6 How to Use AI to Help English Language Learners in Speaking 

Speaking is an important aspect of the English Language. The Saskatchewan Curriculum does not have a specific curriculum document for English Learning Learners (ELL). However, ELL have a separate guide created by the Government of Saskatchewan called A Guide to Using the Common Framework of Reference (CFR) with Learners of English as an Additional Language (2013). This document is just a guide or language reference tool and not a curriculum for ELL students. There are five categories of skills ELL students are assessed on which includes listening, spoken interaction, spoken production, reading, and writing. Speaking is essential as students would have to engage in daily conversations and other activities, and speaking accounts for two out of the five skills that are assessed.

As ELL students, school might be the only place where they speak and practice with native English speakers. However, with the help of AI, ELL students would be able to practice speaking at home with native speakers. As stated before, ELL students would also be able to speak knowing that they would not be judged by other human beings, and so are able to build their confidence. AI is also capable of analyzing the students’ pronunciation and highlighting where they might be pronouncing wrong by referring to the International Phonetic Spellings. Students are also able to re-listen to their speaking and practice again and again until they are satisfied. The AI also gives students the AL version of the sentence that they just spoke in perfect pronunciation.

Some constraints that come out of this tool would affect the ELL students’ speaking in many ways. For example, students might be unable to speak confidently and comfortably with another person if they rely on this tool a lot, and in the end, they are only able to speak with AIs. Students also would lose the confidential part of talking and interacting with other people in the world to practice English. Students might not be able to speak when it is unplanned and spontaneous as for speaking with AI, students can take a long time to plan out their conversations, and the AI would respond according to the students’ conversations. Also, students might not be able to identify tones of speaking, for example, sarcastic tones, angry tones, happy tones, sad tones, etc. as the AI is unable to speak with different tones depending on the conversation. AI speaking sometimes are not monotonous, but there are no feelings inside of the speaking, as a result of this, students might not be familiar with the tones people speak in.

There are some constraints on the AI tool itself too. For example, there is a time limit on how much you can speak for, and it will cut off automatically after that time limit. The time limit is 1 minute, and there is a countdown timer on the right of the microphone button in the bottom bar. Also, the AI sometimes would misidentify what words you are saying due to various reasons. That would result in a inaccurate analysis of the students’ pronunciation and strange responses.

The Process