New Possibilities of Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Language Learning (AIALL): Comparing Visions from the East and the West
Abstract
:1. Introduction
“Much of the Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED) involves the application of AI techniques to mainstream learning approaches, and tends to reflect (or automate) existing educational assumptions and practices. (…) This approach, while potentially useful in contexts where teachers are few and far between, clearly undervalues teachers’ unique skills and experiences, as well as learners’ needs for social learning and guidance. However, instead of just automating the teaching of students sat at computers, conceivably AI might help open up teaching and learning possibilities that are otherwise difficult to achieve, that challenge existing pedagogies, or that help teachers to be more effective”.[5] (pp. 621–622)
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Objective and Research Questions
- RQ1: What are the attitudes of in-service language teachers around the globe towards AIALL?
- RQ2: To what extent does the context impact the attitudes of in-service language teachers towards AIALL considering whether they work in an Eastern or a Western country?
2.2. Participants
2.3. Data Collection and Analysis
2.4. Positionality
3. Results
3.1. Implications of Using AIALL for Learning Purposes
“I can see that nowadays many students use AI as an assistant to improve their vocabulary and their grammar, and to check their grammar mistakes when they have to do any kind of essay for the teachers. Also, they [students] use it to help them with the translation of different texts”.P02
“I believe that AI can definitely contribute to balancing the weight of the different skills in the learning process of the target language. Written skills have always had a greater weight in foreign language teaching-learning processes than oral skills (…). I believe that the use of artificial intelligence can play a fundamental role in the enhancement of both oral expression and oral comprehension skills”.P05
“In my experience teaching languages in the UK, one of the biggest challenges we have had is actually trying to get students to see the value of learning a language, and we have struggled to sustain students’ interest, engagement, and motivation. To overcome this, I think that AI offers incredible potential and opportunities for students to learn a language in a very immersive way”.P06
“[AI] can help students overcome fear. I have noticed that especially in students of a certain age they know the theory, but have a lot of fear of making a mistake or saying something wrong. With AI, the student, knowing that they are not speaking in the real world with another real speaker but with a machine, can overcome that rejection, that initial difficulty, in daring to use the language they are learning, without damaging their self-image”.P05
“I think it [AI] also can increase students’ engagement in the classroom or in the learning process […]. I think integrating AI in language learning can let the students and also the teacher set their own goals, and then they can also learn not only in the classroom but also they can stay in any place and any time and follow some customized syllabus to learn language”.P03
“[A disadvantage of AI] is about familiarity with some applications or programs of AI for the students, especially in the schools or in the classroom where the students coming from low-status or low-income families. I think they are not familiar with these—I experienced it myself in my teaching when I showed them an iPad and it was the first time they saw an iPad”.P03
“Another element that I think can be counterproductive is that we consider that what the machines [AI] help us with is the real world. But this is like Matrix, it is not real. You have to be like Neo and see beyond the Matrix, and differentiate between real reality and machine reality. That is, a learner learns a foreign language and loses their fear using the machine, but the learner is still in a bubble, and has to face the use of the language in real life conditions”.P05
“Actually, in Iran we do not have much access to AI tools… It is not easy, but when you have access (e.g., ChatGPT) the way you can use it can be stressful from the side of the students, because they compete in unbalanced ways, so it increases inequality among learners”.P02
3.2. Implications of Using AIALL for Teaching Purposes
“I use some apps in order to create tests (…). I just put the reading there and then AI can create the questions and also the answers and explanation. I think that they [the questions] are even better than the teacher’s, because sometimes you can have some opinions and it is very difficult to validate the test yourself”.P01
“I also believe that AI helps us individualize language teaching. If I want to do an oral activity, it is very difficult to carry it out in a classroom with so many students at the same time. But each student can now do it individually with AI”.P04
“…it can provide instant feedback. I think among the AI language learning apps we can find lots of learning applications on language and I think it can also evaluate the essays and also automatically give some feedback about the grammar and also suggest some corrections in terms of the vocabulary use, coherence and cohesion”.P03
“I just feel like sometimes students could easily cheat and teachers even do not know how students cheat. In my university we always apply some restrictions for students to do the exams. So even when we try to avoid that they cheat, they still find some other ways to cheat. At the time I am not specialized in technology, in AI, so I do not know even they are cheating”.P01
“…when you let AI do everything, it is very dangerous for the class (…). You need to observe students. They are humans and they also need encouragement, not only the points that you give them with technologies, but also with your speech, your loving speech, especially when they feel disappointed”.P01
3.3. Apps and Specific Uses of AIALL
“…in my university we use movie dubbing (it is like you play some actors and you read the script, you need to speak in the [appropriate] way to show the situation, and in a way to imitate the accent, the voice). So I feel like AI can increase students’ pronunciation and also fluency in speaking”.P01
“A very simple example is: open Google Maps, search for the map of Berlin and try to tell it that you want to go to the Schlossbrücke [ʃlɔs‘brʏkə]. It is not the same to say “brücke” as ‘brʏkə, ‘brik or ‘brukə, because maybe it does not understand you. So, when you realize that the machine is not understanding you, then you think “Ah, I’m just not pronouncing it right. I’ll try again”. This interaction with AI can help you a lot to improve pronunciation as if you were in an immersive situation”.P05
4. Discussion, Conclusions, and Practical Implications
- Teacher training is essential to introduce AIALL in the language classroom. In this context, teachers should know and test the AI tools before using them in their lessons, so as to filter what is most appropriate considering their target groups of students.
- Practitioners need to rethink assessment to avoid plagiarism and cheating, but also to take advantage of AIALL in the learning–teaching processes.
- Students’ digital literacy should be improved, as their lack of this competence, connected to the development of AI, may even risk their personal data and privacy.
- Education stakeholders (i.e., teachers, students, headmasters, families) need to have some guidelines regarding the use of AIALL.
- The human factor cannot be removed from education, as not only can teachers identify students’ needs, they can also provide learners with emotional support during the long process of learning a language.
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
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ID | Gender | Working Country | Years of Experience |
---|---|---|---|
P01 | Woman | Vietnam (East) | 5 years teaching English as a foreign language |
P02 | Woman | Iran (East) | 10 years teaching English as a foreign language + 4 years in education books publishing |
P03 | Man | Indonesia (East) | 5 years teaching EFL |
P04 | Woman | Spain (West) | 2 years teaching English and Spanish as foreign languages |
P05 | Woman | Germany (West) | 13 years teaching English and Spanish as foreign languages |
P06 | Woman | United Kingdom (West) | 30 years teaching French, German, and English as second/foreign languages |
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Huertas-Abril, C.A.; Palacios-Hidalgo, F.J. New Possibilities of Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Language Learning (AIALL): Comparing Visions from the East and the West. Educ. Sci. 2023, 13, 1234. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13121234
Huertas-Abril CA, Palacios-Hidalgo FJ. New Possibilities of Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Language Learning (AIALL): Comparing Visions from the East and the West. Education Sciences. 2023; 13(12):1234. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13121234
Chicago/Turabian StyleHuertas-Abril, Cristina A., and Francisco Javier Palacios-Hidalgo. 2023. "New Possibilities of Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Language Learning (AIALL): Comparing Visions from the East and the West" Education Sciences 13, no. 12: 1234. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13121234