Students switch to AI to learn languages

I told my Argentinian friend that I was using ChatGPT to practice my Spanish and excitedly explained what it could do.

I told him that he would correct my mistakes and also teach me regional variations of Spanish, such as Mexican Spanish, Argentinian Spanish, and, interestingly, Spanglish.

And unlike when chatting with him on WhatsApp, you don’t have to worry about time zone differences.

My friend is not so enthusiastic. “So you took my place?” he jokes.

Of course not. The convenience and breadth of AI chatbots can’t match the joy I’ve learned over the years of chatting with personality quirks. However, it is a useful supplement.

And I’m just one of many who have discovered the benefits of AI-based chat in language learning in recent months.

A Costa Rican who works in the construction industry says an AI-powered keyboard helps him hone his English jargon. For example, describing a tool helped me find the English word for it, which saved me a lot of time.

A cafe owner in South Africa further improved his Spanish grammar with the help of AI. He had trouble finding easy study tools, especially considering his ADHD. As such, he began using ChatGPT to quickly generate and adapt learning aids such as verb tense charts.

Developers were quick to jump on this wave of interest, and now there are many apps that utilize open source code to customize AI for language learners. These are more suitable for learners than generic chatbots like the virtual companion Replika.

Branka Klimova, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at Hradec Kralove University in the Czech Republic, says Replicaka helps students practice their informal English.

But conversations were repetitive, language corrections were missing, and chatbots sometimes asked students for sexy photos. “This was pretty abusive.”

In contrast, one particular language-learning chatbot is LangAI, launched in March by Federico Ruiz Cassarino. Luis Casarino draws on his own experience of moving to England from Uruguay and learning English. His English skills improved dramatically by speaking every day compared to the more academic way. He is currently working on Italian using his own app.

Luis Casarino points out that most people are confident about making mistakes in a language they barely speak, even to a tutor. But chatbots don’t judge you. And the new wave of generative AI is so advanced that it can cultivate an AI correspondent. That’s his take on his product.

Instead of sticking to boring pre-made roleplays, today’s AI “can talk about things that are interesting to you, so it feels less tedious to learn.”

While many language learners use popular chatbots like ChatGPT and Bard for practice, Luis Cassarino finds specific language learning apps like his to be helpful.

“We worked hard to create the perfect book for anyone wanting to learn the language,” he says. The team customized LangAI’s user interface to the user’s vocabulary level, added the ability to correct during a conversation, and turned speech into text.

According to Ruiz Cassarino, it has an amazing retention rate for an educational app. Of those users who tried the app for about 10 minutes, about 45% said he is still using the app after a month. They are now focused on building a subscriber base of people willing to pay for unlimited usage.

Related advances are planned, such as tracking skill growth and the ability to personalize your chatbot’s tone and personality (perhaps even allowing you to practice language while conversing with historical figures).

Associate Professor Klimova, who is also a member of the research project “Language in the Age of Man and Machine”, evaluated the usability and usefulness of AI chatbots for foreign language students. This research suggests that AI chatbots can help with vocabulary development, grammar, and other language skills, especially when providing corrective feedback.

To stay ahead of the trend, established language learning apps are integrating AI into their own platforms. Duolingo will begin working with his OpenAI in September 2022 using the company’s GPT-4.

AI chatbots are unlikely to replace Duolingo entirely. Lagos-based editor and writer Joy Ehonwa uses her Duolingo primarily to learn French.

But recently, she’s also been using an AI chatbot developed in Nigeria to help her speak French.

She interacts with this chatbot, Kainene vos Savant, as she would with an “omniscient human friend.”

Ehonwa explains: “My questions revolve around ‘why’. When I fail an exercise in Duolingo, the app doesn’t do much to help me figure out why I did it wrong. So I asked Kainene, Also, when I ask a question, I think the sentence should be like this, but when it’s not, when I ask Kainene why, as an English speaker, she understands why it’s not what I expect. I will give it to you.”

If older language learning platforms have their weaknesses, so does AI-powered language learning. Users report that the chatbot is proficient in widely spoken European languages, but suffers from poor quality in languages ​​that are underrepresented online or have different writing systems. Many AI language learning apps are available in a limited set of languages.

Even with a common language, chatbots make mistakes and sometimes even invent words. One problem is that they deliver the text so confidently that newer learners are more likely to take what they say as correct.

Emily M. Bender, a professor of computational linguistics at the University of Washington in the United States, wonders: “What prejudices and inappropriate ways of speaking about others are we learning from chatbots?” Other ethical issues such as data privacy may also be ignored.

Still, Klimova believes there is a huge market for such technology. And like many language learners, she notes amazing progress in her GPT-4 accuracy available with ChatGPT’s paid subscription.

Many teachers are against this, but she believes it is only a matter of time before artificial intelligence will replace foreign language teachers.

It may sound extreme, but “teachers have a good understanding of each student’s individual learning style, language needs and goals, so they will continue to be important mentors and facilitators, especially for beginners and older students. will play a role.”

As more advanced self-directed learning becomes possible, it will be important for language teachers to assess the added value of AI and its role in relation to AI. “Technology is here to stay, and we have to face it and rethink our teaching methods and assessments,” advises Associate Professor Klimova.