ENG Departmental Seminar – Robot-Assisted Language Learning: A Meta-Analysis

The Department of English cordially invites you to join our departmental seminar, Robot-Assisted Language Learning: A Meta-Analysis, to be organized on 26 September 2024 (Thursday).

Date: 26 September 2024 (Thursday)

Time: 1:45pm – 2:45pm

Venue: Room A315, S H Ho Academic Building

Speaker: Professor Timothy Teo, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Registration: Complete the online registration form to reserve a seat. Available on a first-come-first-served basis.

Remarks: 1 iGPS unit will be awarded to undergraduate students who attend the seminar


Abstract

This meta-analysis included 27 empirical studies to explore the effectiveness of robot-assisted language learning (RALL) as well as the moderating effects of a number of variables. The comparison of 64 effect sizes from 2637 participants indicated significant variability between the independent samples. The overall results showed that the combined linguistic and affective gain of RALL was significant. The results of moderator analysis showed that most moderators, including place of the study, type of robot, publication type, instructional level of the learners, design of the study, time points of assessment, learning setting, second language (L2) proficiency level, type of assessment, language domain, and the non-RALL condition had no significant effects on learning outcomes. However, the moderating effect of the participants’ age was significant as RALL was found to be more effective for elementary school students (7-12 years old). The findings provide insights into the design of effective robots for second language acquisition (SLA) that support learners with certain characteristics.

Bio

Timothy Teo (Ph.D.) is Professor and Associate Dean (Research) at the Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Having worked in Australia, Macau, New Zealand, and Singapore, Timothy was previously Professor of Education at Murdoch University and Distinguished Professor of Education and Associate Dean (Research and Personnel Development) at the University of Macau. In addition to his fulltime employment, Timothy holds the position of Adjunct Professor at Murdoch University (Australia), Edith Cowan University (Australia), Honorary Chair Professor at the National Tsing Hua University (Taiwan), Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa), Visiting Professor at the Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (Malaysia), and Adjunct Professor at the Yew Chung College of Early Childhood Education (Hong Kong). Timothy’s research interests are multi-disciplinary and include both substantive and methodological areas. These are Educational Psychology (Self-efficacy- teachers and students; Beliefs about teaching and learning; Meta-cognition), ICT in Education (Technology acceptance and adoption; e-learning), Music Education (Psychological processes of music teaching and learning), and Quantitative Methods (Psychometrics; Instrument development and validation; cross-cultural measurement; issues in survey development and administration; structural equation modeling; multilevel modeling; latent growth modeling). Timothy is Editor-in-Chief of The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher (TAPER) (SSCI Q1) and a member of over 10 journal editorial boards. A highly published and cited scholar, Timothy has edited three books and written many book chapters and conference papers, and published more than 215 journal articles, with over 165 in highly ranked SSCI journals. His Google Scholar citations are over 23,000 with an H-index of 80. In 2023, Prof Timothy Teo was ranked 57 out of the top 100 Education scholars in the world by a report from Stanford University (USA).

For enquiries, please feel free to contact us at eng@hsu.edu.hk.