Please join the Department of Spanish & Portuguese in congratulating Andrés Correal, winner of the Spring 2025 Pedagogical Innovation Contest! Contestants submitted a detailed proposal involving the incorporation of artificial intelligence into an existing lower-division Spanish and/or Portuguese course. All submissions underwent a rigorous review by a committee of language acquisition and teaching and artificial intelligence scholars.
Andrés’ project embeds an AI-mediated conversation into a larger exploration of language variation, AI literacy, and source evaluation in the Spanish-speaking world. Students begin by selecting a country, age, gender, and social role—such as a retired teacher from Colombia. Using two prompts, they first retrieve 2–3 authentic written texts from the selected country, then generate an AI persona whose voice and responses are based on those texts.
Students then hold a written or spoken conversation with the persona, focusing on topics such as daily routines, local customs, or community life. If students ask questions beyond the original materials, the AI is instructed to consult and cite additional written sources from the same country. After the exchange, students compare the AI’s responses with the source texts, reflect on their communication strategies, and identify cultural or linguistic differences they encountered. This kind of low-stakes encounter highlights how students can safely navigate regional variation, ambiguity, and pragmatic nuance before speaking with native or heritage speakers.
The activity is designed to support ACTFL standards in interpersonal communication, cultural comparisons, and acquiring information from authentic sources. Its purpose is to build readiness—not to replace real interaction.