A physical robot's effect on vocabulary learning

Abstract: This thesis investigates the effect on having a physical robot present to take the role of a teacher or exercise partner in a language learning exercise. In order to investigate this, an application was developed enabling a vocabulary exercise to take place in three different situations. In one situation a non-embodied voice would be the teacher, in the second situation an animated face on the screen in front of you would be the teacher, and in the final situation the teacher was move into the physical world by a robotic head with a 3D face mask. Initially one study on a vocabulary exercise with 15 participants was conducted. In order to gather more valuable data, the exercise was redesigned and conducted with another 11 participants.  The results from the user studies are interpreted to point towards a higher task motivation when working with a robotic head.