LingonAIzer

A steadily growing number of digital means and modes of communication characterizes our society with a pace and power not yet seen. At the same time, however, and as surprising as it may sound, major challenges are faced in educational landscapes linked to deficits particularly in language (learning) awareness and (academic) language sensitivity, with consequences reaching far beyond institutional contexts of schooling and affecting e.g. working life opportunities and societal integration at larger scale – including potential impact on individuals’ future prosperity, conflict vulnerability and (especially emotional and societal) well-being already at young age.

Building on long-term research observations and numerous (increasingly technology-aided) practices of individual language (learning) profiling in educational contexts, the project will bring about a novel AI-powered support application for fostering language (learning) awareness and language-sensitive learning individually – with a special focus on school education and the both subject-specific and cross-curricular acquisition and use of languages therein, but, obviously, including the evermore various characteristics and contexts of individual language use outside of institutional settings, as well.

Along with the transnational co-creation work and the preparation of a so far unique technology innovation – building on already verified prototypes for individual language (learning) profiling – the main operations of the project will include large-scale piloting & evaluation of the novel application across various educational landscapes in the participating countries, as well as an accompanying dialogue with corresponding educational authorities (e.g. instances of policy-making & implementation and curriculum design).  Through these collaboration steps that altogether underline the essential interplay between school education, research, technology development and policy-making, we aim to optimize the quality of the initiative in accordance with the guidelines and goalsettings of educational policies, and to maximize the added value, the further development potential, as well as the more systemic, policy-driven uptake and adaptation  of “LingonAIzer” for long-term use throughout various educational practices across Europe.

Aiming at an outcome with true prospects for policy-driven uptake and long-term implementation, as well as an elastic, multisectoral further adaptation, we will, from the very beginning on, follow a bottom-up-approach and engage multiple target and co-operation groups at all times: pupils and teachers at schools for trial-implementation of & continuous feedback on the application prototypes, research staff at universities and other research institutions  for context-relevant research insights (e.g. language education, teacher training) and accompanying usability studies, as well as representatives of educational authorities (e.g. policy-making, curriculum design) for stakeholder observation and advisory dialogue & feedback – all measures systematically and synergetically paving way for the final design, technical realization and a value-adding implementation and long-term use of LingonAIzer.

The main outcome of the project will include, in the first instance, (1) LingonAIzer 1.0 – the first implementation-ready version of an AI-powered intelligent tutoring system (ITS) that enables a continuous and personalized support for fostering language (learning) awareness and language-aware learning in- and outside institutional settings of schooling, regardless of time and location. As discussed above, the substantial priority of this project will be laid on the language domain “school” with its specific features of both cross-curricular and subject-specific acquisition and use of language and communication competences, covering particular contributions to the acquisition and fostering of academic language registers for educational and later professional purposes. 

Along with this, and through a (2) wide-scale pilot-implementation of LingonAIzer, (3) empirical evidence of its added value, as well as guidelines & prospects for its optimized long-term use and further development / adaptation to other language domains will be published, paired with (4) policy-recommendations for potential uptake and mainstreaming of efficient and ethically conscious AI-powered support systems for the (language) education continuum at larger scale.