ChatGPT Can Be A Powerful Tool for Language Learning
We appreciate how this website offers a brief, rich review of potential applications of ChatGPT to language teaching and learning. Important to note is that this website does not give concrete prompts, which are crucial for an effective use of these tools. Be sure to check out other resources in this collection and beyond for guidance on prompts.
As is shown on the landing page of ChatGPT, it “interacts in a conversational way” and can “answer follow up questions.” This means that learners can engage in conversational interactions which elicit negotiations for meaning. Additionally, it can provide immediate feedback, drawing learners’ attention to their errors and gaps in their language knowledge and skills. For instance, when prompted to provide corrective feedback on a bi-sentence (a Chinese sentence construction), ChatGPT shows the meaning conveyed by sentences with bi, its format, a key point to consider, the problem with the provided sentence, and suggests the correct sentence. After a correct sentence is inputted, ChatGPT confirms that it is grammatically correct, provides a translation, and analyzes the sentence based on the format provided earlier. Additionally, ChatGPT gives the feedback “Good job! Keep practicing!” to encourage the user! ChatGPT can modify the difficulty level of the materials to make them comprehensible for language learners. These benefits align well with key concepts of influential theories about how people learn additional languages, such as the comprehensible input hypothesis (acquisition happens when being exposed to input just one step beyond leaners’ current language level), the comprehensible output hypothesis (producing language is necessary for success in second language acquisition), and so on.