chatbots
Filtering by topic chatbots(4)Clear all filters
- NewsEdSurge16 Jul 2026
AI Meets ESL, and Teachers Are Intrigued
This news article discusses how artificial intelligence is being used to support bilingual and ESL learners by adapting materials, providing scaffolding in home languages, and enabling chatbots for student-parent dialogues. Teachers and researchers express optimism about AI's potential to close gaps in multilingual education, though they emphasize careful implementation.
Original abstract
<p>As he instructs bilingual learners in the humanities and social studies, Daniel Gomez sees big promise in artificial intelligence.</p><p>“Teachers in general cannot be knowledgeable about every single subject,” and certainly not in multiple languages, says Gomez, who teaches at the bilingual K-12 Ideal School in Tampa, Florida. AI can help close the gaps. “It will be able to pick up any topic students are interested in and handle the topic reasonably well.”</p><p>He isn’t alone in this assessment. Harvard researchers, for example, are actively exploring how AI-powered chatbots can support bilingual student learning and parent–child dialogues.</p><p>“There are lots of opportunities to use AI to adapt learning materials into different languages, which can expand access for bilingual learners,” says<a href="https://www.gse.harvard.edu/directory/faculty/ying-xu"> <u>Ying Xu</u></a>, an assistant professor of education at Harvard and one of the researchers involved in the work.</p><p>“Some projects are also exploring how AI can provide additional scaffolding to help children comprehend content in their home language,” she adds. “For example, a multilingual language model might keep the core learning content in English while offering explanations, prompts or supports in the child’s home language.”</p><p>Experts see great potential for AI to elevate bilingual education — if it’s done right.</p><h2><strong>Chatbots as Educational Aids</strong></h2><p>“Bilingual learners are obviously learning the language and culture of the classroom and the environment that they’re in,” says<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/krystlesalas/"> <u>Krystle Salas</u></a>, assistant director of special populations at Second Mile, which operates alternative education charter schools for at-risk students in several states.</p><p>“They don’t necessarily have access to the instructional materials or even just the conversations going on in the classroom — and certainly not at the level of their p
- PaperComputer Assisted Language Learning11 Jun 2026
The impact of GenAI chatbots on communicative competence in EFL writing in Chinese upper secondary school
Zhoutiao Li
This study examines how GenAI chatbots affect communicative competence in EFL writing among Chinese upper secondary school students.
- PaperLanguage Learning & Technology1 Jan 2026
AI as a debate coach: A mixed-methods analysis of student self-efficacy and perceptions in an AI-assisted debate
Joan Wan-Ting Huang
A two-phase AI-assisted intervention was tested on 48 EFL learners, with Phase 1 involving traditional debate preparation and Phase 2 incorporating AI chatbots for argument refinement and delivery practice. Repeated-measures ANOVAs showed significant stepwise increases in debating self-efficacy, particularly in debate skills and language use. Qualitative insights highlighted AI's benefits for speech refinement and evidence location, but limited effectiveness for oral delivery practice.
Original abstract
Debate is an effective pedagogical approach, yet it presents significant challenges for EFL learners. While Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots are increasingly integrated into education, their application in multi-skilled tasks like debate preparation remains underexplored. This study investigated the impact of a two-phase AI-assisted intervention on 48 EFL learners' debating self-efficacy and perceptions. Phase 1 involved traditional debate preparation without AI assistance, focusing on foundational skill development through instructor-led instruction. Phase 2 introduced AI chatbots for refinement of arguments, rebuttals, and delivery practice, allowing students to enhance their debates through AI-powered scaffolding. Data were collected via self-efficacy questionnaires at three time points (pre-intervention, post-Phase 1, and post-Phase 2), a post-intervention perceptions questionnaire, written reflections, and focus group interviews. Repeated-measures ANOVAs revealed significant stepwise increases in students’ debating self-efficacy across the three time points, with the most substantial gains observed in debate skills and language use. The perceptions questionnaire corroborated these findings, demonstrating that students rated AI as most effective for refining speeches, locating evidence, and developing arguments, while perceiving it as least helpful for oral delivery practice. Furthermore, qualitative analysis yielded nuanced and contextualized insights regarding both the benefits and limitations of AI-assisted debate preparation.
- PaperLanguage Learning & Technology1 Jan 2026
Profiling learners’ affective engagement: Emotion AI, intercultural pragmatics, and language learning
Robert Godwin-Jones
Explores the role of emotion in technology-mediated language learning, focusing on Emotion AI's potential to personalize learning through affective signal interpretation while warning of risks like emotional manipulation and cultural bias. Discusses how AI chatbots can simulate human responsiveness but lack genuine emotional depth, impacting the development of pragmatic and intercultural competence.
Original abstract
Learning another language can be a highly emotional process, typically characterized by numerous frustrations and triumphs, big and small. For most learners, language learning does not follow a linear, predictable path, its zigzag course shaped by motivational (or demotivating) variables such as personal characteristics, teacher/peer relationships, learning materials, and dreams of a future L2 (second language) self. While some aspects of language learning (reading, grammar) are relatively mechanical, others can be stressful and unpredictable, especially conversing in the target language. That experience necessitates not only knowledge of structure and lexis, but also the ability to use the language in ways that are appropriate to the social and cultural context. A new opportunity to practice conversational abilities has arrived through the availability of AI chatbots, with both advantages (responsive, non-judgmental) and drawbacks (emotionally void, culturally biased). This column explores aspects of emotion as they arise in technology use and in particular how automatic emotion recognition and simulated human responsiveness in AI systems interface with language learning and the development of pragmatic and interactional competence. Emotion AI—the algorithmically driven interpretation of users’ affective signals—has been seen as enabling greater personalized learning, adapting to perceived learner cognitive and emotional states. Others warn of emotional manipulation and inappropriate and ineffective user profiling.