Daniel Gomez sees great potential in artificial intelligence as he works with bilingual learners in humanities and social studies.
“Teachers in general aren’t knowledgeable about every subject,” says Gomez, who teaches at the bilingual K-12 Ideal School in Tampa, Fla., and aren’t proficient in multiple languages. AI can help bridge the gap. “We can pick up any topic that students are interested in and treat that topic appropriately.”
He is not alone in making this assessment. For example, researchers at Harvard University are actively exploring how AI-powered chatbots can support bilingual student learning and parent-child interactions.
“There are many opportunities to use AI to adapt learning materials to different languages, increasing access for bilingual learners,” he says. Ying Shuan assistant professor of education at Harvard University and one of the researchers involved in the study.
“Some projects are looking at how AI can provide additional scaffolding to help children understand content in their native language,” she added. “For example, a multilingual model allows you to maintain the core learning content in English while providing instructions, prompts, or support in the child’s native language.”
Experts see great potential for AI to improve bilingual education if done right.
Chatbot as educational support
“Bilingual learners are clearly learning the language and culture of the classroom and the environment they are in,” he says. Krystle Salasassistant director of special populations at Second Mile, which operates alternative education charter schools for at-risk students in several states.
“They don’t necessarily have access to the materials, they don’t even have access to the conversations that are happening in the classroom, and certainly not at the level of their classmates,” she continues. And teachers may not have the experience or tools to scaffold the support these students need.
AI can help teachers become more efficient, and it can also help bilingual learners thrive. What chatbots can do [students] Speak some of your content in Spanish or give them simpler short sentences,” says Salas.
Chatbots can also help bilingual students build confidence. “Maybe I don’t want to speak English in front of other people, but I speak English to chatbots because they don’t care if I’m doing it wrong.” melissa hennigK-12 Educational Content Manager at The Source for Learning.
“You can have a conversation with the chatbot about what you were trying to say and what came out, and it helps you rephrase it,” she added. “It can be really empowering as a multilingual learner.”
Gomez believes there is a role for AI in helping young learners master the concepts being taught in the classroom. The chatbot will probably teach you in your native language, and that’s okay. Students can understand the material. ” [they] I also know some English words,” he added.
You may also benefit from chatbots as they are available 24/7. There are many ways to master study material, but it won’t help you “if you’re not actively practicing,” Gomez says. Especially for those learning a foreign language, AI is always available, creating more practice opportunities.
Educational Strategists and ISTE Certified Educators Using SchoolAI Stephanie Howell We have seen the benefits of AI firsthand. Students use it as a “side guide” and annotate it as they read. “And if there’s a word I don’t understand, I can go to the AI and say, ‘Explain this to me another way,'” she added. It creates self-awareness skills. It’s not me who always finds the words they need help with. ”
A second- and third-grade intervention specialist at Lancaster City Schools in Ohio, she creates learning activities and tells the AI, “The first time they make a mistake, you don’t want to give them too much of a foothold. You want them to struggle productively. But the second time they make a mistake, you want them to give you a starting point.”
And she herself uses AI to support her students. As a co-teacher, she breaks down the content assigned by the lead teacher and asks the AI, “What vocabulary in this article might my students struggle with?” or “Help me analyze the patterns you’ve noticed.” This gives her deeper insight and gives her more time to focus on one-on-one learning and other high-value strategies.
Chatbot as a family engagement tool
Chatbots can also help bridge the gap with students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to talk about schoolwork at home.
“A lot of parents speak Spanish. The kids come home with English content, but they don’t speak it.” [the language]. “Rather than having students speak in both languages, the chatbot translates at the same time, allowing them to actually use both languages at the same time to build concepts,” says Henning.
“Students are often better at English than their parents,” she continues. With the help of chatbots, “they can participate in the conversation and position their native language as an asset rather than a barrier.”
Teachers can facilitate this. At their prompting, “the bot can send questions to families each night related to that day’s lessons, such as ‘Ask your child about the bravest thing this character did in this book,'” she added. “This allows non-English speaking parents to have a conversation about the content.”
Best practices for using chatbots
For schools considering using chatbots to support bilingual learners, experts say it’s important to proceed with caution. They need to be wary of “unintended consequences of widening existing inequality,” Xu said.
“For example, many AI systems still have poor accuracy in recognizing bilingual children’s speech, especially when children’s speech has accent or dialect variations, or when they move between languages,” she added.
As a result, “bilingual learners may benefit less from these tools if the system cannot accurately understand their speech,” she continues. “This concern also applies when using AI for assessment, where differences in dialects and vocal accents can lead to inaccurate assessments.”
Additionally, there is also a digital divide to consider, as students will need access to the chatbot for this to work. “We want to make sure that the disparity is not increasing because they don’t have devices available at home or they don’t have internet at home,” Henning said.
Howell encourages teachers to make smart use of the multilingual capabilities built into AI. With some tools you can[students] “If you don’t set a requirement to stick with English, you can actually start typing in Spanish,” she added.
This is useful, but should be used with caution. “As a teacher, sometimes I can’t have my students go back and forth because they have to learn in English,” she continues. “It always comes back to the learning objectives.”
Educators should also pay attention to the AI models that chatbots are using. Although tools may be trained in academic language, students also need to engage with school subjects informally. AI must respond to needs.
“If you want more specialized vocabulary or something that’s easier to use on a daily basis, you can train that way,” Gomez says. “You can customize it to suit your needs.”
And the teacher’s voice should always be the most visible. “AI is a very valuable tool and can help with so many things, but it always needs a human touch,” he added.
At Second Mile, Salas echoes this idea. “Children need human interaction,” she says. “Teachers can read students’ emotions, see the full context of a situation, and make adjustments in real time. And AI can make mistakes, so we always want to make sure the majority of the guidance and support comes from humans.”
