Implementation of AI-driven technology into education – a pilot study on the use of chatbots in foreign language learning

Abstract

Thanks to the continuous development of artificial intelligence (AI), more and more tools are available to help students to practice their language skills. Nowadays, there are various ways of using AI-driven technology in the process of language learning, one example is the use of chatbots. This pilot study aims to investigate the impact of the conversational chatbot on learning a foreign language and to understand learners’ perceptions of using a chatbot as a complementary language tool. Altogether 58 university students learning English as an applied foreign language with B2 and C1 levels of English proficiency participated in the experiment during the period of one month. The qualitative results show a significant improvement in the student’s language skills thanks to the use of smart AI. Furthermore, the questionnaire survey reveals positive perceptions of this additional learning tool. Therefore, the findings indicate that working with this AI-driven technology can contribute to improving language skills and its perceived usefulness in the process of second language acquisition at the university level.

Keywords

• Second language acquisition
• artificial intelligence
• conversational systems
• technology in language learning
• experiment
• chatbot