All of us find ourselves engaging one way or another with generative AI—ChatGPT/Gemini/etc.—perhaps by wondering how we might use it in our teaching, perhaps by worrying about how it might undermine our students’ learning.

To help us sort through the many issues involved here, we’ve put together what we hope will be an informative and practical series of presentations. First, we’re thrilled to bring back Prof. Takako Aikawa (MIT), who will give a talk that will help us understand better the concept of “prompt engineering” in the context of L2 instruction. This will be followed by several short, informal presentations from Princeton language instructors (and perhaps a student or two) on how they’ve been deploying and responding to generative AI in their own classes. We hope this diverse combination will generate (no pun intended) a lively discussion and give us all some ideas we can think about as we plan for next year’s teaching.

Schedule

12:00pm–1:00pm

Featured Talk: AI-augmented language pedagogy: The art of prompt writing, by Takako Aikawa

This presentation will explore insights into AI's influence on language education and demonstrate how to harness the power of generative AI for the enhancement of language teaching and learning.  I will first provide a brief introduction to generative AI and large language models (LLMs).  Second, I will discuss the importance of mastering prompt writing skills.  I will argue that prompts are our means to communicate with generative AI, and understanding the concept of prompt engineering is crucial when integrating generative AI into our language instruction.  Third, I will share my use case scenarios of generative AI, discussing both the advantages and limitations of its application in language education.  Last, I will present my anecdotal perspective on the future impact of generative AI on language education.

1:00pm–1:20pm

Lunch

1:20pm–2:00pm

Campus Forum: How Princeton language courses are using generative AI