Informing Artificial Intelligence design for refugee language education: Teacher perspectives from Greece

• In Event: Educational technology and learning design

Proposal

Context and Theoretical Framework

Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies are not a science-fiction element anymore. They are present in our everyday lives and education is a domain that has started to be affected by this. This paper aims to explore the ways that Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques and digital technologies can enhance second/foreign language learning and instruction in general, and within the context of refugees in Greece specifically. Approximately 76,000 refugees and migrants have arrived and remained in Greece since the 2015 flow (UNHCR, 2019). This major influx of refugees brought attention to the language education of this population. Refugees are different from the traditional classroom students, since learning the language of the host country will help them integrate better in the new setting and it will enhance their social, professional and economic status (Androulakis, Mastorodimou, & van Boeschoten, 2016; TWB, 2017). Thus, the value of language learning has a vital role for their life trajectory. Currently, their language education is mostly supported by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations of volunteers and some training language programs that were designed by Ministries, Municipalities and Universities (Kantzou et al., 2017; Androulakis et al., 2017). Although the Greek Ministry of Education has developed a program to support the education of young refugees till the age of 15, there has been no planned program for the language education of adolescent and adult refugees and migrants (Kantzou et al., 2017). Some of the created and implemented programs by the above-mentioned organizations report that these courses are mostly carried out by volunteers who do not have the required training and end up using traditional didactic pedagogical methods (Pathiaki & Simopoulos, 2014; Kantzou et al., 2017), mostly teacher-centered, with minimal peer-to-peer collaboration and without making use of the students’ prior knowledge.

Inquiry and Methods

Given the unique characteristics of the refugee population, AI and digital technology is a feasible and sustainable solution by providing the ability to work with multiple languages at once and offers portability features for people in transition and unstable situations. This paper presents semi-structured interviews from teachers and volunteers with elementary or middle school educational background working with refugee students in Greece and their perspectives on the use of digital technologies and AI techniques in teaching and learning of Modern Greek as a second language. Teachers were identified through snowball sampling during Summer and Fall 2019.
The research questions associated with this study include the following:
1. What are the needs of teachers within this context and how can AI techniques be useful for them?
2. What technology design features would better support refugee language education in Greece?
3. What are the potential challenges for teachers working with AI-enhanced educational software?

Findings

Informed by these overarching questions, findings will illustrate the current context of technology and Greek refugee language education, the needs that teachers have in this field, and the applicability of AI-enhanced techniques to improve current educational approaches. An important aspect of this study is to understand design features of an AI-enabled approach for enhancing second language learning and refugee language education in Greece. Finally, interviews will explore the capacity for teachers to deploy a pedagogical approach through advanced technologies and the potential challenges within this context.

Implications

This study seeks to understand the feasibility of pedagogical design with AI techniques in a complex setting such as the refugee language education in Greece. By incorporating perspectives from teachers on the ground, this study offers important design considerations for devices, platforms and applications of second language learning in complex settings. Finally, these findings will also serve in informing the development of second language learning programs for underserved and immigrant populations incorporating advanced digital solutions.

Author

• Anastasia Olga Tzirides, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign