Webinar – The Promises and Perils of Generative AI for Second Language Literacy Development: The Case of Reading

Rapid developments in generative artificial intelligence (AI) have opened the floodgates for exploration into how AI tools can be leveraged to enhance our human capacities in all manner of work and learning. As is the case with any new technology, the usefulness of AI depends on its principled use. This 90-minute webinar centers on the interpretive mode of communication, and specifically on reading in a foreign language. It takes the perspective that reading is a multiliteracies practice and that the use of generative AI tools by teachers and learners can both help and hinder L2 reading. First, we will unpack the concept of reading as a multiliteracies practice, and review some common goals for L2 reading based on scholarship and standards. Next, we will examine specific uses of AI tools in materials design and foreign language learner tasks, including gains and losses involved when AI is used to generate materials for learners or interpret a text by learners. Participants will learn:

1. Criteria for evaluating L2 reading goals across different pedagogical approaches,
2. Techniques for analyzing the usefulness of AI-generated materials for reading instruction, and
3. Strategies for guiding learners in using AI to scaffold reading in a foreign language.

Dr. Kristen Michelson is Associate Professor of French and Applied Linguistics in the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures at Texas Tech University, where she also directs the first- and second-year language program in French. Her research is anchored in intersections between human action and experience, and cultural texts, with a focus on pedagogical and technological innovations in foreign language teaching and learning that call explicit attention to culture, affect, identities, and ideological discourses. With language learners, she has explored global simulation frameworks as a way to foster multiliteracies, and investigated how second language learners of French interpret everyday internet texts, through digital social annotated reading and think-aloud protocols. In the area of language teacher development, she has examined how foreign language teachers co-construct knowledge through digital social annotated reading and she is currently Co-Project Leader (with Bruna Sommer-Farias) on a CERCLL-funded project to create videos showcasing multiliteracies core practices in world language classrooms. (Stay tuned next summer for these videos!) Finally, she has recently begun exploring implications of generative artificial intelligence for various forms of literacy development among graduate students in applied linguistics and foreign language learners. Dr. Michelson has led numerous virtual and in-person pedagogy workshops for foreign language teachers around the globe. In her workshops, participants can expect to be challenged to reflect on biases and beliefs and to learn through collaborative, discovery-oriented activities.

This is the second event in a three-part series on Integrating AI in Language Education: Research-Based Practices to Support the Modes of Communication. See the series details here.

Participants attending this webinar live can request a certificate of attendance for 1.5 hours of Continuing Education in a request form that is shared at the end of the event. CERCLL will contact them after the webinar about how to request a digital badge.

Participants who require closed captions or an ASL interpreter during CERCLL’s events should make this request at least a week in advance by emailing CERCLL at cercll@email.arizona.edu.