Leveraging The Power of AI in Language Education Part One

By Dan Edwards, Ed.D. and Kevin Gaugler, Ph.D.

In education, the rise of AI-powered tools like ChatGPT has been met with a mix of enthusiasm and caution. Certainly, concerns over the use of artificial intelligence and academic integrity are warranted and should not be overlooked. However, this post aims to shed light on the immediate positive potential of using artificial intelligence platforms like ChatGPT in the language classroom and how it can be deployed today to support second language educators and second language learners.

What is AI and how can it be used to support language teachers today?

Imagine an assistant capable of reading millions of books, articles, and other written material in mere seconds, remembering every word, and using this knowledge to answer questions or undertake tasks. This describes Artificial Intelligence (AI). A pivotal facet of AI is Natural Language Processing (NLP). Think of it as teaching a machine to process the patterns of human language and generate language based on billions of examples. This underlying technology, most notably that of OpenAI’s Chat GPT, is rapidly transforming the abilities of online translators, chatbots, and learning platforms.

These tools use Large Language Models (LLMs), trained on massive amounts of text data to generate human-like text based on the input these systems receive. The potential list of applications and use cases continues to grow and evolve at breakneck speed, making it difficult at times to stay abreast of innovation in this sector. How can you, as an educator, harness the potential of AI? By delegating dull, repetitive tasks while also amplifying volume and richness of targeted comprehensible input for your L2 learners, you can reap the benefits of AI now using a few easy tools.

AI Tools

In this post, we have reviewed several tools that you can use to automate administrative and routine tasks such as lesson planning, content creation, error detection, and progress tracking. Used separately or in combination, Magicschool.ai, Diffit for Teachers, and the Brisk Teaching plugin for the Google Chrome browser can free educators from some of the tedium of paperwork and assessment. This can pave the way for a substantial reallocation of time and effort towards fostering interpersonal relationships between instructors and learners. The ease and efficiency brought about by these tools allows educators to focus more on the human aspect of teaching, such as understanding each learner’s unique learning style, providing personalized guidance, and building a community of learners who are engaged and motivated. This shift may not only enrich classroom instruction, but also reinvigorate the passion and satisfaction that comes with teaching while providing valuable frameworks for instructors to generate quality materials that are aligned with learning standards.

Magicschool.ai is a versatile platform with tools designed to streamline the teaching process. Among its features, the rubric creator empowers instructors to craft detailed and customized rubrics with just a few inputs, increasing efficiency for a traditionally time-consuming task. By providing the AI with basic information and guidelines, educators can swiftly generate rubrics tailored to their specific needs and criteria. This not only ensures consistency and fairness in assessment but also frees up valuable time, allowing instructors to focus more on interactive and impactful language instruction.

Diffit for Teachers stands out as a transformative tool in the realm of language education, addressing the need for accessible and comprehensible reading materials. Instructors can convert articles from authentic news sources into content that aligns with their learners’ language proficiency levels. By simply providing a link, Diffit breaks down complex texts and transforms them into manageable learning resources. This not only enhances comprehension for language learners but also ensures that they are engaging with real-world content, bridging the gap between the classroom and practical language use. If you are concerned about copyright infringement, note that modifying the reading level of a text falls under educational fair use as long as the converted text is only used for a noncommercial educational purpose. In addition to comprehensible input, Diffit offers a suite of export options, including Google Slides, printable worksheets, and Google Form quizzes to complement the adapted text. Diffit also provides versatility in content creation, allowing instructors to input text directly or request writing on specific topics. This multifaceted approach positions Diffit as a valuable ally for language educators. It streamlines the content adaptation process familiar to many instructors and enriches the learning experience for learners by allowing materials to be highly customized by interest and proficiency level.

Brisk Teaching, a versatile Google Chrome plugin, offers a feedback feature tailored for language educators, generating personalized and constructive feedback directly in Google Docs. What sets this tool apart is its ability to craft feedback in the target language, adjusted to the specific proficiency level of the learner, ensuring that the comments are both accessible and educational. Note that Brisk uses reading grade levels to adjust text complexity rather than the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, so users must have a clear understanding of proficiency expectations when leveling texts. Think of Brisk Teaching as your TA, who reviews submissions and provides a summary for you, the teacher of record. You are the professional educator who can modify AI generated feedback and assign a grade.

Conclusion

You do not need to choose every AI innovation; you can start small and check out one at a time. If a resource makes your work easier and more consistent, great. If, in addition, it gives you more time to work more directly with learners as they build their proficiency and to enhance your relationships with learners, it might be worth adding to your instructional toolbox. As you continue to monitor language development of your learners through assessment, you may see some impact from changes you make with simple AI implementations.

Watch a PBS special on AI in education featuring the authors of this article: https://www.pbs.org/video/how-ai-is-transforming-education-g06h9h/

For More Information

Dive deeper into the topics and tools discussed in this post to better understand how to leverage AI in language education.

Stanford University. (n.d.). CS221: Artificial Intelligence – Principles and Techniques. Retrieved from https://online.stanford.edu/courses/cs221-artificial-intelligence-principles-and-techniques
Jurafsky, D., & Martin, J. (n.d.). Speech and Language Processing. Retrieved from https://web.stanford.edu/~jurafsky/slp3/
OpenAI. (n.d.). ChatGPT: Whimsical Conversationalists. Retrieved from https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt

Large Language Models (LLMs) and Language Education Tools