{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,24]],"date-time":"2026-03-24T03:10:38Z","timestamp":1774321838888,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,30]],"date-time":"2021-11-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1638230400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003246","name":"Dutch Research Council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["not available"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["not available"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003246","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["MTI"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Robot-assisted language learning (RALL) is a promising application when employing social robots to help both children and adults acquire a language and is an increasingly widely studied area of child\u2013robot interaction. By introducing prosodic entrainment, i.e., converging the robot\u2019s pitch with that of the learner, the present study aimed to provide new insights into RALL as a facilitative method for interactive tutoring. It is hypothesized that pitch-level entrainment by a Nao robot during a word learning task in a foreign language will result in increased learning in school-aged children. The results indicate that entrainment has no significant effect on participants\u2019 learning, contra the hypothesis. Research on the implementation of entrainment in the context of RALL is new. This study highlights constraints in currently available technologies for voice generation and methodological limitations that should be taken into account in future research.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/mti5120076","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,30]],"date-time":"2021-11-30T22:01:11Z","timestamp":1638309671000},"page":"76","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Pitch It Right: Using Prosodic Entrainment to Improve Robot-Assisted Foreign Language Learning in School-Aged Children"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"5","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8291-0651","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bo","family":"Molenaar","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Utrecht University, 3512 JK Utrecht, The Netherlands"},{"name":"Centre of Language and Speech Technology, Radboud University, 6525 XZ Nijmegen, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2073-0900","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Breixo","family":"Soli\u00f1o Fern\u00e1ndez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Utrecht University, 3512 JK Utrecht, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Alessandra","family":"Polimeno","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Utrecht University, 3512 JK Utrecht, The Netherlands"},{"name":"Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Free University of Amsterdam, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5688-4878","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Emilia","family":"Barakova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5612 AZ Eindhoven, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6745-9794","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Aoju","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Utrecht University, 3512 JK Utrecht, The Netherlands"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4","DOI":"10.2307\/1175554","article-title":"The 2-sigma problem: The search for methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring","volume":"13","author":"Bloom","year":"1984","journal-title":"Educ. 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