Pilot Study of Teaching English Language for Preschool Children with a Small-Size Humanoid Robot Assistant

Nowadays robotics is a rapidly developing branch of science with robot technologies being used for various purposes. Numerous researchers attempt to determine the feasibility of integrating robotic technologies into an educational process. Social robotics is a relatively new interdisciplinary research area, the main goal of which is to develop a social robot that could demonstrate an adequate social interaction with people. This paper describes a pilot experiment of human-robot interaction during the five English classes with pre-school children aged 5-6 years with a small sized humanoid robot playing a teacher assistant role. The experiments showed a large interest of children towards the robot and positive impact on English learning.