CHATGPT – LEARNING ACCELERATOR OR DEMOLISHER OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING? AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON BUSINESS FRENCH

Abstract

Few inventions are as provocative and genuinely frightening as ChatGPT. Launched in 2022, ChatGPT is sparking lively debate and raising ethical, academic and professional questions across the board. The impact of artificial intelligence on the teaching and learning of foreign languages, as well as its use in professional settings, will undoubtedly be considerable. It is still difficult for non-specialists to understand clearly the extent to which the conversational robot could become a real competitor in the job market and, in time, replace humans. This is why we are proposing a simple and illustrative model for simulating professional activity, built around the issue of foreign languages in the professional environment. This model highlights the undeniable contrast between the expenditure of time and energy by human intelligence and artificial intelligence, respectively, in solving the same professional task. This impactful strategic approach, through the cinematic effect of its presentation, is capable of provoking significant awareness and stimulating reflection on the role of AI in the learning process of students or employees and their integration into the future labour market. The case study on business correspondence in French can be extrapolated to other foreign languages and can serve as a pretext for similar studies or training courses in other fields. The machine is clearly superior to humans in its ability to generate numerous correct versions extremely quickly in the resolution of professional tasks. From the perspective of various stakeholders – teachers and students, employees and employers, educational policy designers, and official decision-makers – we will show that artificial intelligence will force everyone to reconsider previous approaches and make radical changes. Artificial intelligence can represent a real opportunity for users who want to accelerate their foreign language learning and improve their linguistic proficiency. The machine’s performance can also pose a threat to language teaching and learning as traditionally known. ChatGPT is like a sharp knife, capable of doing both good and harm depending on how it is used.