Marina: 0:02

Hello and welcome to How To Language a podcast about language learning. I'm Marina,

Jeremiah: 0:07

and I'm Jeremiah,

Marina: 0:08

We know you're probably sick of hearing about AI in the news, but today we're diving into the world of AI and language learning how artificial intelligence is changing the way we learn languages, what it gets right, what it absolutely doesn't, and how to use it as a tool without letting it replace the most important parts of learning a language.

Jeremiah: 0:28

Yeah. And, don't worry, we didn't use AI to write this intro. Mostly

Marina: 0:35

So we're talking about AI in language learning, but I think before we dive too deep, we should explain what we mean when we say ai.'cause that is kind of a scary buzzword that is thrown around a lot. But I think we should clarify what exactly we mean.

Jeremiah: 0:53

Yeah, for one thing, because when we say it, we mean multiple things. Kind of interchangeably, even though they're not interchangeable. And for two, I think, you know, people have been kind of anticipating AI for probably since 2001, a space oddity. Odyssey, sorry. I was getting my, my pop culture mixed up also. It didn't come out in 2001. That's just what it's called. When did it come out? 1941. I dunno. I bring it up because wasn't there famously an AI in it?

Marina: 1:27

Yeah. Hal,

Jeremiah: 1:28

how

Marina: 1:28

the ai Yeah.

Jeremiah: 1:30

I've never actually seen that movie. Was Hal good or bad? I

Marina: 1:32

think the whole point was that he was bad. Yeah.

Jeremiah: 1:34

Usually the AI is bad. Like if you've played Portal Uhhuh, if you've seen Wally, if you've seen W Yeah, that was a

Marina: 1:42

pretty direct reference. Perfect

Jeremiah: 1:43

example. If you've seen, um. iBot. The whole point of that movie was that AI is bad. But in all of those cases, the AI at least is, it's implied that humans have figured out how to actually make an artificial. Intelligence, it's in the name. And one important thing to point out is that in our timeline, that is not what happened. Like none of this is actually an artificial intelligence. None of it is like a digital brain that does all the same things your brain does. We'll get into it, but like, it's fundamentally not what it sounds like. So I'll hand it back over to you to talk about what it actually is mm-hmm. At this stage in history anyway.

Marina: 2:23

So what we have currently, as far as I understand it, is narrow ai, which means basically that it's an artificial intelligence that is designed and programmed to. Do one specific task. It doesn't have the greater thinking capabilities that are portrayed in movies like that. Exactly.

Jeremiah: 2:48

Like you couldn't, put chat. You couldn't download chat GPT into like a robot body and then have it discover fire or something.

Marina: 2:56

Right. Like. Chat t's only purpose that it was designed for was to mimic human language.

Jeremiah: 3:04

Exactly. Yeah. if you've ever played a video game, all the other people in the game that aren't real, all the NPCs, they are all run by a very narrow ai. Like if you play Skyrim and you're fighting bandits, that AI has one goal, which is to kill you. So you know, a perfect example. It could be literally one one specific task. Yeah. And it counts as AI apparently.

Marina: 3:25

Exactly. And some of these AI tools are designed with language teaching as their main task. Some of them. Can do that as a part of their existing tasks. So, there's a few different kinds of AI that we see in the language learning landscape. There's translation AI tools like Google, Google Translate, and Deep LI don't know if that's how you're supposed to say it. If it's like de I don't think it's de, I dunno, there's so many dumb names like that nowadays. There are a lot of dumb names. You can never be sure. So they like

Jeremiah: 4:03

chat. PPT, sorry, I'm cutting that out. No, no, you can't cut that. Okay. Keep going.

Marina: 4:11

A lot of people don't think about Google translate as ai, but it technically is and it's task is translation. There's of course things like chatbots and natural language processors. So that's what people usually are talking about nowadays when they talk about ai. This is like chat GPT. deep seek. Grock, Elon Musk's ai. Apparently. There's writing evaluation tools like Grammarly. Those are super popular for. Editing essays and giving you tips on writing and revision. And then there's also things like what are called ITSs or intelligent tutoring systems. There's a lot of these for different subjects, but the most well-known one in language learning is Duolingo, which isn't entirely ai, but it has ai. Features in it that kind of help assess your language learning progress and adapt their lessons based on how you're doing.

Jeremiah: 5:12

Yeah. It seems like what all these kind of have in common, if you think about it and part what makes them ai other than, oh, they're programed to do a task, which is a lot of things that don't count as AI is they all on some level are like capable of independently making decisions. Even if it's really small decisions, like for Google Translate, for example, it's programmed to be able to decide. How to word a sentence based on criteria that are not obvious. And for like Duolingo, I don't know, it decides like, when to annoy you on your phone with your push notifications.

Marina: 5:47

Mm-hmm.

Jeremiah: 5:47

And maybe we'll get to this, but speaking of chat bots, they've started actually incorporating those in the intelligent tutoring systems now. Like memorize has little chat. AI buddies that you can talk to. I've tried the Chinese one and the problem is it tries to, it instantly uses words that I don't know. The problem with Chinese is you can't just look at the words and figure it out. Unless you've seen the words before, it's like, might as well be Greek for all, you know?

Marina: 6:12

So, Jeremiah, have you used ai? It sounds like you have.

Jeremiah: 6:18

You know, I used to use Chate a lot and then I got sick of paying for it when I realized that Deep Seek can do most of the same stuff for free. So now I use deep seek if I have questions. And what else? I had something else. Speaking, yeah, experiences with ai, actually when I was taking old Norse in grad school. For funsies. I got kind of overwhelmed with everything that I had going on and I was like, I don't really actually care about this. Like, I like going into class, but I don't, I'm not gonna like stick with it enough to bother actually learning anything Oof. Which is sad. I really liked the instructor. She was great. But, so what I would do is I would just like feed Chacha Bee my old Norse homework, my translation, what it came back with was actually really good. I got really good grades on it.

Marina: 7:12

That's exactly what you're not supposed to do. I

Jeremiah: 7:15

know. And here's my disclaimer for people listening. If it's something you care about and you actually want to get better at, don't use AI like that. You can still use it, but don't just have it do your work for you. That goes for anything. But if you're taking one quarter of old Norse and you don't plan on taking a second quarter or ever using it. You know? Sure. If you don't wanna fail, then you can use some ai. I was surprised at how accurate it was though. It was crazy even back then. This was 2023, I think.

Marina: 7:45

Yeah. Wow. You just admitted to academic fraud.

Jeremiah: 7:51

I did what?

Marina: 7:56

All right, well, don't do that.

Jeremiah: 7:58

Don't do that.

Marina: 8:01

Okay. So. Ai, as a language learning tool is under this umbrella in second language acquisition studies called Computer Assisted Language Learning, which is, you know, shortened to call, everything's

Jeremiah: 8:23

an acronym these days. I

Marina: 8:24

know, and it refers to. The use of computers and technology to aid in the language learning process,

Jeremiah: 8:35

which is so funny. It's, it sounds like something that, um. Was like a research area in like 2003 when computers were still new and they were like, did you know you could use computers to learn a language? And everybody was like, what? That's crazy.

Marina: 8:52

I mean, yeah, that is kind of where it started. Like, like CD ROMs that, oh my god. Like,

Jeremiah: 8:57

I don't even know what that is.

Marina: 9:01

So yeah. But no, it really, it started like back then and then, you know, it's. Persisted all the way up until now with AI and things like voice recognition software, things like that. And so there's a pretty long history of research in Call that has shown that technology can in fact enhance language learning, in several ways, which we'll get to shortly. And that language learners generally report positive experiences and outcomes when using these tools. So they are a good thing. It's not like they hinder language learning at all. They tend to have the opposite effect.

Jeremiah: 9:42

Yeah. It's not cheating. Just like, you know, the first farmer who invented a plow wasn't cheating. Right?

Marina: 9:48

Yeah, exactly. It's just another tool. But you know, call has traditionally been seen as a supplementary tool, so it's not a replacement for real world practice or language teachers or textbooks or anything like that. AI is just the latest evolution of call with its own benefits and limitations, which we're going to get into. We'll talk about the benefits of using AI specifically in language learning. Things to look out for, things that you're missing out on. And we'll also go into some do's and don'ts if you choose to use AI as a supplementary tool. So the benefits of using ai, I think the first one that comes to mind and that's the the first reason that a learner turns to AI in the first place is that it's an on demand tool. It's almost like an on-demand language partner. Instead of going out and seeking a tutor. Or visiting your teacher's office hours. Um, you have immediate access to a partner to practice speaking, writing and comprehension whenever you want, wherever you are, which eliminates the need for those human partners. In theory it shouldn't replace human partners, but that is what you can use it for in a pitch. Similarly, you get immediate assessment on the output that you generate, whether it's speaking to chat GPT or writing your translation in Duolingo. It gives you immediate correction and hopefully explanation. Addresses your mistakes in real time, which is really a valuable learning experience.'cause making an error doesn't really help you very much unless you understand why it was an error and how to correct the mistake. But in a classroom environment, you. Can potentially receive immediate correction and feedback from your teacher or from a tutor. But that can also be scary. It can be embarrassing. It can be demoralizing to get that from an authority figure, somebody that you trust or respect. And so, you know, but AI is just an ai. You can't really get your feelings hurt by it. And so in that sense, it's a very low stakes language partner. You can talk to it or write to it and feel that you're not going to be judged by them. Many learners won't feel as anxious when speaking in their target language. It's very much a no judgment zone, which definitely is a huge benefit, if, especially if you struggle with anxiety when it comes to speaking your target language. And I think the last main benefit of losing AI is that it can be very good at adaptive teaching, which means like it can tailor its lessons or its. Responses to be specific to your needs and your interests. You can have a conversation with chat GPT about photography, if that's your interest, in your target language and be able to talk about it at length, whereas your teacher or tutor. Might not be able to do that. Um, they might not be able to devote that much time to it. They might not know enough to be able to talk about it at length. And so if that's something that you wanna do, that's something that AI can provide. It can also adapt to your level. It can kind of get a feel for what level you're at based on your output and adjust. Its and adjust to, to that level to make it more comprehensible. Basically it can adapt to your level and your learning styles. And in fact, I think this is arguably the largest advantage that AI has over traditional language teachers and tools. This is one of the reasons why some teachers fear for the future of the profession, because of the threat of ai. I think that's not going to happen, but it is something to consider, because. Teachers and other traditional methods like textbooks have to cater to large swaths of learners. If you're teaching in a classroom full of lots of different people who are at different levels and different, learning styles, you can't tutor each student individually. So you have to kind of zoom out and do what's best for everybody. Now good teachers, part of your job is to do your best to provide individual support and take into account the individual needs of your students. But that can be really difficult depending on the context that you're in.

Jeremiah: 14:58

Mm-hmm. A student or a,

Marina: 15:00

a teacher who has 10 students in her classroom, that's a lot easier. But if you have a multilevel classroom full of like 40 students, like. Good luck. Yeah, that's really hard. So, they can do their best, but it doesn't top an individualized session with a, with a tutor, um, or in this case an AI tutor. Because it can, you know, theoretically it can pick up on what you're struggling with. It can pick up on how you learn best and then immediately apply that to enhance the overall experience. The question though is whether or not AI is capable of picking up on those things and applying them effectively.

Jeremiah: 15:48

Yeah.'cause you know that, that, that is one of the consequences of the fact that the AI is not like a functioning digital brain like yours. Like, like we have brains, right. It's more like, a pretty sophisticated, like pre predictive text generator. So the extent to which it can notice things in the same way that you and I can notice things is pretty, I would, I would say dubious. But on the other hand, you can tell it things like if you know, oh, you know, this is what I wanna work on, or whatever. Ai, like chat bots in particular seem to do really well when you give them a lot to work with. Like, the more details you provide, the more detailed their response can be, because otherwise they're just working with like the SumTotal of all of the training data that they have. But I think that segues us pretty nicely into, I won't say the drawbacks of ai, and using AI language tools, but more like what you're missing out on, I guess. And I guess to start. Maybe this is a drawback or more of a consideration, I guess, because some listeners might just have a really strong, ethical, issue with even using ai. In particular with using chatbots, you know, whether because they steal data or because they are hugely energy intensive and those are fair. So if you don't wanna use AI language tools, I don't blame you. You're not gonna really miss anything essential that you need. Whatever you're already doing is gonna be just fine. However, if this is of interest to you, then by all means, listen on. So if you, if you are using AI language tools, here's some things you might be missing out on. One thing I will say is that some AI tools like the Chatbots have pretty advanced speaking and listening features, and in addition to just writing, for a while it was just writing, you know, you would write to it and it would write back to you. Kinda like, do you remember Clever Bot?

Marina: 17:49

No

Jeremiah: 17:49

way back in the day. I don't know how that worked. That was like a really, minimally intelligent, I guess chat bot back in the day. Back then that was just, that blew our minds. But you couldn't talk to it now, especially with chat GPT for example, you can carry on a full conversation with it, and it almost feels exactly like you're talking to another human. And again, that's because it's number one job before anything else is to convince you that you're talking to a person, not explicitly, like if you ask it, are you a person, it'll say no. But other than that, it's meant to create the illusion that you're talking to a person. So sometimes the AI model, you know, the Shap PPT, will, even include what we call paralinguistic features. So those are things that are not words, you know, they're not part of the language itself, but they're kind of things that go around, the words that help give the meaning, you know, the expression that people say a lot. That 90% of communication is nonverbal, which is nonsense. I mean, it's not really true. But the kernel of truth to it is that there's a lot of communication that happens through body language and also just like the things in speech in particular that are not language. So the pauses, like if you take an extra long pause between. Your words to collect your thoughts or, and, and, you know, and these are things that, that the AI can do, right? The, the chat, GPT, when you talk to it, sometimes it'll chuckle, which is kind of creepy. That's creepy. It'll pause. Um, sometimes it'll say,

Marina: 19:30

Hmm,

Jeremiah: 19:31

or even clear its throat, which is really unsettling. However, it is important to remember that, ultimately it is not another person. So when you talk to a real person, it's what it is, is it's a relational process of give and take where you are, you're constantly listening and thinking and producing at the same time in tandem with the other person who's doing the exact same thing. You know, it's like a weird balance where you ever find yourself, like if you're in a conversation and you realize, oh, I was just thinking about what I was gonna say next, and I forgot to listen to what they were saying, you know, that's a constant, um. It's a constant balance that you do when you're in a conversation with somebody. And an AI does not have to do that. It's not thinking and it's not even really creating what it's doing is recombining content from, like, the source is, it's some total of training data, most of which it just kind of stole. So in other words, it's essentially, like I said, a really sophisticated predictive text generator. Exactly like the one on your phone when you're typing and it suggests the next word for you. It provides a compelling illusion or like a facade of an interaction, but it is just that it's an illusion. All of this is to say that what you're missing out on is the real human interaction, which is one of the primary, like fuel sources for language learning. You can think of it kinda like the difference between a pilot, you know, when they're first learning how to fly and they go in the simulator. You ever see that? They have like a flight simulator. It's really sophisticated. Have I ever

Marina: 21:03

seen that? Yeah. If you

Jeremiah: 21:04

go to a museum, you know what, if we go to the museum a flight, I bet we can. I bet there's a flight simulator that you can use.

Marina: 21:09

That'd

Jeremiah: 21:09

be fun. But yeah, they get in a flight simulator, it's like a video game, but it's really sophisticated and it has all those, all the right buttons and stuff. Mm-hmm. but that's what they do. And you know, they do that to train. But if you were to just take a pilot who has only flown in a flight simulator and then put them in charge of a commercial airliner and told all the passengers that they would freak out, they'd be like, what do you mean? This pilot has never flown a real plane. So, you know, there's, what I'm getting at is just like there's a difference between learning how to fly in a simulator versus flying a real plane. There's a really important difference between talking to a simulated person and talking to a real person. You can learn a lot from the simulator, but the real experience is gonna present you with challenges, obstacles, and problems that are emergent. Which means they kind of just come as if from nowhere. They're not pre-programmed or whatever, and unique. Like problems that other people might have faced, similar problems, you might have faced similar problems, but ultimately the conditions are unique to your situation. And so it's not so much that you learn how to handle everything that might come up. It's more that you learn how to negotiate obstacles kind of in QuickTime as they come up. And that is one of the most important language skills that doesn't really get talked about super explicitly, but we call it negotiation for meaning. I think we've talked about it before. We'll probably have a whole episode about it someday. That's an important skill and you mostly can't learn it without using the language in practice, in real life conversations. Another gap in AI language learning is that real human beings, when you talk to them. They have specific backgrounds, they have memories, they have cultural heritages, and they have finite linguistic resources that are based on their experience in the lifetime that they learned their language, right? Like they don't know every word, or they might know a word, but forget what it means. Or they might have an idea, but not sure what the word is for it. AI doesn't have that. People don't always say what they mean. Sometimes people say the opposite of what they mean. That's where a lot of those paralinguistic features come up. Like that's part of how you know when someone's being sarcastic. Sometimes they forget the word they're looking for or they have difficulty explaining a concept, and all of that is stuff you have to contend with when you talk to someone. People also have wants and needs. The person you're talking to might be in a hurry or they might be tired or they might be frustrated. And all of these conditions are what makes every interaction in your target language a unique learning experience. And AI has no single cultural reservoir that it draws on. It can't forget words or be in a hurry. It doesn't have wants or needs. So when you're talking to an ai, you'll never be presented with the challenge of communicating across a cultural barrier or having to be more concise or speak more quickly, in order to hold the attention of someone who is in a rush or having to ask clarifying questions to make sense of what someone's trying to tell you when they aren't explaining it very well. Like these are all experiences that we've all had when talking to people, even in our first languages. And AI really can't replicate that. Because that's not what it's meant to do. Lastly, some AI is good at mimicking paralinguistic features, like I mentioned, so like a chuckle or taking a breath. It's kind of creepy, but it can't replicate body language because it doesn't have a body. And so it's not very good. It's also not very good at subtext, which is another key ingredient in most human communication. So these are all some things that AI just can't do. And if you never go outside and you never talk to someone in your target language, just like we always say, you have to go outside, um, you'll be missing out on a lot of these things if you just talk to Chad gt.

Marina: 24:59

So. That was a lot of information, but, we'll kind of summarize it here at the end with some do's and don'ts for using AI for language learning. Definitely do ask it to break down difficult grammar points into simple language or ask it to rephrase an unclear explanation in like your textbook or something your teacher said, this is one of AI's strengths is that it's really good at rephrasing and explaining things in different ways that might make more sense to you, especially if your home base like a textbook is not very helpful. You can

Jeremiah: 25:37

also ask it why a word or a structure in your target language is the way it is. As you know, like me, I like looking up the etymology of words in my target language because I find that helpful for connecting the dots between words and kind of seeing the matrix. So if that's something that you find helpful, AI can be helpful with that. However, you should not, assume everything that it says is true if it's important information. Something that you're gonna be like quizzed on later. Uh, or especially if the AI's answer feels off, then definitely double check what it tells you.

Marina: 26:12

I feel like AI would be particularly unreliable when it comes to etymology. I feel like it would be pretty prone to just making things up.

Jeremiah: 26:21

Yeah. Or, or

Marina: 26:22

rely on folk etymologies,

Jeremiah: 26:24

potentially. Yeah. Because it gets all, most of its data from what the internet.

Marina: 26:28

I think so. Yeah.

Jeremiah: 26:29

So theoretically. In its data banks. There's just a ton of Reddit explanations of things like, oh, the, um, the etymology of the F word is fornicating under consent of the king. I would not be surprised if, if Chad PT has confidently told someone that

Marina: 26:47

Mm, yeah, it's, it's probably not going to the Oxford English dictionary as its first etymological source I'm sure it

Jeremiah: 26:55

has. Reddit in its data, but you know,

Marina: 27:00

yeah, I definitely don't take everything that it says as fact. Like we were talking about earlier, definitely do use it to give you feedback on your grammar, your word choice, et cetera. It's gonna be really good at giving personalized feedback based on what you say or write, but don't rely on it to translate everything, just like you wouldn't trust everything Google Translates says. There might be some translation tools that are. Quote, unquote better than others. Like deep L is gonna be better than Google, Google Translate, for example. But that doesn't mean that it's infallible, and it doesn't mean that they don't have their limitations. So, you know, I don't think that we'll be saying goodbye to human translators anytime soon. You always wanna double check, double check what it gives you if you're using it for that.

Jeremiah: 27:49

Yeah, absolutely. Also remember that, an important thing with any language is that it's a living thing unless you're studying a dead language. It is a living uneven phenomenon. And what I mean by that is there's a whole corpus of colloquialisms and idioms and slang terms that. Are one temp temporally constrained. And what I mean by that is like people weren't saying lock in or crash out before, the last year, I think. And you know, that's in English, but they're also often geographically constrained, right? Sometimes it'll be the same word, but spelled differently in different places. Or mean different things in different places. So what I'm getting at is, remember that AI does not necessarily know every colloquialism, every idiom, or every slang term, especially if it is particular to a certain dialect or a geographical area.

Marina: 28:56

And if you do ask it to use. Slang and colloquialisms from a particular region of the world, it might rely on stereotypes to achieve that, which isn't ideal either.

Jeremiah: 29:09

Yeah, good point. Like if you say, oh, speak Chile and Spanish. Mm-hmm. I feel like Chile and Spanish is un irrationally. Look down on for some reason.

Marina: 29:19

Yeah, right. Exactly. So we don't wanna do that either.'cause it is just getting its information from humans and humans are fallible and have bias. Mm-hmm. And we don't want that. So this last thing, in our research for this episode, I found, an article written by Schmidt and Strasser, Schmidt and Rasser in, 2022 called Artificial Intelligence in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching a Call. God for intelligent practice.

Jeremiah: 29:53

Oh no. And call is like all caps because it's a, it's a pun. Okay. Anyway, off to a great start.

Marina: 30:01

At the very end of this article, they, give this utopian their words vision of what a, computer assisted foreign language classroom might look like in 2040. And so we have an excerpt here. I shortened it'cause it was pretty long, so. Mm-hmm. I just, just keep that in mind. It's not a word for word. But

Jeremiah: 30:26

yeah. And it also just glancing over it, it looks like there's some, academicy jargon in here. Mm-hmm. Not, not crazy, but a little bit. Yeah. How about I, I'll just go ahead and read it out loud because this looks pretty interesting. Cool. I love eviscerating academic jargony, writing because I always find it so. You silly. All right, here we go. It says in 2040, the foreign language classroom will be an evidence-based, Hey, that's us. We're evidence-based and we're just based, evidence-based blended learning environment with bring your own device solutions in all classrooms and subjects. Is everybody gonna be able to afford those devices? I don't know. Anyway, in 2040, the printed textbook will have become an interactive, multimedia, adaptive learning and practice environment that is perfectly adapted to the needs of both face-to-face teaching and the phases of individual practice and self-directed learning. Okay. The digitally enhanced classroom of the year 2040 will help to diagnose needs and learning progress, providing direct access to differentiated and needs-based support services. The classroom of the future will cleverly combine the advantages of digital learning with proven computer free methods. Content and tasks for face-to-face teaching, which will remain indispensable and highly significant for successful learning. And even in 2040, we will still have and need teachers, well-trained data literate teachers who are competent, critical, and reflective in their use of media and technology support, and who will use and who use empirically established digital scenarios, uh, that are based on valuable. Learning content and are linked to meaningfully constructed challenging learning tasks and exercise opportunities designed to support individual learning. Oh boy. Okay. What, what are your thoughts? Right off, right off the bat.

Marina: 32:32

That last one was one sentence. Oh my.

Jeremiah: 32:34

That whole thing. Wow. Okay.

Marina: 32:37

Um, it is very jargony. But you know, in the context of the rest of the article, it makes callbacks. And makes more sense,

Jeremiah: 32:44

makes callbacks. Oh God.

Marina: 32:49

Um, I think it's basically saying that the goal here is an adaptive learning environment that still makes good use of quote unquote computer free methods. And still necessitates teachers. So, you know, I think that's what they mean when they say an evidence-based blended learning environment, for all classrooms and subjects. And so I think that that's achievable for sure. I think we're already kind of on our way there. You know, it'll. Be nice to have, interactive, multimedia, adaptive learning for everybody. That might be kinda tough by 2040. Um, Do you have any thoughts?

Jeremiah: 33:41

Yeah, I mean, I'm just thinking about do you remember. In, I don't know if Japanese had this, but Spanish had this, when I was taking Spanish in undergrad, whatever textbook we had had its own like proprietary homework website Yeah. That you needed a code to get into, and that's where you submitted your homework and like a lot of the class was just on there. From what I saw that did not change one iota in my entire college career. I don't think it's any different now. I feel like the textbook companies still have a monopoly on, that, homework site. When I think of actually existing digital. Whatever in the language classroom. That's kind of what I think of.

Marina: 34:30

But that's not necessarily AI either. No, but I mean, that's just a digitally enhanced classroom.

Jeremiah: 34:36

That's true. I'm just, I'm just basing this off of what this thing says. cause this doesn't talk about AI that much, this little excerpt.

Marina: 34:44

No, it really doesn't. In fact.

Jeremiah: 34:48

Which I think kind of gets to a point that I'll make, which is that actually that you made a while ago, which is that this whole AI craze is just like one more step in a long standing trend in language learning and in learning in general to incorporate, you know, quote unquote technology, which is funny because it's always been. It's always incorporated technology. I think they just mean digital technology. So in that sense, AI isn't super groundbreaking. It's just like kind of qualitatively differentiated by how weird and futuristic it is.

Marina: 35:27

Yeah. The full, the full section of the article does mention AI looks like twice

Jeremiah: 35:33

Mm.

Marina: 35:34

For example, quote, the learning platform deployed in 2040 is thus an AI based digital learning support system. A resource, a tool for students and teachers, which will be used to add value to learn to the learning process. Hmm. And then later they say, quote, a sustainable approach to make teachers become acquainted with AI technology within a rather non technocratic narrative, would probably, et cetera, et cetera. but they do mention ai, but really not that much for an article that's entirely about ai.

Jeremiah: 36:03

Yeah.

Marina: 36:03

But I think, yeah, I think that that does speak to the fact that AI is just one small component of a digitally enhanced or call approach to language learning. You know, it's sort of the buzzword now, but you know. It really is just one component.

Jeremiah: 36:21

Yeah, I guess I really don't have that many gripes with this article. Then other than that, they're kind of just yapping about, you know, basically what we have now except without, weird. Monopolist, textbook companies and technical difficulties, which I feel like is one of the main issues with any digital anything in the classroom, is that it's always a pain to use. Like canvas. Oh my god. Mm-hmm. Um,

Marina: 36:52

yeah, I think, different platforms and tools have different strengths and I don't think that there's really anything inherently wrong with. Combining them? No,

Jeremiah: 37:02

no.

Marina: 37:02

You know, instead of just relying on the digital textbook that gives you short films to watch and makes you order these words in the right order to make a sentence for your homework kind of thing. I think that if we could make use of all the best parts of technology and the best parts of AI for the particular learner,

Jeremiah: 37:24

that would be ideal. Well, thank you for tuning into this episode of How to Language. We hope that you're walking away feeling better equipped to use AI thoughtfully in your language learning if you want. And if you like what we do, you can rate and review us on your preferred podcast app and you can follow us on Instagram at how to Lang for updates on future episodes and some other fun stuff. Thanks for listening.

Marina: 37:52

Bye.