The AI Language Paradox: A Language Expert’s Take on AI Learning and The Future of Language
Artificial Intelligence presents amazing potential for language development and translation in the next couple years.
Imagine a scenario where a Vietnamese speaking student can enter a full immersion English speaking classroom on day one with an AI translation device which seamlessly translates both languages so a student can engage in content without having to develop a full language competency.
Many companies are excited by this possibility and working fervently to make it a reality. A world where technology makes communication across languages seamless and accessible.
While AI technology presents the capability to make seamless translation a reality, does it come with tradeoffs? We know every language, let alone dialect, also includes cultural context, nuance, and semantics, meaning the gap for miscommunication still exists.
If AI translators are adopted across the world, does it also lead to a loss of cultural competency as folks rely on AI translation rather than learning new languages — and the cultural lens which come with it?
At the same time, many schools and teachers across the world are experiencing tremendous challenges in supporting multilingual learners. As our communities continue to change, there are classrooms where many different languages could be spoken — how does a teacher support all of these students? Can AI help?
Tan Huynh has insight here. As a multilingual education expert who speaks six languages and an individual who has taught close to two decades in a variety of educational contexts, Tan is uniquely positioned to provide important answers to these big questions.
Here’s my top takeaways from our conversation:
English Language Learners need to learn in the same classrooms as their native English speaking peers
While English language learners need additional support as they ramp up their understanding, teaching them in groups outside of the general classroom can send a signal to the students and teacher that they don’t belong there and can’t handle it. AI may be able to bridge this by giving teachers much needed bandwidth and scaffolding capabilities to differentiate student experiences in real time.
Speaking multiple languages gives you different lenses for seeing the world
As an individual speaking six different languages, Tan talks about how context clues, semantics, and language structure gives him a deeper understanding of different cultures, such as how referring to oneself in the third person in English can be viewed as arrogant while a common practice in Asian languages.
AI is a powerful tool in supporting language development for students
Tan describes how Ai tools like perplexity and poe can be used to easily make vocabulary and concepts more comprehensible for English language learners. They can also leverage these tools to identify examples from their unique culture that may help to bridge their background and the new topics.
AI will make communication between different languages more accessible, but with tradeoffs
While AI powered devices may allow individuals to communicate across languages more seamlessly, it will come with tradeoffs, such as missing the cultural context and nuance with native proficiency, meaning miscommunication may still be prevalent. There’s likely still a happy medium here where accessibility brings tremendous benefits, but does it mean many folks will be disinclined to learn another language and as such, cultural competency declines globally overall?
Massive thank you to Tan Huynh for sharing his expertise. Check out Tan’s website and the Teaching MLs podcast episode I reference for a deeper dive into multilingual learning with AI.
Check out our full conversation here. Join the conversation at TheAIEducationConversation.com
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