Pedagogical Agents in Teaching Language: Types and Implementation Opportunities

Abstract

Researchers and educators traditionally consider pedagogical agents as animated talking “heads” embedded in the educational computer programs that help to deliver the multimedia content or engage students in the learning process. However, the authors of this research define the pedagogical agent as a character of any kind (video-, cartoon-character, or even a non-interactive book-character) that helps students to learn. The educational function is the crucial feature of any pedagogical agent, according to authors. Thus, in this article, they describe the different types of pedagogical agents they have created and used in teaching language, particularly Russian as a foreign language for the last 15 years of their work. Any teacher can quickly implement most of these pedagogical agents’ types in his/her lessons since they do not require the knowledge of programming and computer design. The pedagogical agents described by authors in this research have proven their efficiency during the experimental training in multinational and diverse level groups of international students who studied the Russian language at RUDN University (Moscow, Russia). Keywords: Teaching foreign languages, teaching Russian as a foreign language, teaching and learning tools, and pedagogical agents.