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Analysis of institutional authors

García, María Angeles GutiérrezAuthorSoto-Varela, RobertoAuthor

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Are educational robots any good for communicative English learning for primary school students?

Publicated to:Texto Livre : Linguagem e Tecnologia. 16 (1): 2-0 - 2023-01-01 16(1), DOI: 10.1590/1983-3652.2023.41469

Authors: Yu, Xiaolong; Angeles Gutierrez Garcia, Maria; Soto Varela, Roberto

Affiliations

Autonomous Univ Madrid, Dept Pedag, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Valladolid, Fac Educ Segovia, Valladolid, Spain - Author

Abstract

This paper presents a pilot study that focuses on the exploratory and rapid prototyping within the humanin-the-loop control of a self-constructed and developed educational robot in assisting communicative English learning in primary Education in Madrid, Spain. The study sample was composed of 37 3rd graders that attended four English learning program sessions in November 2021, in which robot integration plays a leading role as learning material. To achieve the above, an easy-to-build, programmed and economical LEGO Education Mindstorms EV3 package was optioned. Pre-and-post questionnaires, classroom observations, and an evaluation sheet that measures self-evaluation, peer evaluation, and teacher evaluation were applied. The result reveals students' perception of the pioneering robot and although preliminary, presents validation of the technology for English class assistance. Another finding suggests that students' stress generated from communication in English among peers was reduced with the companion of the robot. Due to the nature of a pilot study, both the number of sessions and the sample size are limited to determine if the robot is helpful in students' vocabulary acquisition in the long run. Further study is to be conducted with the pioneer model to teach vocabularies of different categories for a longer period. The findings of this pilot study will serve as a reference in the attempt to develop and reproduce promising robots to assist English teaching and learning that are accessible to public schools.

Keywords

AnxietyCommunicative english learningExploratory prototypingLanguageRapid prototypingRobot-assisted english learning

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Texto Livre : Linguagem e Tecnologia due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q2 (Segundo Cuartil), in the category Linguistics and Language.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2025-06-29:

  • Scopus: 4

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-29:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 17.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 20 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 14.86.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 3 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Additionally, the work has been submitted to a journal classified as Diamond in relation to this type of editorial policy.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://repositorio.uam.es/handle/10486/714603

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Yu, Xiaotong) and Last Author (SOTO VARELA, ROBERTO).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Yu, Xiaotong.