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Following the White Rabbit – A Robot Rabbit as Vocabulary Trainer for Beginners of English

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HCI in Work and Learning, Life and Leisure (USAB 2010)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 6389))

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Abstract

The current paper presents a case study conducted to evaluate the robot rabbit Nabaztag functioning as a vocabulary trainer for beginners of English. Hedonic aspects and motivating function, as well as the general usability and overall impression evoked by rabbit, were tested. A group of 18 5th grade students of an English class at a German junior high school were instructed to practice 20 pairs of vocabulary. Ten students were assisted by the speaking robot rabbit, while eight learned by applying an ordinary paper-and-pencil method. Results show that after one week, students who had learned with the Nabaztag had, on average, a higher recall than the control group. Moreover, the evaluation of the hedonic and pragmatic quality of interacting with the rabbit was high, as was the evaluation of both ease of use and perceived usefulness. Students learning with the rabbit were in a better mood afterwards than those who learned by means of the traditional method.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Psychology: Media and Communication, University of Duisburg-Essen, Forsthausweg 2, 47048, Duisburg, Germany

    Sabrina Eimler, Astrid von der Pütten, Ulrich Schächtle, Lucas Carstens & Nicole Krämer

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  1. Sabrina Eimler
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  2. Astrid von der Pütten
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  3. Ulrich Schächtle
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  4. Lucas Carstens
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  5. Nicole Krämer
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Informatics Systems Interactive Systems Research Group, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Universitätsstraße 65-67, 9020, Klagenfurt, Austria

    Gerhard Leitner  & Martin Hitz  & 

  2. Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Documentation (IMI), Research Unit HCI4MED, Medical University of Graz (MUG), Auenbruggerplatz 2/V, 8036, Graz, Austria

    Andreas Holzinger

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Eimler, S., von der Pütten, A., Schächtle, U., Carstens, L., Krämer, N. (2010). Following the White Rabbit – A Robot Rabbit as Vocabulary Trainer for Beginners of English. In: Leitner, G., Hitz, M., Holzinger, A. (eds) HCI in Work and Learning, Life and Leisure. USAB 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6389. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16607-5_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16607-5_22

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-16606-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-16607-5

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