From revolution to evolution: What generative AI really means for language learning

IF 4 2区文学 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Language Teaching Pub Date : 2025-05-14 DOI:10.1017/s0261444825000151

Mark Pegrum

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

History is littered with unfulfilled promises that emerging technologies – from radios to televisions, and from computers to mobile phones – would completely transform teaching and learning. Now the same promises are being made of generative artificial intelligence (AI). This presentation argues that we should not be focusing on educational revolution, but instead on educational evolution. Education is a complex social, cultural, and political endeavour, serving multiple purposes and multiple stakeholders, and technology is just one of many elements in this large ecosystem.

Focusing on the context of language teaching and learning, this presentation discusses what has changed technologically, and suggests what could and should change educationally. It shows that ChatGPT and a range of other generative AI tools can contribute to language and literacy development in a number of ways, but that we need to be wary of their pedagogical, social, and environmental risks. Educators must develop the AI literacy necessary to take a more nuanced view of generative AI, and we must help our students to do the same.

This paper is based on a keynote presentation delivered at the English Australia Conference in Perth, Australia, on 12 September 2024, with some elaborations for the written version alongside minor updates to reflect more recent developments and publications.

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从革命到进化：生成式人工智能对语言学习的真正意义

从收音机到电视，从电脑到移动电话，新兴技术将彻底改变教学和学习，历史上充斥着无法实现的承诺。如今，生成式人工智能（AI）也做出了同样的承诺。这次演讲认为，我们不应该把重点放在教育革命上，而应该放在教育进化上。教育是一项复杂的社会、文化和政治努力，服务于多种目的和多个利益相关者，而技术只是这个庞大生态系统中的众多元素之一。本演讲以语言教学的背景为重点，讨论了技术上的变化，并提出了教育上可以和应该发生的变化。它表明，ChatGPT和一系列其他生成式人工智能工具可以以多种方式促进语言和读写能力的发展，但我们需要警惕它们的教学、社会和环境风险。教育工作者必须培养必要的人工智能素养，以更细致入微地看待生成式人工智能，我们也必须帮助我们的学生做到这一点。本文以2024年9月12日在澳大利亚珀斯举行的英语澳大利亚会议上发表的主题演讲为基础，对书面版本进行了一些详细阐述，并进行了一些小的更新，以反映最新的发展和出版物。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Language Teaching Multiple-

CiteScore

7.10

自引率

2.80%

发文量

期刊介绍： Language Teaching is the essential research resource for language professionals providing a rich and expert overview of research in the field of second-language teaching and learning. It offers critical survey articles of recent research on specific topics, second and foreign languages and countries, and invites original research articles reporting on replication studies and meta-analyses. The journal also includes regional surveys of outstanding doctoral dissertations, topic-based research timelines, theme-based research agendas, recent plenary conference speeches, and research-in-progress reports. A thorough peer-reviewing procedure applies to both the commissioned and the unsolicited articles.