The news about Robots teaching English to kids and adults alike across South Korea has been published across media around the world. I came across this information here and here.

As per the news around 30 robots would be deployed for teaching English to youngsters in various South Korean city. The egg shaped robot will display a Caucasian woman face in its TV display panel. And some English teachers  from Philippines would remotely control the class. And their facial responses would be mapped to the Caucasian woman’s face to simulate her expressions in the class as per students behavior.

The current pilot project would be tested for 4 months and would be adopted as an alternative mostly in rural and remote parts of Korea where foreign teachers are not willing to relocate and the government may have certain budget constraints to recruit English Teachers.

It ‘sounds’ like a good alternative and seem to have received a good response from youngsters and adults but in my view it is not completely addressing the issue. Also the English teaching robots can give rise to new unforeseen issues which they might have failed to notice.

Here are a few things that comes to my mind in response to the benefits they have put forth in adopting Robots as English teachers.

The kids seemed to love it since the robots look, well, cute and interesting. But some adults also expressed interest, saying they may feel less nervous talking to robots than a real person

and

Having robots in the classroom makes the students more active in participating, especially shy ones afraid of speaking out to human teachers. The machines can be an efficient tool to hone language skills for many people who feel nervous about conversing with flesh-and-blood foreigners

So in my opinion if the kids are shy and nervous to face human (foreign) teachers then what would make them confident when they will pass out of the school and face the real world. Also a human teachers role is not just limited to teaching. A students relationship with teacher is more like a bond where it goes beyond teaching. There are times when a kid needs to confide in the teacher and there are times when a kid needs to be disciplined by a teacher.  Also as a kid, teachers are the first living person we come in contact with who inspire us to be like them when we grow. There are certain qualities which every student imbibe from its teacher.

The idea behind recruiting robots as teachers are that they are highly cost effective. And the government would not be required to pay accommodation, sick leaves, severance pay to the robots. I do understand the cost is the major factor in every business but replacing human teachers with robots is not the effective solution. South Korea is already facing issues with their locals not speaking English and adopting robots in no way is going to guarantee that the ratio of students who could speak fluent English will increase.  It would rather aggravate the issue.

Another thing that disappoints me is that they have used the face of a Caucasian lady. I mean why just a Caucasian white woman character. A student should be exposed to all sexes and all nationalities. So ideally the robot should have avatars which could be configured for every new session. English today is not just restricted to white or black people residing in US, UK, Canada and Australia. English is widely spoken across the world in India, Singapore, Philippines and various other countries. Also an average Korean if he has to interact with Japanese, Chinese or other Asian nationals then the only language he is supposed to use is English. So ideally the robot should have avatars for Indians, Japanese, Chinese, Europeans, Russians male and female in their local dialect.

Secondly having Robots as Teachers would make the conversation so one sided.  I do agree I have not experienced the Robots myself nor I have attended the class but it is like

I do not oppose technology. I rather welcome it with open hands. But it is important to take into consideration the limitation as well as advantages of technology adoption and accordingly formulate a strategy for adoption. A better solution would be to

• Use robots as assistants rather than replacing them.
• Add avatars supporting Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Philippine, European, Russian and Native Speaking characters – both male and female. This would make the adult education more wholesome and would expose the kids to more English Language speakers for different nationalities at an early age.
• If cost is the biggest factor, then recruit teachers from India. Indians have done a better job at learning English without even recruiting native speakers as teachers. The English Teachers in India are the locals who speak English as good as Native Speakers.

My final words – Communication is beyond learning the language. It is more about the confidence with which you speak the language. And you could be confident only if you speak in person rather than simulate speaking.