Experimenting with AI in Spanish

Abstract

Using generative AI in an online writing intensive course can be challenging for both students and instructors. Additional challenges emerge when students are writing in a language that they are still in the process of learning. This teaching talk describes a carefully structured project designed to support students’ experimentation with generative AI in Spanish in an asynchronous writing intensive course. One of the benefits of this strategy is that it empowers students to evaluate new technologies and their effectiveness as tools for supporting their learning. Aligned with the objective of “writing to learn” in WI courses, the project uses the TILT approach and provides opportunities for students to collaborate with others and reflect on transferable skills they have learned in their writing course. The teaching strategies discussed can be applied to working with multilingual learners and multiple course modalities.