Latest / Azadeh and Guy on AI / AI and the Emotional Side of Language Learning

Transcript

AI and the Emotional Side of Language Learning · Azadeh and Guy on AI

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, and welcome to episode 15.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, of Azadhan Guy.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: On AI.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, everyone.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: This is our last episode for season one.
• 0:11
  And I'm Guy Training,
• 0:12
  professor here at Innovative Learning Technologies at UNL.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm Azadeh.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm also a third year PhD student here at UNL and Guy is my PhD advisor.
• 0:23
  And if this is the first episode you're catching,
• 0:26
  just know there's 14 episodes before that.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: You should go and listen because it's pure, pure gold.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And gold is rising in value, so you got to go get it while you can.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, you need to listen to each episode.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we will do a short summary at the end,
• 0:44
  but let's start first with some research that we are attending
• 0:48
  to as we're looking
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: at what are people learning about AI.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: So what's our research?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: So we have two research papers and both of them,
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean,
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: the main focus of both of them is on students' achievement emotions.
• 1:04
  And more specifically,
• 1:06
  student achievement emotions in...
• 1:09
  Language learning.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: So second language learning or foreign language learning.
• 1:13
  And that's an important context because that is a context that
• 1:17
  has even more than
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: usual and emotional aspect to it.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:25
  So the title of the first paper is Integrating Artificial
• 1:28
  Intelligence into the
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: English as a Foreign Language Classroom,
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: exploring its impact on a student's achievement,
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: emotions and willingness to communicate.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it's been published in 2025.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So really fresh off the presses.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: And the researchers in this study,
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: they recruited 204 Chinese EFL students,
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: and then they randomly split them into two groups.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: The treatment group had AI-supported instruction,
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: and the other group just received non-AI instruction.
• 1:59
  And what I love about that is sample size is large enough so we
• 2:03
  can actually say
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: things for certain.
• 2:05
  And the fact that they're using random assignment also makes
• 2:10
  the results a little
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: bit more reliable.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, exactly.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: So both groups,
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: they answered surveys before and after the intervention,
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: and those surveys measured achievement emotions.
• 2:24
  And by that,
• 2:25
  we mean how the students felt when learning English made them
• 2:30
  anxious.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: They also measured their pride, satisfaction and enjoyment.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing that they measured was their willingness to communicate,
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: how willing they were to speak English in class and also beyond.
• 2:43
  So we love this research because they pay attention to a lot of
• 2:48
  the underlying
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: mechanisms around emotions because this is a highly researched theory.
• 2:55
  This is a line of research that was started by Reinhard Becker
• 3:01
  and has a good
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: history of measurement.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's attention to a lot of things.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about the sample size as well.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: What are some of the downsides?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: Downsides about this paper?
• 3:15
  I think the fact that they relied on self-report data is a
• 3:21
  downside of the paper.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: They could have used more,
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean,
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: practical tests,
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: and they could have done a mock IELTS test,
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: speaking test,
• 3:31
  specifically to measure their willingness to communicate and to
• 3:35
  see that if they
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: are really interested
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: willing to speak English outside the classroom or even in the classroom.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, that is an easy thing.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes you say you could measure more, but it's a lot of work.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: But it would be fairly straightforward to,
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: for example,
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: measure just how much people are willing to talk in class.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:58
  Which is a way to think about,
• 4:01
  are they really willing or are they just saying?
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean,
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: it's important that they say that they're willing,
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: but translating that into action always has another hesitation there.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: So they could have collected a little bit more.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: I hate to say this,
• 4:14
  but a little bit more objective data about behavior and not
• 4:17
  just because this is
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: the difference between intention and actual behavior.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: All right, but let's go to their results.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: The results.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Students in the AI instruction group,
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: they showed a significant increase in positive achievement emotions.
• 4:32
  By that,
• 4:32
  I mean more enjoyment,
• 4:34
  satisfaction,
• 4:35
  and lower anxiety compared to the other group.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: And in terms of willingness to communicate,
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean,
• 4:42
  they also showed increased willingness to communicate compared
• 4:46
  to the control
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: group.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're definitely seeing positive results.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: But this is and this is really important.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is not AI replacing people.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's AI in addition to.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Augmenting English classes.
• 5:02
  And so the other takeaways from that study is that AI can do
• 5:06
  more than drills.
• 5:08
  It can change how you feel about your learning process,
• 5:11
  which I appreciate.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: find very important.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: Confidence precedes communication.
• 5:16
  I mean,
• 5:17
  willingness to speak a foreign language depends a lot on your
• 5:20
  emotional comfort.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: And we need to rethink what AI in the classroom means.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's going away from the dichotomy.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's either a person or an AI.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, what is it that the teacher does well and needs to keep doing?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: What is it that the text does well and needs to keep doing?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And what is it that AI can supplement?
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And going back to your word augment, what is happening?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's tailored.
• 5:48
  So there's lots of practice that feels safe and all of these
• 5:52
  things that AI can do
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: really,
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: really well.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: So this is the main thing about this paper.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the second paper, I mean, the title of the paper is super long.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Demystifying the Nexus between Social Support,
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: Teacher Support,
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: and Psychological Needs Fulfillment with Peace of Mind,
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Achievement Emotions,
• 6:11
  and Situational Motivation in Artificial Intelligence
• 6:15
  Integrated Language Learning.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's a mouthful.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Again, published in 2025.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we love that one.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And this one was done with somewhat younger learners.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Teenage English language learners.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: And the number of the participants was 265.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: And all of them use AI supported tools in their classes.
• 6:37
  So researchers wanted to know how three forces shape students'
• 6:41
  experience.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: Social support,
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean,
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: the encouragement they feel from peers,
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: family and community,
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: teacher support,
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: academic guidance and emotional reassurance from teachers.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: And finally, psychological needs fulfillment.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: We are talking about autonomy, competence and relatedness.
• 7:00
  And underlying all of that,
• 7:02
  we're also talking about the achievement emotions in the mix.
• 7:04
  And that's really important because that's a thread that
• 7:09
  connects those two studies.
• 7:11
  Although,
• 7:11
  again,
• 7:11
  in this study,
• 7:13
  if we want to critique,
• 7:14
  there's no comparison group.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: So there's only one group.
• 7:18
  And we're looking at the relationships between the different
• 7:21
  factors and what still
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: matters when we use AI.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: And the researchers measure three outcomes,
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: peace of mind,
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: how calm,
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: confident and emotionally stable students feel,
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: achievement,
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: emotions,
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: enjoyment,
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: pride,
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: anxiety,
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: boredom and also hope,
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: situational motivation,
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: the in the moment drive to engage in learning.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And what did they find?
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good question.
• 7:48
  So the first finding is that social support is a powerful
• 7:52
  emotional buffer.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: So social support had a strong positive effects on peace of mind,
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: positive emotions and moment to moment motivation.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so did the teacher.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 8:04
  So that's really,
• 8:06
  so when we think about,
• 8:07
  do we still need teachers in the age of AI?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: The answer is.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: We do.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 8:13
  So as we said before,
• 8:15
  AI is not a replacement and AI doesn't diminish the role of
• 8:19
  teachers.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: It amplifies the role of teachers.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: So what's your favorite thing about this research article?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I used to be an English language teacher.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: So the findings are very interesting to me.
• 8:35
  And right now with ChatGPT mobile application that you can
• 8:39
  easily install on your
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: phone and you can practice speaking,
• 8:43
  And to be honest,
• 8:43
  I do the same because I feel that I need to still work on my
• 8:47
  language skills.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: But that's a very useful tool.
• 8:52
  And I have the experience of running several workshops at
• 8:56
  Lincoln Literacy with
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: some English language tutors that they are kindly volunteering for.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, in Lincoln Literacy.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I was talking with one of them.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: I showed them how to use,
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean,
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: not how to use,
• 9:10
  but how to teach their students to install that application on
• 9:14
  their phones and
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: practice speaking outside the classroom.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, I think that kind of papers help a lot.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: And they are not just for researchers.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Teachers can also use the findings.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and we're currently co-teaching a class on research.
• 9:33
  And one of the things we tell our teachers who are taking the
• 9:36
  class is whenever
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: you're reading research,
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: how is it relevant to the work you're doing?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly, yeah.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: How does it help you?
• 9:43
  And these pieces of research,
• 9:45
  what I love about them is sample sizes are big enough.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we're getting away from very small sample sizes of one classroom.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that's helpful.
• 9:54
  There's some experimental design,
• 9:56
  at least in one of them,
• 9:57
  with random assignments,
• 9:58
  even better.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And these are obviously pieces of research happening in other countries,
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: whether it's China or Iran.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to think about how much does it apply to your context?
• 10:11
  But second language learning has been shown to be that the
• 10:16
  effects have been shown
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: to be quite persistent across cultures.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 10:24
  So now that we've read these two papers and shared them and
• 10:28
  we'll have them in the
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: notes,
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: we'll have links in the notes so you can read them yourselves.
• 10:35
  Because I know that's what the first thing you're going to
• 10:37
  listen to what we said
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: and say,
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: I have to go and read the details.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: The details are interesting, by the way.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't give you the whole story.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: We just gave you the kind of the top line of it.
• 10:46
  So you want to go and explore further or if you don't care,
• 10:49
  just take a word for it.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: We're good for it.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, let's do a short summary.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: So this is episode 15.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is the end of the first season.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so what did we do, really?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard for me to think about the beginning.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about a couple of,
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: no,
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: more than a couple of,
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: we talked about several AI tools that are useful for,
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know,
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: doing lit review,
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: doing scientific research.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: And we also talked about job hunting using AI.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we did mention that.
• 11:24
  We'll probably revisit many of these topics because part of
• 11:29
  what's happening is,
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: as for example,
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Gemini 3 dropped in the middle of the season.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we're all anticipating a new drop by OpenAI sometime in December.
• 11:41
  So this keeps changing,
• 11:43
  this keeps developing,
• 11:44
  and it gets much,
• 11:45
  much better.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll keep talking about the changes.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we are excited for the second season.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Super excited.
• 11:53
  And we will be leaving you until about mid-January when we will
• 11:57
  have so many new ideas.
• 12:00
  And if you do want us to talk about something specifically,
• 12:02
  please drop us a note.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: We will have everything on Substack.
• 12:08
  So if you're listening on Substack,
• 12:09
  you're already there and you can send us a note.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not on Substack, please follow us also on Substack.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: We're writing weekly about AI and we have some notes of wisdom.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: We drop wisdom.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes on a daily basis, mostly on a weekly basis.
• 12:25
  But you will also be able to communicate with us and give us
• 12:29
  ideas to episodes you
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: would like us to talk about.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll see you next January.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Next January.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So sad.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, if you miss our voices, just listen to the previous episodes.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Even for the third time, there's wisdom somewhere in there.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Happy New Year.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Happy New Year.