Generative AI in Language Education Instructional Innovation Awards

Six participants in the Fall 2024 Language Institute seminar on Generative AI and the Future of Language Education were selected to receive a Spring 2025 Instructional Innovation Award to pilot an instructional activity or develop instructional materials using generative AI. The award recipients and projects are:

• Heidi Evans, Department of English (ESL), to use generative AI to create new learning materials for students in ESL 345: English Pronunciation focused on meeting the diverse pronunciation needs of students of English as a Second Language.
• Mathilde Garner, Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition and Department of French and Italian (French), to use generative AI in task planning for writing projects in intermediate French courses that develop students’ critical thinking and writing skills. The project is in collaboration with Professor Heather Willis Allen, Department of French and Italian.
• Lidia Gault, Doctoral Program in Second Language Acquisition and Russian Flagship Program (Russian), to use generative AI to create audio and video materials for Russian Flagship students at the Novice-Intermediate levels of proficiency in Russian that reflect a variety of situations and a diversity of speakers.
• Keira Hook, Department of Spanish and Portuguese (Spanish), to use generative AI for an instructional activity in which Spanish 102 students interact with a famous artist from the Spanish-speaking world.
• Fatemeh Mirsharifi, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures (Persian), to create new listening materials for Elementary Persian students based on AI-generated recordings that reflect a diversity of accents, genders, and ages within Persian-speaking communities.
• Tiange Wang (Department of Asian Languages and Cultures (Chinese), to use generative AI to create videos for Business Chinese students that depict formal Chinese communication and professional interactions.