If you have painful memories of learning Spanish in high school, or having to order a meal during a trip abroad, you are not alone. Although more Americans than ever report speaking a second language at home, many Americans remain monolingual. Language learning apps have been trying to change that for more than a decade, many of which have recently championed their new use of artificial intelligence as the most effective way to learn a language.
Apps like Duolingo have embraced AI to generate varied exercises and provide basic grammar lessons to users. Natulang, a new AI-powered language learning app, is one of the first to offer a fully AI and audio-based curriculum. Through its speech recognition and synthesis model, it promises to teach the speaking skills that so many apps have tried but failed to teach effectively.
Language learning has undergone a revolution in recent decades. Gone are the days of learn-in-your-car cassettes or phonetic phrasebooks. Apps like iTalki or Verbling, which match users with low-cost contract teachers, have made it possible to learn an entire language from your phone or computer for very little money.
You can find adults embracing self-study methods on various web forums, such as Reddit’s r/LanguageLearning subreddit, where thousands of users provide tips and support to hopeful polyglots.
Natural spoken conversations represent a final frontier for many students who are not immersed in their chosen language. Anyone who’s taken a language class can probably relate to this: hours in front of a textbook, conjugation tables, and flashcards don’t necessarily translate into fluent conversation. So how are students who don’t have the time, money, or confidence to work with a human teacher supposed to learn to speak their new language?
Your robot language teacher
Many of the most popular apps have long relied on speech synthesis, a form of AI that makes the robot’s voice sound more human by mimicking speech patterns and tone, while maintaining distinctly perfect diction. But each app has tackled the ongoing AI revolution differently.
For example, Babbel has introduced a new classroom program that allows users to book a virtual language class in much the same way you book a yoga training. Memrise, an app that relies heavily on video and audio from chatting with native speakers, has developed a language bot that types chat messages almost-real-time with users (there is still a noticeable delay between prompt and message). At the extreme end of the commitment to AI is Duolingo, which created a third tier of their subscription model for AI-enabled learning (and notably laid off 10 percent of its contract workforce in late 2023).
However, Natulang represents the furthest end of the AI usage spectrum with its speech recognition model. Unlike apps that rely on tapping pre-selected words, Natulang is an almost entirely voice-based app. The app only displays a continuous call log, without ads, flashing animations, or stripes. This is intentional, app developer Maksym “Max” Hryniv told The Daily Beast. It’s also part of why he believes Natulang is effective.
The concept is simple. The app asks you to say a short sentence in your target language. If you get it right, go to the next sentence. If you’re wrong, the app will correct you. This way you carry through a simple conversation, reusing grammatical structures and vocabulary until it becomes second nature.
Are AI chatbots about to make work meetings worse than ever?
Natulang was born from Hryniv’s desire to teach language the way he – as a Ukrainian who grew up speaking Ukrainian, Russian and Polish and later learned French and English – had learned that language: continuous immersion in audio. Immersion is the key to language learning. It’s how toddlers acquire language long before they start school, and research has shown that immersion can train adults learning a new language to “think” like a native speaker. The app has a team of human linguists who create the progressive lesson plans and uses AI for speech recognition and synthesis.
While Hryniv recognizes that AI is imperfect and that humans need to be involved in the educational process, he strongly believes in the power of Natulang and its technology. “Every aspect of traditional education will be transformed or even replaced by AI,” he said.
Use with caution
Not all language learning experts are convinced that AI can or should replace human education. Marta García, who teaches English as a Learned Language to grades K-5, has consciously resisted bringing technology into her post-pandemic classroom.
“The focus needed to be on developing relationships, social skills and how to appear in public after months of school closures and online learning,” she said. “Language cannot be separated from culture, from social interaction.” While she believes it is possible to integrate AI to complement language learning, she says students are already struggling with the routine “robotism” of the classroom.
García’s students are largely immigrants, and her teaching is intrinsically linked to anti-racism, social justice and decolonization. These are factors that we know AI is uniquely ill-equipped to deal with. There are dozens of examples of AI replicating human biases, such as image generators that generate hyper-sexualized images of women, facial recognition software that cannot distinguish between black faces, or chatbots that spew racist language.
How porn stars are fighting back against AI
Even a bot that never overtly replicates racist language can still perpetuate language discrimination. AI prefers standard American English to the syntax associated with varieties of working-class English (for example, preferring ‘is’t’ to ‘ain’t’ and ‘you’ to ‘you’ ). Every language has accents and regionalisms that speak to identity markers of class, age, and race – distinctions that AI is trained to ignore.
Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr., the 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year, has incorporated AI into his high school English curriculum and has considered using AI on a limited basis in his French classes. But he expressed similar concerns to García about AI taking over planning or teaching in the classroom.
“AI is made up of the language of people: a gigantic corpus of people with prejudices, with racism, with sexism, with trans and homophobia,” he said. “I fear we are condemning future generations to be limited by the reach of the social justice movement of the early 21st century.”
Most language teachers and experts agree that time, immersion, and motivation are the ingredients for language proficiency. But for shy students with an internet connection, an AI bot can be a useful way to get started. Don’t be surprised if native speakers pause at your slightly mechanical accent.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
Get the Daily Beast’s biggest scoops and scandals delivered straight to your inbox. Register now.
Stay informed and get unlimited access to the Daily Beast’s unparalleled reporting. Subscribe now.