The Impact of a Social Robot on Persian Young EFL Learners’ ‎Anxiety and Attitude in English Grammar Acquisition

Technology has always played a key role in language education and robot assisted language learning (RALL) takes significant role in the development of language learning in EFL learners. On the other hand, learning English grammar has always been boring for young EFL learners. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of a social robot on Persian young EFL learners’ anxiety and attitude in English grammar acquisition. To this end, 10 Persian young EFL learners participated in this study and some grammar points taken from the book Hey There 2A, in 8 sessions were taught to them with the help of a social robot. Subsequently participants responded to 28 written questions on learning anxiety with rating scale of 1-5, and 15 questions on investigating learners’ attitude towards using RALL in learning grammar in the classroom. After analyzing the data, the result indicated that there was low anxiety among learners in RALL class and high positive attitude towards learning grammar by employing a social robot. From these findings, it can be concluded that employing a humanoid robot can positively influence the learning anxiety and causes more positive attitude towards learning grammar. Current research provides a brand new method of language teaching for schools, institutes and organizations to make revolutionary changes in the process of learning by the use of a social robot as technology based approach in the field of language teaching.