Individual Differences in Children's (Language) Learning Skills Moderate Effects of Robot-Assisted Second Language Learning.

ABSTRACT: The current study investigated how individual differences among children affect the added value of social robots for teaching second language (L2) vocabulary to young children. Specifically, we investigated the moderating role of three individual child characteristics deemed relevant for language learning: first language (L1) vocabulary knowledge, phonological memory, and selective attention. We expected children low in these abilities to particularly benefit from being assisted by a robot in a vocabulary training. An L2 English vocabulary training intervention consisting of seven sessions was administered to 193 monolingual Dutch five-year-old children over a three- to four-week period. Children were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: 1) a tablet only, 2) a tablet

SUBMITTER: van den Berghe R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8421643 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature