Can AI help you learn a foreign language?
- carolinejestaz
- Nov 2
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 3
After a conversation about AI with one of my students, herself a teacher, over coffee this summer, I did a test. I asked ChatGPT to explain a simple language point in French, which all my students learn quickly and easily, i.e. le gérondif (the gerund).
It produced the following explanation on how to form it: en + radical du verbe + -an, for example:
en allant (aller = to go)
en marchant (marcher = to walk)
as well as the contexts for using it, including the most common one, i.e. for two simultaneous actions done by the same person, as in:
''je lis le post de Caroline, en buvant un café'
(I'm reading Caroline's post while drinking coffee).
So far, so good.
I then asked ChatGPT where the information came from and the answer listed established French grammar books, dictionaries, and even the French Department for Education website.
Next, I asked ChatGPT to give me an exercise to practise the gérondif. It produced a series of sentences in which to identify the gerund, with 7 out of 10 sentences seemingly correct, except no French person would ever say them and, crucially, would use other language points instead. In other words, most of the exercise was incorrect and therefore unusable.
I then asked for an exercise with words to fill in using the gerund, and again 5 out of 10 sentences simply did not work. They appeared to be correct but were not.
Finally, I asked ChatGPT where the exercise came from and this is the answer I got:
''This exercise does not come from a grammar book, I created it myself using these sources as inspiration.''
One of those sources is a grammar book I use on a daily basis. The other two, are course books. All three are published by reputable companies producing books to help people learn French.
So, yes, AI can pull out the correct rule, using websites or published books as sources, but it cannot accurately replicate an exercise created by a human brain.
I can already hear some of you, though, saying excitedly, ''but wait, Caroline! Soon it will. Just give it time. Soon we will be able to learn a language with AI.''
And here's my answer, though perhaps not quite the one you might expect from an actual - human - language teacher : a language is a communication tool to be used between human beings. Whether you're using a grammar book (as we all learned to when studying languages at school), or AI, it's still not actual communication.
One day, you might be able to say something in French and get a response from AI that matches it. What of pronunciation, tone, nuances, culture, and bonding though? Whatever tool you use to learn a language, it's only the starting block to launch you into actual communication, not communication itself, with all the perceived risks at play, including making mistakes.
You might not lose face when doing so with AI, but you won't be communicating either.
