English: Opportunities and Limitations of AI Tools in Language Studies

<p>The course gives students an opportunity to explore and experiment with various AI tools in the field of language studies and to assess their value and suitability for different types of tasks. The course covers various machine translation services (such as Google Translate) and generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT) and examines their pros and cons as tools for teaching, learning and assessment from a student-centered ‘learn by doing’ perspective. Matters of AI policies, academic integrity and ethics are also covered. The goal is the ability to use AI in a meaningful, informed and ethical way in various teaching and learning situations, and in current or future professional lives. The possible uses of AI tools to aid learners who have special needs will also be discussed.</p><p>The course is based on active participation, discussion and reflection. The teaching consists of seven scheduled sessions which can have lecture components but which mainly take place in the form of workshops, where the course participants investigate and explore the uses of AI tools in language studies from various perspectives, and where they evaluate and share their findings actively with the other course participants. As part of these investigations, each course participant is expected to bring to class and share with others one previous written assignment (such as an essay that they have written on a previous course) which they use as basis in their reflections and assessments of what AI can and cannot be used for. The nature of the course is such that it requires consistent presence in class.</p> <p>The course is examined through (i) active participation in class; (ii) one oral group assignment and one individual written assignment (500-750 words in length) while the course is running, and (iii) a final independent written assignment (2000-2500 words in length) at the end of the course. </p>