In these rapidly changing times, the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology is reshaping the landscape of education. As an important way of language communication and cultural exchange, foreign language teaching is also facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. The addition of AI not only brings a new experience to foreign language learning, but also injects new vitality into teaching methods.
The impact of AI on foreign language majors
With the continuous advancement of machine translation technology, the convenience of automatic translation has greatly improved, and the demand for linguists has decreased correspondingly. This has had a direct impact on foreign language majors, and colleges and universities have begun to cancel or merge foreign language majors. The data shows that in the past five years, the number of language majors at four-year universities in South Korea has fallen by one-fifth, and the number of language majors enrolled in the same period has also fallen by 18%.
In the job market, the employment rate and salary level of science and technology majors are generally higher than that of humanities majors. Coupled with the advent of the era of AI, digitalization, and big data, people's attention to humanities majors has declined. In the Seoul area, for example, between 2019 and 2021, 23 new engineering majors were added, but 17 humanities majors were reduced.
This trend reflects the pressure of transformation of foreign language majors in the face of rapid technological development. The traditional language teaching mode is difficult to meet the society's demand for compound language talents, and foreign language majors urgently need to keep pace with the times and train students to adapt to the needs of the future society.
New opportunities for foreign language majors
Although AI has brought a certain impact to foreign language majors, it has also opened up new development opportunities for them. Cultivating interdisciplinary language talents, combined with AI technology, will be a way out for foreign language majors.
On the one hand, language talents need to master AI technology and become "AI translation managers" to better serve the country's development. The new generation of AI models, represented by GPT-4, has been able to translate Shakespeare's plays and other literary works with high precision, demonstrating powerful language processing capabilities. Language talents, if they can harness these AI tools, will greatly improve their work efficiency.
On the other hand, the unique value of the humanities cannot be overlooked. Language learning involves not only language skills, but also an understanding and grasp of culture, emotion, etc. Although AI is becoming increasingly powerful in language processing, it is difficult to completely replace human creativity and emotional expression. Foreign language majors should give full play to the unique advantages of humanities to provide students with an education for emotional cultivation and innovative thinking.
Foreign language majors need to optimize the curriculum system, strengthen the construction of industry, education and research, and train students to master AI technology, but also pay attention to the cultivation of humanistic qualities, so as to make them real compound language talents.
The need for change in education
In the face of the challenges brought by AI to foreign language education, we need to re-evaluate the contribution of the humanities to social development, follow the internal laws of discipline development, enhance practicability, improve external incentives, and strengthen top-level design.
We need to objectively assess the contribution of the humanities to economic and social development. While the value of the humanities is difficult to measure in numbers, they play an irreplaceable role in fostering innovative thinking and cultural understanding. We should look at the long-term value of the humanities, not just the immediate employment rate.
We need to follow the internal laws of the development of the discipline and enhance the practicality. Foreign language majors should not stop at the cultivation of language skills, but should focus on cultivating students' cross-cultural communication skills, critical thinking and other comprehensive qualities. The curriculum should also keep pace with the needs of social development.
We need to increase external incentives and strengthen top-level design. The government and employers should provide more opportunities for language talents and create a favorable environment for foreign language students to find employment. It is also necessary to increase investment in foreign language education, optimize teaching conditions, and provide students with better learning resources.
In the face of the challenges brought by AI to foreign language education, we need to carry out all-round changes. Only when the government, universities, enterprises and all sectors of society work together can foreign language education keep pace with the times and cultivate more interdisciplinary language talents for the society.
The future of human-robot collaboration
In the context of the continuous development of AI, human-machine collaboration will become the new normal of foreign language education. We need to embrace change and make full use of the advantages of AI technology to achieve human-machine collaboration and complement each other.
In the teaching process, AI can become a teacher's assistant and improve teaching efficiency. For example, AI can assist in grading assignments and assessing students' mastery, reducing teachers' workload. AI can also provide students with personalized learning resources and feedback to improve learning outcomes.
In the learning process, students need to master AI technology and become "AI translation managers". Not only do they need to be proficient in using AI tools for language processing, but they also need to review and check the output of AI, and give full play to human creativity and judgment.
The development of AI technology will also facilitate the integration of knowledge. AI technologies such as large models can help students establish interdisciplinary knowledge connections, cultivate systems thinking, and provide a broader perspective for language learning.
With the help of AI, foreign language education will develop in the direction of personalization and intelligence. Human-robot collaboration will become the norm, and the roles of teachers and students will shift. We need to embrace this change and embrace the new opportunities brought about by AI with an open mind.
AI has brought unprecedented challenges to foreign language education, but also nurtured new opportunities. In the face of the impact of AI, foreign language majors need to keep pace with the times and train students to adapt to the needs of future society. Human-robot collaboration will become the new normal, and education should take the initiative to embrace change.
We need to reposition the goal of foreign language education, optimize the curriculum system, strengthen the construction of industry, education and research, and cultivate interdisciplinary language talents. The government, universities, enterprises and all sectors of society also need to provide policy and resource support to create a good environment for foreign language education.
Only when the government, universities, enterprises and all sectors of society work together can foreign language education keep pace with the times, cultivate more interdisciplinary language talents for the society, and contribute to cultural exchanges and social development. Let us all look forward to the new spring of foreign language education with the blessing of AI.