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Modern technologies, including artificial intelligence, play an increasingly important role in education, including the study of foreign languages. AI can be used to generate materials for lessons, identify errors, develop an individual learning plan, and improve the most important skills of a student.
This article examines the impact of AI on the process of learning English, considers the positive and negative effects of using AI technologies in learning the language, provides research results confirming the positive experience of introducing AI into the educational process, and draws a conclusion on the topic under study, taking into account the conditions of modern realities. Recommendations are given for combining traditional teaching methods and the latest technologies.
If you are a student who is learning English, you may face different issues while studying. One of the most common problems is writing essays, especially if English is not your native language. Many students think that the best way out is to plagiarize when they don't know how to write papers, but all teachers check essays, and you may get into trouble. That's why you should always use a plagiarism checker before you submit your paper.
Tremendous Progress in the Field of IT Technologies
Today, there is tremendous progress in the field of IT and digital developments. The process of digitalization is an inevitable stage in the development of our society. It affects the formation of many areas of public life, from science and creativity to the educational process.
It is important to understand that the relevance of considering this issue will only increase every year since the speed of development of artificial intelligence technologies is rapidly increasing, which means the emergence of new facets of the topic under consideration. In this regard, it is important to understand that the main goal here is to identify the influence of artificial intelligence on the study of English and predict the further development of the current situation.
There are now a huge number of different technologies in the form of neural networks and chatbots, the operation of which is based on artificial intelligence. The development of such innovations can qualitatively change a person's life, including having a significant impact on the educational process.
The Peculiarity of Studying English
The peculiarity of studying any foreign language, including English, is that the development of skills in the student, as well as the teaching model, involves oral and written communication. The basis for understanding the "life mechanisms" of language in the form of a system of rules can be properly perceived by the student only with a detailed explanation of the features and cases of application of certain linguistic rules.
In this case, the role of live teaching is to fulfill the general educational task. It should also be noted that in parallel with the general educational task, the teacher implements a communicative function in developing speaking and listening skills in the student, as well as an educational one since classes in real life directly affect the formation of discipline, patience, and perseverance in the student.
An important aspect of learning English is acquiring skills in using auxiliary sources for independent study of a foreign language. Such sources include reference books, methodological manuals, and dictionaries.
How AI Is Changing the Way Students Learn English
Of course, it should be understood that the most noticeable effect of the educational process will be when time-tested teaching methods are combined with modern educational approaches. The combination of such methods can be seen in many educational institutions; such educational tools are also used by tutors.
Combining methods allows, on the one hand, to ensure correctly formed skills in grammar, vocabulary, and phonetics rules, and on the other hand, to expand and update existing knowledge since the English language is a dynamically developing phenomenon, in which even established rules are subject to change every year.
In this regard, within the framework of teaching activities, the teacher has a new task – the effective use of software, as well as artificial intelligence technologies, so that the student gets the maximum effect from classes with minimal time expenditure.
Diversifying the Educational Process
Modern technologies in the form of artificial intelligence allow us to diversify the educational process, simplify it in certain moments, and also simulate those situations that are necessary for the development and consolidation of skills in the student. Note that even independent use of AI-based technologies allows us to develop the most important skills, which include self-education, the ability to find answers to emerging questions, build cause-and-effect relationships, and look for patterns.
The advantage of artificial intelligence is its ability to generate practical situations for training your language skills in dialogue and monologue communication, as well as in the theoretical explanation of certain rules.
Developing Independence in Learning
It should be noted that for effective learning of English, the student's own awareness in this process is important since the effectiveness of education largely depends not only on the lessons conducted by the teacher and the methods used but also on the student's personal desire to learn, and therefore, to contribute to the educational process.
That is, the highest quality result will be provided by those methods of language learning that, among other things, are aimed at developing independence and a certain autonomy of cognitive activity. Of course, it should be noted that with different forms of training, this skill will be developed with varying degrees of intensity. For example, if this is training at a school, then the ability to independently study the language will develop to a slightly lesser extent, but at the same time, in harmonious unity with other skills.
With independent study, the educational process is, by and large, built and developed precisely on the basis of the student's awareness. In many ways, artificial intelligence technologies help in such cases since they are able to ensure the "softness" of the language learning process, convey information in the most comfortable form for the student, and, in general, maintain a person's interest with their novelty.
Combination of AI and Teacher's Work
Meanwhile, it is necessary to pay attention to the psychological aspect of learning foreign languages. There is an opinion in society that, in many cases, a person realizes the value of knowledge when it is obtained as a result of systematic studies and a large amount of effort that is applied, as well as in the process of perceiving the material and forming the discipline of study.
The significance of such knowledge for our psyche is much higher than knowledge that was obtained quickly and easily, which is explained by the fact that new neural connections do not have time to form properly. Neural networks based on artificial intelligence provide the shortest path to obtaining information; unfortunately, they are not always reliable and correct.
Moreover, artificial intelligence, in such cases, risks becoming not an assistant in finding answers to questions and solving any problematic aspects of learning English, but only a tool for quickly completing assigned tasks. This will affect the quality of the knowledge obtained and the formation of lexical, phonetic, and grammatical skills.
In this regard, one might think that the introduction of artificial intelligence can have a negative impact on the educational process. However, it is worth mentioning that artificial intelligence has a more positive effect than a negative one. The above-described situation is possible in the case when the study of a foreign language is not systematic, the student is not interested in quality education, and the training is based on the use of artificial intelligence technologies without a clearly defined teaching methodology.
It is important to note that although artificial intelligence technology has a number of advantages in teaching English, the factor of reasonable use should occupy one of the central positions in the educational process. Teachers provide emotional support, convey to the student the "cultural" features of the language, its origin, development, and modern language trends (since the vocabulary of all languages is annually replenished with new slang expressions), and give specific and most importantly, personal recommendations based on the process and results of the student's own learning, which AI cannot reproduce.
Integrating artificial intelligence technologies should complement and improve the learning process, not replace human instructors.
