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Recognizing the challenges bilingual children face in school readiness and the potential of bilingual dialogic shared reading in improving language and literacy, this study investigates the use of a bilingual conversational agent (CA) to enhance shared reading experiences in home environments. While current CAs hold promise in fostering young children's learning, they do not typically consider the linguistic and cultural needs of bilingual children and rarely involve parents intentionally. To this end, we developed a bilingual CA, embedded within ebooks, to support children's language learning and parent engagement for Latine Spanish-English bilingual families. A week-long home-based study with 15 families indicated that the bilingual CA elicited a high level of bilingual verbal engagement from children, thereby promoting their vocabulary acquisition. It also stimulated meaningful conversations among parents and children. This study provides design implications for developing CAs for bilingual children and parents.
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Dialogue with a conversational agent promotes children’s story comprehension via enhancing engagement
Abstract Dialogic reading, when children are read a storybook and engaged in relevant conversation, is a powerful strategy for fostering language development. With the development of artificial intelligence, conversational agents can engage children in elements of dialogic reading. This study examined whether a conversational agent can improve children's story comprehension and engagement, as compared to an adult reading partner. Using a 2 (dialogic reading or non‐dialogic reading) × 2 (agent or human) factorial design, a total of 117 three‐ to six‐year‐olds (50% Female, 37% White, 31% Asian, 21% multi‐ethnic) were randomly assigned into one of the four conditions. Results revealed that a conversational agent can replicate the benefits of dialogic reading with a human partner by enhancing children's narrative‐relevant vocalizations, reducing irrelevant vocalizations, and improving story comprehension.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1906321
- PAR ID:
- 10366371
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Child Development
- Volume:
- 93
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0009-3920
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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