Practical Recommendations on the Use of Chat-bots in the Process of Teaching Foreign Languages
Abstract. The article systematizes the existing pedagogical and research experience in the field of introducing chat-bot technologies in the process of teaching foreign languages. The opportunities and limitations associated with the prospects of the application of artificial intelligence within the educational process are described. Teachers’ fears related to the demotivation of students who lose the sense of learning foreign languages in the presence of a technical translator, as well as the lack of possibility to control the independence of written works, can be removed through the proactive introduction of new technologies in the learning process by the teachers themselves. Their effective use presupposes the development of a special system of tasks, including both linguodidactic and motivational components. The paper presents possible types of training tasks and the formulation of instructions for their fulfilment. Specific examples of exercises aimed at forming the skills of dialogic speech and learning foreign language vocabulary are given. The importance of learners’ choice of different roles offered by artificial communicators to maintain the attractiveness of learning is highlighted. The prospects of using bots to explain grammar topics and as error correctors are outlined. The necessity of uniting efforts of foreign language teachers and IT-consultants in order to jointly develop a system of practical recommendations for the effective use of bots in the practice of teaching foreign languages is postulated.