Research Article
Xiaotong Yu, María Ángeles Gutiérrez-García, Roberto Soto-Varela, Melchor Gómez-García
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 17, Issue 1, Article No: ep545
ABSTRACT
Robotics education and robot-embedded learning have become focal points in recent interdisciplinary and innovative education. Despite the identified opportunities, there are still limitations and considerations before integrating educational robotics into foreign language education on a large scale. This survey investigates foreign language teachers’ perceptions and acceptance of teaching with educational robotics and robot-assisted language learning. To achieve this, the ERPA scale, containing five subscales measuring teachers’ technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge, and the perceived usefulness of robots, was adapted as the data collection instrument. The scale consisted of 19 items based on a 5-point Likert scale. A total of 109 foreign language teachers from Spain participated in the survey. The results suggest a positive relationship between teachers’ basic digital competence, technological knowledge of robot usage, pedagogical knowledge in foreign language teaching, and perceived usefulness of robots. Additionally, the length of service and target language positively affect acceptance. This research contributes to current educational robotics studies by identifying features of robots considered suitable for language teaching, such as animal-like embodiments instead of humanoid forms.
Keywords: attitudes, acceptance, educational robotics, EFL, second language
Research Article
Keith E. Nelson, Aran Barlieb, Kiren Khan, Elisabeth M. Vance Trup, Mikael Heimann, Tomas Tjus, Mary Rudner, Jerker Ronnberg
CONT ED TECHNOLOGY, Volume 3, Issue 3, pp. 184-200
ABSTRACT
How individual differences in information processing affect second language (L2) learning has been unclear in prior research. Adults lacking prior skill in Swedish were pretested for working memory, processing speed, and executive memory capacity. Participants then received 6 computer-based instructional sessions with pictorial animations of Swedish sentences, with a built-in experimental contrast between some lessons at high and some at low rates of presentation. The faster rate carried greater processing demands for the learners. Higher levels of Swedish performance during Instructional sessions were associated with higher working memory levels, as expected from widely-used models of working memory (e.g., Baddeley & Hitch, 1994). In contrast, results at demanding long-term retrieval on a posttest were more complex and revealed several dynamic relationships between processing speed, working memory, and Swedish language learning. Learners with low rather than high working memory showed higher L2 skills at long-term testing when instructional lessons had employed fast animations. This first-time demonstration that prior cognitive profiles strongly influence learners’ progress in second language requires refinements in existing theories. Further, the results hold certain implications for tailoring second language teaching on-line or in other technology-based instruction to learner profiles on abilities in working memory, processing speed, and executive memory
Keywords: Educational technology, Software, Designing learner-sensitive procedures, Computer-assisted learning, Second language acquisition, Dynamic systems