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The Effect of Applying Humanoid Robots as Teacher Assistants to Help Iranian Autistic Pupils Learn English as a Foreign Language

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Social Robotics (ICSR 2015)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 9388))

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Abstract

The present case study investigated the effect of applying a humanoid robot as a teacher assistant to teach a foreign language (English in this case) to Iranian children with autism. To do this, there were 4 male autistic children, 7–9 years old, 3 with high-functioning autism and one with low-functioning autism. The humanoid robot NAO was used as the main instrument of this study. There were 12 sessions including 10 teaching sessions. This study used a pre-test, mid-test, immediate post-test, and delayed post-test design to measure the learning gains of the autistic children participating in the robot-assisted language learning (RALL) program. The results showed the subjects’ large learning gains which were fairly persistent according to their performances on the delayed post-test. The difference observed between the learning gains of the high-functioning and low-functioning participants is also discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Islamic Azad University, Tehran-West Branch, Tehran, Iran

    Minoo Alemi

  2. Center of Excellence in Design Robotics and Automation (CEDRA), Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Ali Meghdari & Alireza Taheri

  3. Languages and Linguistics Center, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Nasim Mahboub Basiri

Authors
  1. Minoo Alemi
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  2. Ali Meghdari
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  3. Nasim Mahboub Basiri
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  4. Alireza Taheri
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Minoo Alemi or Ali Meghdari .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Robotics and Computer Vision Lab, ENSTA-ParisTech, Palaiseau, France

    Adriana Tapus

  2. Inst für Informatik, Human-Ctr Multimedi, Universität Augsburg, Augsburg, Bayern, Germany

    Elisabeth André

  3. LIMSI-CNRS, Orsay, France

    Jean-Claude Martin

  4. Robotics and Computer Vision Lab, ENSTA-ParisTech, Palaiseau, France

    François Ferland

  5. LIMSI-CNRS, Orsay, France

    Mehdi Ammi

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Alemi, M., Meghdari, A., Basiri, N.M., Taheri, A. (2015). The Effect of Applying Humanoid Robots as Teacher Assistants to Help Iranian Autistic Pupils Learn English as a Foreign Language. In: Tapus, A., André, E., Martin, JC., Ferland, F., Ammi, M. (eds) Social Robotics. ICSR 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9388. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25554-5_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25554-5_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-25553-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-25554-5

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