A Model of Robot-Assisted Assessment of Primary School Students’ English Speaking

This small-scale study aims to try out if an educational robot can be used as an interlocutor in the formative speaking assessment in the primary English learning classrooms. Also it aims to investigate if it could affect the learners’ emotional factors such as motivation and confidence. For these purposes, firstly, a number of theoretical issues were investigated: Difficulties of speaking assessment, principles of speaking assessment, and robot technology; secondly, the educational standards of speaking skills prescribed in the national curriculum were examined. Through which, a model of robot-assisted speaking assessment was developed and applied to the primary school students. In addition, a questionnaire survey and an interview were conducted to 13 students for the purpose of obtaining the quantitative and qualitative data regarding their emotional responses to the assessment. The results indicate that the model of robot-assisted assessment might be put into assessment practice. There are, however, still some obstacles which need to be addressed. First, the robot should be equipped with some more high-technologies such as space and voice recognition for human-robot-interaction(HRI). Second, it should also be equipped with a number of programs such as text-to-speech(TTS), speech-to-text(STT), radio-frequency identification(RFID), and tele-presents in order to allow robots to communicate with the students. Lastly, item pool of speaking assessment should be developed thought which, the teachers could access it without any difficulties. Finally, a pedagogical implication is presented based on the research results.