3/4/2024

The Equity Equation: Leveraging Artificial and Human Intelligence to Support Emergent Bilingual Literacy

With issues of equity, privacy, and ethics top of mind, many educators and administrators are rightfully concerned about the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI).Literacy expert Maya Goodall weighed in on these questions and more during a recent  webinar.

This blog post pulls together some of the key takeaways from the webinar to help answer the question: Will AI replace or help teachers?”

Why AI is Essential for Literacy Education

Data and Differentiation

One of AI’s benefits is its ability to collect and disaggregate data. This data collection and visualization is a game changer for teachers and administrators, and an essential step to fostering instructional equity.

Student progress metrics now are not just reserved for a one-time annual standardized test. These metrics can be accessed year-round, and intuitively presented to teachers. Administrators and teachers can easily view what learning objectives students have accomplished and what a student has yet to master.

With AI solutions like Lexia English Language Development™, information about a student, their teacher, class, school, and Language Proficiency data can all be viewed instantly on the admin dashboard. This efficient data collection combined with AI creates individualized learning pathways and lessons for each student. Through continuous progress monitoring, personalized lessons are made for each student, with “practice groups” of peers in the same lesson automatically organized for teachers.

Using embedded progress monitoring of AI programs like this, teachers can differentiate more intentionally and create a more personal and equitable classroom experience for every learner.

"Teachers are the most important factor in students success."
—Louisa Moats, Ed.D.

Teachers are the bedrock of education. Students need teacher’s support to be able to learn and thrive in the classroom. However, time spent on administrative tasks can leave teachers with no bandwidth to spend making important instructional choices for their students. With the correct data and administrative tasks automated, teachers can spend their time on what matters: Providing the most equitable learning experience for their students.

Real-Time Voice Recognition and Speaking Practice

With the power of AI, Emergent Bilinguals can have access to interactive English Language Instruction, participating in real-time practice conversations with AI in English.

With speech and accent-recognition technology, AI has the power to make language learning experiences adaptive, using natural language processing to listen for specific words a student uses. With these tools, teachers can adjust their instruction and individual interventions based on a student’s heritage language.

Lexia English takes this a step further using a Speech Recognition Engine that is coded to listen to specific grammar sequences and phoneme blends of the top 13 language accents of Emergent Bilinguals.

With voice-recognition technology, AI is essential to creating interactive, equitable, and differentiated instruction for English learners.

Not Every AI Solution Is Effective

Artificial Intelligence can be incredibly effective in increasing equity, differentiation, and teacher empowerment. However, just as there are counterproductive ways to use the internet in the classroom, there are AI programs that can be less effective in promoting equity and literacy. Before investing in an AI program, educators must ensure the AI solution has:

Real-Time Practice and Feedback Loops

Several AI language programs use speech-recognition technology to record audio for students, but not many allow students to practice engaging in conversations, speak back and forth with AI, and gain real-time feedback and data on their performance.

It’s important to be discerning when it comes to language learning products. While input in a language is important, solely focusing on reading instruction no longer gives a return on time investment for language acquisition.

To progress, students need grammar practice and feedback from engaging in dynamic conversations. This practice is essential to stimulate the metalinguistic function used in acquiring language.

When investing in an AI language program, ensure it allows for consistent speaking practice and interactive engagement from the learner.

A Knowledgeable and Diverse Team

When choosing an AI solution for the classroom, it’s important to ensure the team behind it is as diverse as the students being served.

The experience and struggles of the Emergent Bilingual community are unique. An AI program must be created by a team that understands this community, accommodates the myriad of different heritage languages spoken at home, and is knowledgeable about the tools needed to help Emergent Bilingual students acquire a new language.

Without an equitable team, educators can’t have an equitable solution.

In Lexia English, Emergent Bilingual students' experiences are reflected through 17 different avatars that offer encouragement to students in both English and their heritage language. Through this, students can see themselves and their potential mirrored on screen.

Academic and Content-Focused English Instruction

While AI foreign language instruction has existed for decades through programs like Rosetta Stone® and Duolingo, these existing programs do not meet the unique needs of Emergent Bilinguals learning English in an academic setting.

An ESL language environment in the United States is unique in that content-based topics and English must be learned at the same time. Young students will be exposed to conversational English with their peers and academic English when learning subject matter in the classroom.

In an environment where students will be learning academic subject matter in a less familiar language, it’s important to pick a solution that acknowledges this, assisting students with subject knowledge and academic English to prepare them for the classroom.

Emergent Bilinguals will not only be learning English, but they will have to learn content IN English.

Because of this, it’s important to choose an AI literacy solution that allows students to practice conversations back and forth in real time and combines language learning with subject knowledge to aid students with content learning and academic achievement.

The Equity Equation and The Future of Education

AI is here to help teachers—not replace them. 

While some educators may be hesitant to embrace it, AI language programs and tools have the potential to support differentiation, aggregate data, and give students concentrated, personalized speaking practice.

In this way, artificial intelligence can empower teachers to leverage the human intelligence they bring to their classrooms in new and impactful ways. With the increased time, bandwidth, and insight into individual student progress, teachers can tailor their instruction more effectively to reach each learner exactly where they are. Artificial intelligence, combined with the experience, discernment, and wisdom teachers bring to the classroom every day, is the equation for instructional equity in the age of AI.

However, not every AI solution is effective. Educators and administrators must ensure when they integrate AI into their curriculum, the solution they choose for their school is science-backed, equitable, and effective.

Lexia® is focused on making equity a central component of curriculum using AI, speech recognition, human intelligence, and data to create an equitable education experience for Emergent Bilinguals.

AI + SRE (speech recognition) + HI (human intelligence) + Data = Instructional Equity

Lexia English is one of the solutions to this equation. A program developed to combat the “Long-term English Learner” label, Lexia English combines accent-recognition technology, science-backed materials, and a diverse team to create an effective language proficiency solution for Emergent Bilinguals.

Read more about Lexia's literacy solutions and how they can help in the classroom.