EverydayFrench Ep. 4 – Le fléau de l'IA en cours de langue
In this episode, we talk about artificial intelligence in language learning — its advantages, its dangers, and why AI cannot replace a real human teacher.
Transcript
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Hello everyone, and welcome to this fourth episode of Everyday French, a podcast to help you listen to real French, at a normal pace and with words we use every day.
Today I decided to talk to you about the scourge of AI in language classes, and especially in my French classes, because I've realized AI is taking up an enormous amount of space, and that, in the end, some students don't know how to use it properly…
Let's go!
For a while now I've been noticing that more and more of my students are using AI when they do their exercises. The problem is, it's fine to use ChatGPT, Gemini, when you know how to use it — and especially when you use it the right way. Let me give you an example. One day I gave one of my students an exercise: the exercise was to conjugate sentences in the passé composé. It was a tense we had worked on, so the goal was to review the lesson, to go back over the grammar point before doing the exercise. Except, as usual, my students tend to do their exercises at the last minute — five minutes before class. So this student, well… he didn't have time to review the lesson, so naturally he no longer remembered what the passé composé was. And so he had the brilliant idea of asking ChatGPT to do it for him. Except ChatGPT conjugated everything for him in the passé simple. So the moment you tell me that, I immediately knew he wasn't the one who'd done the exercise. And above all, it's completely pointless to do that. First, because you learn absolutely nothing by doing that. Second, I waste my time correcting an AI that conjugated things in the passé simple when I wanted the passé composé. In that case, honestly, I'd much rather my student tell me: "Sorry, I didn't have time to review the lesson, I didn't have time to do the exercise. Can we go over it together?"
That's much more productive, much more useful for him and for me than having me correct something he didn't actually do. It's also something I notice in my DELF prep classes.
I have a lot of students, (…)
So, how can we make ChatGPT useful and actually learn from AI?
Well, what I'd suggest is doing extra exercises — ask ChatGPT to create exercises for you, whether for the DELF or for your lessons. There, it can be useful, because you're going to ask it to correct you. You're not going to ask it to do the exercise in your place — that, I repeat, is pointless to do. Then, you can also do exercises on your own, exercises that won't be corrected by a teacher, and ask it for a correction — ask for a detailed, word-by-word correction. What's wrong in your writing, and really look at what it explains to you. That's a bit more useful. But really, I repeat: asking ChatGPT to do the exercise in your place and repeating what it tells you to say — that's useless, you learn absolutely nothing, and you waste your teacher's time.
So do you use AI when you're learning a language? If so, do you think you're using it the right way, or maybe thanks to this podcast you're realizing that, well, actually… you're not using AI in the most optimal way.
Feel free to leave a comment, and maybe explain to others too how you use AI and how you think it's useful in your learning.
See you soon!
Key Vocabulary
- l'intelligence artificielle (n. f.) — technology capable of imitating certain human capabilities like writing, translating, speaking — artificial intelligence / AI
Ex. : L'intelligence artificielle peut corriger tes textes en français en quelques secondes. - un outil (n. m.) — instrument or means that helps accomplish something — a tool
Ex. : Les applications de traduction sont des outils utiles, mais imparfaits. - tromper (v.) — to mislead, to give false information — to deceive / to mislead
Ex. : L'IA peut parfois tromper l'utilisateur avec des informations incorrectes. - dépendre de (v.) — to need something to function or progress — to depend on / to rely on
Ex. : Si tu dépends trop de l'IA, tu ne progresseras pas vraiment. - la prononciation (n. f.) — the way sounds in a language are pronounced — pronunciation
Ex. : L'IA ne peut pas vraiment corriger ta prononciation comme un professeur humain.
Expression of the Day
🗣️ se méfier de — to be cautious, not to blindly trust something or someone
Example : Il faut se méfier des traductions automatiques — elles sont parfois incorrectes.
📌 to be wary of / to watch out for — a useful phrase for critical thinking.