Swiss educators rethink foreign language teaching because of AI
EDK President wants to rethink foreign language teaching because of AI
Keystone-SDA
Silvia Steiner, President of the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK), has argued foreign language teaching needs to be rethought in light of artificial intelligence in an interview the NZZamSonntag.
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Steiner has long been a proponent of early teaching of French in primary schools in German-speaking Switzerland. In the interview with the NZZamSonntag, she emphasised the importance of language skills for the cohesion of Switzerland.
However, she also conceded that AI is raising new questions about the best approach to language learning. “It’s no longer about stubbornly learning vocabulary, but rather about developing a feel for the language or assessing whether something that a computer program translates for me is correct or incorrect,” said Steiner. She sees the implementation of these approaches as the task of teacher training colleges.
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She takes a differentiated view of the fact that studies show that reading and writing skills in Switzerland are poor. “We can’t constantly cry out for digitalisation, install spelling programs on all computers and then demand that children know exactly how to spell every word correctly,” said Steiner.
At the end of this year, Steiner will hand over the chairmanship of the Conference of Education Directors. The Zurich Director of Education was elected to office by the cantonal directors of education in 2016.
Translated from German by DeepL/jdp
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