Melissa A. Fitch, University Distinguished Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, College of Humanities
O Caminho da Vida will be an online Adobe resource for language educators to promote the study of Portuguese among Spanish speakers. The materials and activities will all connect to the theme of life as a journey or path. They will highlight the cultural, historical, and linguistic ties between Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions of the world while promoting global citizenship. The site will enhance the students’ multimedia literacies through creative activities that will show them, in part, how AI can be used to strengthen their Portuguese language skills and help them identify career paths for their future. The CERCLL Faculty Fellowship will be used to identify, obtain, and assess materials from Brazil and Portugal for inclusion in the collection. It will also be used to develop creative multimedia activities that students will do based on those materials, and to create qualitative and quantitative assessment tools that will determine the project’s impact.
Hongyi Jia, Lecturer, Department of East Asian Studies, College of Humanities
This project will design an effective AI-integrated Chinese curriculum for an advanced-level course in East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona; the materials will also be shared on the CERCLL website, for other educators to access. This curriculum will be based on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) theory and draw on the educational frameworks of Content-Based Instruction (CBI) and Language for Specific Purposes (LSP). The design builds on the integrated role that cultural information has in the teaching process, including a culturally responsive curriculum framework. The proposed interactive learning course integrates two types of AI input: teaching materials created through AI tools, and student assignments completed through the use of AI tools. The project provides students with materials and AI tools that facilitate students to prepare before class, practice in class, and make output after class. It will also provide faculty members in the Department of East Asian Studies and beyond, with a blueprint for integrating AI into advanced language learning classes.