“What Scares Me Is the Speed at Which Artificial Intelligence Is Developing”: Students' Perceptions of Artificial Intelligence in Foreign Language Teaching

Abstract

   As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes an integral part of our daily lives, the concern of the teaching community about the illegal use of these technologies in the educational process is increasing. In order to adapt the education system and teaching practices to new technological challenges, it is necessary to analyze the opinions of all the parties concerned.   The purpose of this study is to identify the attitude of students of Kazan Federal University to the use of artificial intelligence technologies in the educational process and the practice of their application in foreign languages learning process.   To achieve this goal, an online survey of students of Kazan Federal University was conducted. The survey touched upon the practical aspects of the use of artificial intelligence in language teaching, the advantages and disadvantages of AI tools from the students’ point of view, as well as their opinion regarding the prospects of AI in education. As a result of the study, we came to the conclusion that at the moment AI tools are not widespread enough in teaching foreign languages. Only one-fifth of the respondents use these tools, but the respondents’ comments suggest that the number of users will grow. The attitude of students towards the use of AI is ambiguous, with responses ranging from enthusiastic to skeptical. Students’ positive impressions are mainly related to saving time and effort, as well as to the ability of AI to present complex materials with understandable language. Among the main disadvantages, the respondents noted unreliability of data and fake content. Despite the fact that students are generally positive about the use of AI, a significant part of respondents do not trust software products such as ChatGPT, since, in their opinion, it provides answers of average quality that need to be corrected. Based on the data obtained, the authors attempted to formulate recommendations on improving the methods of teaching and control in the process of teaching foreign languages at universities.