The Effect of Robot-Assisted Phonological Awareness Training on Invented Spelling for Children with Reading Disorders

Abstract

읽기 및 쓰기 능력은 일상생활에서 갖춰야할 필수 요건임에도 불구하고 많은 아이들이 읽기 및 쓰기에 어려움을 보인다. 일반적으로 읽기장애아동은 읽기에 어려움을 보이며, 이와 더불어 쓰기도 잘하지 못하는 경향이 있다. 이는 철자를 배우는 것이 단어를 익히고 읽는 것과 밀접한 연관이 있어, 읽기장애아동들에게는 쉽지 않은 영역이기 때문이다. 하지만, 학교에서는 철자법 보다 읽기에 수업이 치중되어 있고, 학년이 올라갈수록 별도의 철자법 교수를 하지 않아, 읽기장애아동들의 어려움을 증폭시키고 있다. 따라서 이들의 철자능력과 특성을 고려한 수업이 요구되고 있다. 읽기장애아동에게 철자를 보다 효과적으로 교수하기 위해서는 아이들이 단어의 음운적 구조를 분석하고 모국어의 음운체계를 파악하도록 돕는 것이 필요하다. 음운인식훈련은 완전한 철자프로그램은 아니지만, 철자 체계의 기초 지식을 아이들에게 제공하도록 돕는다. 음운인식훈련은 다양한 방법과 매체를 이용하여 이뤄지고 있으며, 시대가 변함에 따라 지능형 로봇의 활용 가능성과 효과에 대한 연구가 점차 이뤄지고 있다. 로봇을 활용한 언어중재가 아직 제한적인 영역에서만 이뤄지고 있으나 로봇의 교육적인 가치에 대해 논의되고 있다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 언어 중재에 있어서 로봇의 활용 가능성을 확인하기 위하여 읽기장애아동에게 로봇을 이용한 음운인식훈련의 효과성을 살펴보고자 하였다. 본 연구에 참여한 아동은 만 6-8세의 읽기장애아동으로, 세 집단(전통적 음운인식훈련 집단, 보조로봇활용 음운인식훈련 집단, 통제 집단)으로 나누어 실험을 진행하였으며 세 집단에는 각 7명의 읽기장애아동이 포함되었다. 연구과제로는 음운인식 검사와 단어 쓰기 검사를 실시하였고, 세 집단 모두 사전, 사후 검사를 실시하였으며 실험집단에 있어서는 실험 중간에 추가적으로 검사를 한 번 더 실시하였다. 음운인식훈련은 최대 23회기로 주 2회 진행되었으며 한 회기당 30분 정도 소요되었다. 음운인식훈련 프로그램은 1회기에 4가지 요소(창안적 글자쓰기, 끝음절 변별하기, 음절 및 음소 합성하기)가 모두 포함되었으며, 음운인식훈련은 연구자가 설정한 조건에 맞게 진행하거나 혹은 사전에 제시한 최대 훈련 회기 수에 도달하였을 경우, 다음 과제로 진행되었다. 연구 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 읽기장애아동은 단어에 대한 총 정반응 수에서 집단 간 유의미한 차이가 나타났다. 음운인식 훈련을 받은 두 실험집단은 통제 집단에 비해 유의하게 단어 쓰기 능력이 향상되었으나, 두 실험 집단 간의 단어쓰기 능력은 비슷하게 향상되었다. 또한 사후 검사에서 사전 검사에 비해 유의하게 높은 점수를 보였으며, 집단과 검사 시기에 대한 이원상호작용이 통계적으로 유의하였다. 둘째, 음운인식 훈련을 받은 읽기장애아동들은 사전, 중간, 사후 평가 간 불규칙에 대한 창안적 글자쓰기의 정반응 수의 차이가 통계적으로 유의하였다. 즉, 음운인식훈련이 진행될수록 꾸준히 불규칙에 대한 창안적 글자쓰기가 유의하게 향상되었다. 하지만 두 실험 집단 간 불규칙에 대한 창안적 글자쓰기 능력은 유의미한 차이가 나타나지 않았으며, 집단과 검사 시기에 대한 이원상호작용이 통계적으로 유의하지 않았다. 결론적으로 음운인식 훈련 방법과 상관없이 음운인식훈련이 읽기장애아동의 단어 쓰기 능력에 긍정적인 영향을 미쳤음을 시사하였다. 음운인식훈련시 로봇을 보조로 사용하였을 때에도 전통적 음운인식훈련만큼의 단어 쓰기 능력이 향상된 것은 로봇을 활용한 중재가 읽기장애 아동들에게도 효과적인 중재를 제공할 수 있음을 의미한다. 이는 로봇이 임상적 보조로써 임상가를 지지하기 위한 도구로써 이용될 수 있음을 나타낸다. 또한, 읽기장애아동들은 음운인식훈련을 받을수록 불규칙단어에 대한 창안적 글자쓰기가 증가하였음을 시사하였다. 이는 창안적 글자쓰기의 결정적인 요소가 아동의 음운 인식이며, 말소리의 분절적인 구조에 대한 아동들의 통찰력은 그들의 쓰기 능력을 고유 체계에서 표준화된 체계로 이동하도록 도와준다는 것을 시사한다.; Although reading and writing skills are essential requirements, many children have difficulty in reading and writing. Children with reading disability normally have hard time to read and tend to be poor at writing. This is because spelling is closely related to how one learns to read and write, and particularly, spelling is a difficult area for children with reading disability. However, there is more focus on reading rather than spelling in school, and children do not receive separate spelling instructions as they move to higher grades. Thus, children with reading disability continues to have difficulties. Therefore, it is important to consider focusing on to improve spelling abilities in classes for children with reading disability. In order to teach spelling more effectively to children with reading disability, they need to be taught to analyze phonological structure and understand phonological system of mother tongue. Phonological awareness training is not a complete spelling program, but it helps children to acquire core knowledge in spelling system. Phonological awareness training has been conducted on using various methods and media, and following the current trend of technology, robots have been introduced for potentially more effective training. Language intervention using robots is still conducted in limited areas, but educational value and the potentials for robots are being discussed. Therefore, in this research, the effectiveness of using robots to train children with reading disability has been investigated in order to identify the robots’ potentials. 6~8 year-old children with reading disability were divided into three groups (traditional phonological awareness training, robot-assisted phonological awareness training, and control groups). Seven children with reading disability were included respectively for each three group. Phonological awareness test and word spelling test were used in this study. It was conducted on pre and post tests for the three groups and on mid test for experimental groups additionally. Maximum of 23 sessions for phonological awareness training were conducted biweekly and each session took about 30 min. Phonological awareness training program was comprised of four factors (invented spellings, discrimination of a final syllable, blending of syllables, and phonemes), and all four factors were included in one session. Phonological awareness training was progressed according to criteria which was established by the researcher. Even if participants did not meet the criteria, researcher progressed to the next task if the maximum number of sessions was reached. Phonological awareness training was divided into two groups (traditional and robot-assisted groups) and component parts of the program between two groups were identical. However, traditional phonological awareness training used picture cards, word cards, magnetic letters, but robot-assisted phonological awareness training used robot program with a robot displaying and speaking target words and directions. Two-way mixed ANOVA was conducted to identify whether there were significant differences on the total number of correct responses for words among three groups depending on the test period. Also, two-way mixed ANOVA was conducted to identify whether there were significant differences on the number of correct responses for invented spelling on the irregular words among test periods (pre, mid, and post) depending on the training methods of group. The study results are as follows: First, the results showed that there are significant differences on the total number of correct responses on words among the three groups. Two experimental groups who received the phonological training improved at word spelling skills more than the control group, and the experimental group similarly improved at word spelling skills after they received the phonological awareness training. Also, the total number of correct responses at the post test was significantly higher than at the pre test and a two-way interaction between group and test period was statistically significant. Second, children with reading disabilities who were taught phonological awareness training showed that there are significant differences among test period on the number of correct responses for irregular words of invented spelling. As progressed to phonological awareness training from pre to post tests, invented spelling on irregular words was improved significantly. Two experimental groups similarly improved at invented spelling on irregular words and a two-way interaction between group and test period was not statistically significant. In conclusion, the results suggest that phonological awareness training regardless of phonological awareness training methods might have positive influence on word spelling skills for children with reading disability. The results showed that using a robot can improve word spelling skills as much as the traditional group. This result suggests that intervention using a robot could be effective at intervention for children with reading disability. In other words, a robot can be utilized as a promising tool for supporting clinicians. In addition, the results showed that the more children with reading disability received phonological awareness training, the more invented spelling skills on irregular words are improved. It is suggested that the critical factor of invented spelling is a child’s phonological awareness about language sounds and a child’s insight for segmental structure of speech, helping them move from their intrinsic system to standard system.