Call for Papers Babylonia 1/2025: Using generative AI intelligently in foreign language teaching – or not?

2023-11-22

Using generative AI intelligently in foreign language teaching – or not?

Is generative AI (artificial intelligence) regenerating or degenerating language learning and teaching? The heart of this issue of Babylonia is dedicated to helping foreign language teachers use generative AI tools in their foreign language classrooms in ways beneficial to learner language development.

Publications in this domain have increased exponentially in recent years (see review in Crompton & Burke, 2023) with studies ranging from the way in which artificial intelligence shapes teaching practices (Yanhua, 2020) to studies on the ethical challenges (Adams, et al., 2023). There are numerous studies highlighting the advantages of specific generative AI tools in teaching methodology (Fitria, 2023; Motlagh, Khajavi, Sharifi & Ahmadi, 2023, among many others) and discussions on whether or not these hinder foreign language learning (Kennedy, 2021 or Klimova, Pikhart, Benites, et al., 2023). There is research on the impact of AI on the curriculum (Yu & Guo, 2023), while Berthele & Udry (2023) concretely examine the use of translating tools in the Swiss learning and teaching context.

In this issue, we focus on research and teaching experiences that help teachers use generative AI effectively. We would like to address questions such as:

  • Is there evidence of fruitful, useless, or even harmful use of AI based on LLMs (large language models) in foreign language learning and assessment? Are there situations where generative AI is simply not useful in the language classroom?
  • How can generative AI be used for sustainable feedback and assessment of learning?
  • How can teachers use AI for planning lessons in ways that foster learning perhaps better than in the past?
  • How can AI be used for adaptive learning, e.g. allowing to take into account individual competencies and levels, learning rates, motivation, personal preferences, etc.?
  • How can teachers help learners (especially beginning learners) develop their critical-thinking skills so AI can be used ethically and effectively?
  • How effective is AI in the learning and teaching of languages other than English, where data may be more limited?
  • How can specific language skills (receptive, productive, interactional) be enhanced by means of AI?

We are looking for short contributions (max 4 pages, 14,000 characters including spaces) that:

  • are novel;
  • are concrete and backed by empirical evidence;
  • are generalizable to different tools, functions or situations;
  • include ethical and other considerations and limitations;
  • clearly show if and/or how learners have benefited.

Please send your abstracts to Laura Loder Buechel (laura.buechel@phzh.ch), Verónica Sánchez (Veronica.Sanchez@irdp.ch) or Sabine Christopher (Sabine.Christopher@ti.ch) by April 1, 2024 (further dates listed below).

 

Schedule

  • Abstract submission: April 1, 2024 - extended deadline: May 1, 2024
  • Notification of acceptance: June 1, 2024
  • Article submission: August 31, 2024
  • Feedback from the editorial team: by November 1, 2024
  • Final version due: January 1, 2025
  • Copy-editing and layouting: February / March 2025
  • Publication: April 2025

References

Adams, C., Pente, P., Lemermeyer, G., & Rockwell, G. (2023). Ethical principles for artificial intelligence in K-12 education. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 4, 100131.

Berthele, R. & Udry I. (2023a) Welche fremdsprachlichen Lernziele der Schulen können mit digitalen Tools aber ohne Lernen erreicht werden? Simply playing the ostrich will not help in the long run. In: Zeitschrift für Interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht 28.1. issn: 1205-6545. doi: 10 . 48694/zif.3519. (Visited on 05/11/2023).

Berthele, R. & Udry I. (2023b) Digitale Übersetzungsprogramme und Online Wörterbücher im Fremdsprachenunterricht: : Erkenntnisse aus einer Umfrage bei Lehrpersonen und Lernenden der obligatorischen, post-obligatorischen und tertiären Bildung. In: Linguistik Online 120.2, pp. 145–167. issn: 1615-3014. doi: 10.13092/lo.120.9720. (Visited on 05/11/2023)

Crompton, H., & Burke, D. (2023). Artificial intelligence in higher education: the state of the field. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20(1), 1-22.

Fitria, T. N. (2023). Artificial intelligence (AI) technology in OpenAI ChatGPT application: A review of ChatGPT in writing English essay. ELT Forum: Journal of English Language Teaching, 12(1), 44-58.

Kennedy, O. (2021). Taking tools into their own hands: Independent learner use of machine translation to proofread L2 academic writing. Eurocall 2021 (pp. 25–27). Online. Aug 2021

Klimova, B., Pikhart, M., Benites, A.D. et al. Neural machine translation in foreign language teaching and learning: a systematic review. Educ Inf Technol 28, 663–682 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11194-2

Motlagh, N. Y., Khajavi, M., Sharifi, A., & Ahmadi, M. (2023). The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Evolution of Digital Education: A Comparative Study of OpenAI Text Generation Tools including ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Bard, and Ernie. arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.02029.

Yanhua, Z. (2020) The Application of Artificial Intelligence in Foreign Language Teaching,International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Education (ICAIE), Tianjin, China, 2020, pp. 40-42, doi: 10.1109/ICAIE50891.2020.00017.