Acoustic-prosodic entrainment by social robots tutoring English vocabulary

Abstract

In recent years, a growing body of research has investigated social robots as tutors. Robot-assisted language learning (RALL) is a promising application of employing social robots to help both children and adults acquire a language, which is a fundamental domain of knowledge. The present study attempted to provide new insights into RALL by introducing acoustic-prosodic entrainment as a facilitative tool for tutoring. It was hypothesised that pitch-level entrainment by a Nao robot during a word learning task performed with school-aged children would result in increased learning. The results indicated entrainment had no