Language and Culture

AI-Corrected Language Learning

Eleonora Boscolo Suteu

I have used a language learning AI platform in my advanced Italian course that lets students have oral conversations in the target language with the AI. It allows the students to practice aural and oral skills as the AI also subtly corrects their mistakes or mispronunciations, like a teacher would. 

I have used this as a warm-up and review activity. Usually, students practice conversations with each other while I go around the classroom to help them and offer feedback. While having these conversations the students learn a lot about each other and that helps them bond, especially in a new course setting. Having these conversations with AI allows them to get immediate feedback and also lets them practice their listening skills more properly (listening to a "native speaker" vs. a classmate who may mispronounce and make mistakes), however, it eliminates the bonding factor which I believe to be essential in my language classes as I always encourage the students to work in groups and learn from each other.

In the case of this warm-up and review activity with AI, we did it in class and I put the students in groups of 3 so that they would still be working together to talk to the AI and help each other phrasing questions, for example.

I showed the students this specific AI platform because we do oral exams in our language courses and this is a good way for them to get extra oral practice (with feedback) outside of the classroom.

Bio: Eleonora Boscolo Suteu's research and teaching interests include Italian cinema, 20th and 21st -century Italian literature, and Second Language Acquisition and Pedagogy.