Keynote (for Keynote speakers only) Language Learning with GenAI: Bridging the Gap or Burning the Bridge more

Sat, Jul 19, 13:45-15:00 Asia/Tokyo

The title for this keynote talk implies a question: will language learning with GenAI help us bridge the gap or will it lead us to burn bridges. Of course, this entails two more questions: what gaps? and, what bridges? In the first part, I will highlight some of the gaps or – as activity theorists would label them – tensions that have existed in language education with technology for many decades, and in the second part, I will look at some of the bridges that could burn in the times of GenAI and at bridges that can be built because or in spite of GenAI. To identify these significant tensions, I will present a narrative self-study that takes an autoethnographic approach, so that I can begin to frame the role of (digital) technologies in shaping pedagogical thinking and practice. To explore the main themes of the autoethnographic research further, I will address some of the "big questions" in the context of language learning with GenAI in the second part, using a more philosophical lens. Themes that emerged are, for example, technological determinism vs. human agency and instrumental vs. humanistic conceptions of language. Examples of the "big questions" are: · What counts as knowledge and learning? (epistemological) · What is language, and what is it for? (ontological) · What is the connection between cognition and communication, and identity and language? (existential) · What is the role of language – and hence the goal of second-language learning – beyond the generation of plausible surface forms? (phenomenological) The persistent tensions, emerging themes, and answers to the "big questions" will help researchers, teachers, and students reflect on and shape language education in the times of GenAI, but they will only answer parts of the title question. Its answer will emerge depending on how we all reflect on and shape language learning in the coming days, months, and years.