Students attend the launch of Chinese+AI Lab. Photo: Supplied
The University of Auckland's Chinese Department has launched a project titled Chinese+AI Lab that seeks to explore the integration of Chinese-language education with artificial intelligence.
Danping Wang, programme leader of Chinese at the University of Auckland's School of Cultures, Languages and Linguistics and director of Chinese+AI Lab, says the project is one of the first in New Zealand to examine the feasibility of supporting Chinese-language education with AI.
Launched in November, the project is based in a physical space located in the Faculty of Arts and Education at the University of Auckland, she says.
The launch of Chinese+AI Lab. Photo: Supplied
AI debate in the education sector
In recent years, much of the focus on AI in the education sector has been on plagiarism and deception, data privacy, ethical concerns and potential risks to human society.
Wang believes the existing focus restricts researchers from examining ways to successfully utilise AI in specialised fields.
"AI literacy encompasses the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to engage with AI technologies in a safe, ethical and effective manner," she says.
Wang says much of the current research that is undertaken in New Zealand is the result of individual teacher's practices and not universally applied to all courses.
For example, research on AI often focuses on how teachers can use the concept to improve students' writing skills and experiences.
The new project is believed to the first attempt by a tertiary institution in New Zealand to systematically incorporate AI tools into Chinese-language courses across the board.
AI software is used for real-time translation on a screen at the launch of the Chinese+AI Lab. Photo: Supplied
Potential of AI
The Chinese+AI Lab project seeks to elevate AI education from a simple tool that can be used on learning materials to literacy cultivation based on disciplinary needs
In doing so, teachers and students can focus on "human-centred" thinking and creativity, moving beyond rote memorization to meet the needs of future interdisciplinary innovation.
In short, the project aims to help teachers and students understand AI's underlying logic and real-world applications while fostering critical thinking and creativity.
"One specific application of AI in language teaching is transforming traditional assessment methods by adopting more flexible approaches that emphasize critical thinking," Wang says.
Wang says that by utilizing a combination of assignments, quizzes and exams integrated with AI, language students' performance can be evaluated in detail, instead of relying solely on a few exams to determine grades.
Working closely with teachers, language students can use AI to better enhance their skills and improve outcomes, she says.
Language teachers will also be able to use AI to assess the accuracy of their students' language use, she says.
In one example, students were asked to compose an essay on a given topic. The essay was uploaded onto an AI tool that generated an illustration to accompany the essay, which teachers then used to assess how much the students understood the subject they wrote about.
The students then shared the illustrations that had been generated from the essay, which sparked subsequent discussion on other relevant subjects.
By utilising this teaching method, teachers can not only cultivate students' language skills but also inspire creativity and critical thinking.
"AI is not merely a technical tool," Wang says. "It is a catalyst for driving educational innovation and knowledge production."
Cross-disciplinary collaboration
The Chinese+AI Lab team primarily consists of faculty and post-graduate students from the Chinese Department at the University of Auckland, who will design and test research methods to gather evidence of what works and what doesn't.
The team will then collaborate with higher education institutions, universities, secondary and primary schools, teacher-training organisations, language-education institutions and related industries to break down barriers that arise when teaching Chinese.
At the same time, the team wants to apply this collaborative model to other foreign-language education fields.
To this end, a seminar exploring ways to use AI to collaborate across disciplines has been scheduled at the University of Auckland in late January 2025.
The seminar will reportedly focus on the drafting and implementation of a white paper on AI literacy in language education that can help guide future curriculums.