esmee Kramer, Madee Kruijt, Marije Merckens, David Mogendorff, Sam Muntjewerf, Reinjet Oostdijk, Laura Pijpers, Chani Savelberg, Robin Sonders, Sirkka van Straalen, Sabine Verdult, Esmee Verheem, Pieter Wolfert, Hugo Zijlstra and Michelle Zomers for their help in collecting data and annotating videos.

Funders	Funder number
EU H2020
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	688014

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10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.100501

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title = "Engagement in longitudinal child-robot language learning interactions: Disentangling robot and task engagement",

abstract = "This study investigated a seven sessions interaction between a peer-tutor robot and Dutch preschoolers (5 years old) during which the children learned English. We examined whether children's engagement differed when interacting with a tablet and a robot using iconic gestures, with a tablet and a robot using no iconic gestures and with only a tablet. Two engagement types were annotated (task engagement and robot engagement) using a novel coding scheme based on an existing coding scheme used in kindergartens. The findings revealed that children's task engagement dropped over time in all three conditions, consistent with the novelty effect. However, there were no differences between the different conditions for task engagement. Interestingly, robot engagement showed a difference between conditions. Children were more robot engaged when interacting with a robot using iconic gestures than without iconic gestures. Finally, when comparing children's word knowledge with their engagement, we found that both task engagement and robot engagement were positively correlated with children's word retention.",

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doi = "10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.100501",

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AU - de Haas, Mirjam

AU - Vogt, Paul

AU - van den Berghe, Rianne

AU - Leseman, Paul

AU - Oudgenoeg-Paz, Ora

AU - Willemsen, Bram

AU - de Wit, Jan

AU - Krahmer, Emiel

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AB - This study investigated a seven sessions interaction between a peer-tutor robot and Dutch preschoolers (5 years old) during which the children learned English. We examined whether children's engagement differed when interacting with a tablet and a robot using iconic gestures, with a tablet and a robot using no iconic gestures and with only a tablet. Two engagement types were annotated (task engagement and robot engagement) using a novel coding scheme based on an existing coding scheme used in kindergartens. The findings revealed that children's task engagement dropped over time in all three conditions, consistent with the novelty effect. However, there were no differences between the different conditions for task engagement. Interestingly, robot engagement showed a difference between conditions. Children were more robot engaged when interacting with a robot using iconic gestures than without iconic gestures. Finally, when comparing children's word knowledge with their engagement, we found that both task engagement and robot engagement were positively correlated with children's word retention.

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Engagement in longitudinal child-robot language learning interactions: Disentangling robot and task engagement

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