Cognitive Learning with a Robot: The Case of Script Acquisition

This research is situated in a specialized context offering a rarely occurring opportunity for research questions and technical objectives about language acquisition. The Kazakh language transition from Cyrillic to Latin alphabet in Kazakhstan raises challenges to teach the whole population to write and read in the new script. We propose an unique interdisciplinary approach by integrating innovative solutions from robotics, computer vision fields and pedagogical strategies from education, linguistics and cognitive sciences that will assist various demographic groups in this challenging endeavor. This paper presents the proposed system-a human-robot interaction application designed to assist primary school children in learning a new script and its associated handwriting. The system was deployed in a series of experiments where children increase their knowledge of the new script when practicing handwriting with a robot.