Artificial Intelligence and Language Learning Part Two

Pica a few days ago mentioned how she just took a German class on the theme of artificial intelligence. This seems to be a common theme nowadays among language learning groups, since the topic came up in my Spanish conversation group on Friday. It ended up being something of a debate about whether AI is a good tool in language learning. I am in the middle on this one. AI is very useful in providing translations on the fly: my favorite translation service is the one provided by Kagi, and I also like having a browser plugin that allows you to click on a word in a text and get a translation of it, such as TransOver for Chrome-based browsers (I use Vivaldi). I have never tried using a chatbot for foreign language chatting practice, and tend not to think it would work well. One person in our conversation group didn’t like using a foreign language chatbot because they didn’t seem to take the initiative in conversations. Another person in the group said that since the whole point of learning another language is to connect with others, it’s not very rewarding to be talking to a chatbot. There are other AI tools that seem useful for language students. Text-to-speech generators may be able to help with pronunciation of blocks of text. The Kagi translation tool I mentioned above has a proofreading feature which might help with correcting writing errors. As always with AI, one has to be careful since these are never perfect.

Artificial Intelligence

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve been learning German for the past three years, initially through Duolingo and more recently through Lingoda. I’ve taken 46 classes — 46 hours of instruction in group sizes of five students or fewer (and, mostly the average class size has been three). The classes are divided up into the categories of Communication, Reading, Grammar, and Speaking. The level of instruction has been high and I’m glad to say I was today awarded a certificate: I’ve progressed through the beginner level of B2. This means I’m technically now an intermediate intermediate.

This morning’s class was talking about AI, which in German is Kunstliche Intelligenz (or KI). I’m normally the oldest student in the class which I don’t mind, especially since it allows my inner curmudgeon out to howl. I’ve been avoiding taking this particular lesson for weeks because I hate what AI is doing to people’s minds, to the planet, to the political economy, and to political life in general. There were two other students today, both in their early thirties (I’d guess). They use Chat GPT every single day both in their work and in their daily lives. There’s no point in fighting this, is there.