References AcknowledgementsThis research was funded by the Australian Independent Schools Association (AISSA) in South Australia.We thank the principal, teachers and students for their participation and valuable feedback.

Language learning with a humanoid robot

Pink the robot learns Narungga.

Marie Boden, Monica Williams, Therese Keane & Christina Chalmers

Narungga NAO Project

Results Future Work

• The Narungga language was a"sleeping" language thatbelongs to the Narunggapeople of Yorke Peninsula ofSouth Australia.

• Tania Wanganeen is currentlythe only fluent speaker ofNarungga.

• Tania worked closely with alinguist with the aim ofawakening the language.

• 3 year project, collaboration betweenthree universities (UQ, SUT andQUT) and The Association ofIndependent Schools South Australia(AISSA).

• Evaluate how humanoid robots areused in the early childhood, primaryand secondary school curricula and;

• understand how these devices areused by teachers to promote studentengagement and deep learning.

The School• 240 students Foundation-Year

9, 22% Indigenous students.

• The school wanted to integrateNarungga language and cultureas part of the teaching andlearning within the schoolcommunity.

• Wanted to improve studentengagement and attendance.

• Improved attendance rate.• Increased pride by the Aboriginal

students in the Narunggalanguage and culture.

• Students are speaking andpractising Narungga in the school yard.

• Students led learning.• Deep language learning.• NAO speech does not easily

recognise Narungga sounds.

"So much more meaningful than what we could do with just dictionaries and

putting a few words up around the room"

David Field, Principal

"Narungga language has been the drive for working with Pink"

Rebecca Davey, Teacher

• Investigate; how to documentstudent work with the robots;

• cheaper form of humanoid robotso the school can afford robots.

• Develop interactive educationalapplications building on thepedagogies the schooldeveloped in the project.

• Develop a "smarter" dialoguebetween student and robot.

• The impact of humanoid robots on students' computationalthinking, Keane, T., Chalmers, C., Williams, M., Boden, M.,Australian Council of Computers in Education (ACCE)conference, Brisbane, 93-102.

• Involving everyone: Adaptive technology 'Awakens' ancientlanguage, Keane, T., Williams, M., Boden, M., Chalmers,C., in submission.