Collaborative language learning through generative AI: The case of French

Abstract | Abstract

The introduction of generative AIs to education has reinitiated discussions of how humans are involved with technology and how altered human-AI collaboration transforms education. In this paper we investigate shifted material relationships and ecologies of language learning through a project in which teacher students were introduced to generative AIs and experimented with ways in which they could be used in classrooms as part of placements in schools. The paper draws on classroom observations and interviews with teacher students in order to understand how prospective language teachers reflect on and use generative AIs, and on sociomaterial perspectives to understand how classroom didactics are formed by these uses. Our analysis centers on a specific example of how French was taught to 6^th formers using text and image generation in a complex material set-up that connected natural artefacts with AI technologies to teach children French vocabulary.