“My teacher gave us a list of questions and told us that we should prompt (insert choice of AI here) to give us some good answers for us to learn. Should I be doing that for German too?”
Pretty shocking, isn’t it.
This was the start of a conversation with one of my independent candidates during their lesson this week. They are studying one European language at school, and German with me.
It probably won’t come as much of a surprise to learn that I was not in favour of this idea, either for German or for the language this student is learning at school. Is it cheating? Frankly, yes! However, that is not the only reason that I advised against this course of action. This is a talented student who will be taking GCSE German (their third or fourth language) early (ie they are not yet in Year 11). Put simply, I don’t want them to deliver pre-scripted robotic-sounding answers and DROP marks that they are capable of earning for themselves, using their own hard work. Will they make some mistakes? Quite probably. But the grade they receive will be a result of their own hard work and will be something they can be proud of.
Is it possible to train your AI well enough that it starts to sound like you (or you start to sound like it), delivers colloquial language predominantly using the GCSE vocabulary list, gives answers tailored to your exam board, and scores well? Maybe. Is it possible for a student age 13-16 to do this well? Much more tricky. Will such an attempt either end up sounding like they have cheated (which they have) or make no sense at all to a “real” speaker of the language? Well, I guess we will see in the next couple of years if this school and others continue to make such suggestions….
Naturally, the school will remain unnamed. Bearing in mind the wide geographical area I cover when teaching online, if it sounds familiar, then you may like to wonder just how widespread this is.