What does it mean to understand a language? Today’s generative AI tools can produce remarkably convincing linguistic forms, but can these systems understand the language they produce?

In today’s episode, Mat and Phil explore John Searle’s Chinese Room thought experiment and its argument that a system can produce appropriate linguistic forms without understanding their meaning. What can language learners gain from interacting with a machine that simulates language but does not understand it? Can learners engage in languaging—constructing meaning, knowledge, and experience through language and participating in human communities—by simply interacting with a chatbot?

Our hosts explore these questions while also considering the opportunities AI chatbots offer language learners, from conversation practice and individualized language exposure to incidental language learning. Along the way, they reflect on what these possibilities—and their limitations—can teach language educators about the role of generative AI in language learning and the continued importance of teachers and human interaction.

In this episode:

• The Chinese Room, by John Searle https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mx8BUCwB7u71Gu5ZxgndhH2F5OVEryYc/view?usp=sharing
• Swain, M. (2006). Languaging, agency and collaboration in advanced second language proficiency. In H. Byrnes (Ed.), Advanced language learning: The contribution of Halliday and Vygotsky (pp. 95–108). Continuum.